Mickie James’ Royal Rumble appearance was WWE’s first attempt at the forbidden door idea, which is where wrestlers under contract with one company go and work for another promotion.
Promotions such as Impact, AEW, ROH, GCW, NJPW, and more have done this. It should be noted that WWE has worked with Impact Wrestling in the past whether that was making a deal where they sent Christian Cage to a TNA PPV in exchange for Ric Flair to be inducted into its Hall Of Fame or using Impact footage for various WWE Network projects.
AJ Styles stated in an interview with TV Insider that he thinks if WWE keeps using outside talent from other promotions then they would only use wrestlers who previously worked for the company.
“I think it all depends. First of all, I’m assuming we are only going to work with people who worked with WWE before, because we know what to expect from them. Mickie James is one of those, a great talent. It’s cool to see her bring the Impact championship to WWE with her. It’s good for everyone.”
