Mickie James is wrestling Impact Knockouts Champion Jordynne Grace on January 13th at the Hard to Kill PPV in a title vs career match. She appeared on Brian Hebner’s “Refin’ It Up” podcast to promote the match. Mickie was asked if she is ready to leave wrestling if she loses that match:
“It’s weird for a female to have a 15 year television career. It really is. Like, it doesn’t happen that often. I’ve been really blessed in that sense. I’ll probably never completely walk away from wrestling. It’s been a part of my life for over half of my life at this point and I don’t know what I would do without it. It’s given me everything. It’s given me my home, my family, my dreams, opportunities to travel the world, to be able to take care of my family, to do all of these things, and I’m pretty fu**ing good at it and I’ve studied it, like studied it my whole life to get better and better and better to be so well rounded, to know all the intricacies of the little stuff from the cameras, to the angles, to sitting in the production truck, to sitting in the production meetings, to learning how to commentate, learning how to host, or learning how to do all of those things.”
Mickie James said that the storyline is way more important than the moves being done in the ring:
“That’s the type of wrestling I fell in love with. That’s why I loved wrestling. I didn’t care about the moves as much as like yeah, okay, they did cool moves, but that’s not why I watched or why I would be sitting in front of the screen. It was the promos. It was the characters. It was Macho Man and he’d come in and throw confetti in the air and he’d do all this. I didn’t know what he was talking about half the time, but I couldn’t stop watching him. You know, it was that kind of stuff that really drew me in and I always say like, moves don’t make money. Stories make money. Characters make money. All your favorite wrestlers, they have the probably the simplest, basic moves that they can do to anyone, anytime, anywhere possible. They’re not doing the triple flippy burning hammer, because you know why? Fans really like that stuff because they go, ‘Ooh, that’s cool’, but in reality, it’s harder for them to connect with that stuff because they can’t do it. They could never see themselves doing that move, but they could see themselves punching somebody in the mouth or clotheslining their head off.”
On who she would like to induct her into the WWE or Impact Hall of Fame if the situation arose:
“I think for WWE, it has to be Trish Stratus. I think if there was no Trish Stratus, if it wasn’t that opportunity for my first run of how I was introduced to the WWE audience with Trish and the magic, like people wouldn’t have cared 20 years later. It really set the stage. I just think back to all the times I was supposed to debut before that and it didn’t happen, and what a blessing in disguise it was and I didn’t see it then, but I think that it would be her for WWE.”
“For Impact, it would have to be probably Lisa Marie, I think, because I had the cage match with her and Madison. That whole story was like, they were my big feud when I first walked in there and I feuded with them for months when I first came to Impact as I was creating and cultivating Hardcore Country. Lisa is my sister. We were friends at WWE, but we really became sisters there at Impact, and even now doing our show together, like I love her so much. I think she’s been so influential in my career, but just also behind the scenes. I’m grateful for her.”
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If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Refin’ It Up with Brian Hebner with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
