When WWE announced the returning stars for this year’s Women’s Royal Rumble match, one name stood out from the rest of the pack and that was Mickie James considering she was let go by the company less than a year ago followed by the trash bag incident.
James, who is currently working for the NWA and Impact Wrestling, retained the Knockouts Title over Deonna Purrazzo in a Texas Death Match this past Saturday night in the main event of Hard To Kill.
Fightful Select reported today that the SmackDown script did have the surprise names on it including James, but her name was preceded with “(?) Impact Knockouts Champion (?)” stylized like that. As previously reported, WWE wanted to increase the buzz around the show by announcing the names in advance.
The word going around backstage at Hard To Kill about WWE mentioning James as the Impact Knockouts Champion was a part of an agreement for James to appear at the show although that has yet to be confirmed with WWE or James.
Impact was said to be happy with the buzz that came along with the announcement of James being part of the bout especially considering James headlined Hard To Kill just 24 hours later.
