Some unfortunate news hit recently, as Impact Wrestling announced that Knockouts World Champion Mickie James was injured and couldn’t compete at tonight’s Sacrifice pay-per-view. James was scheduled to face Jordynne Grace at Sacrifice, and she was frustrated that it couldn’t happen. Tonight Impact revealed the plans for the Knockouts World Championship in light of James’ injury, and it turns out that James will not be able to compete at Multiverse United either. Instead, a match between Deonna Purrazzo, Gisele Shaw, Miyu Yamashita, and Masha Slamovich will be held at Multiverse United, and the winner will face Jordynne Grace at Rebellion for the Knockouts World Championship.
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It was also stated that if James is able to compete at Rebellion, the Knockouts World Championship match will instead be a 3-Way match for the Title, with James, Grace, and the winner of the 4-way match at Multiverse United. Hopefully, James will be 100% by then, and we wish her a speedy recovery.
James was obviously frustrated by the injury, and on Twitter, she wrote “I came all the way to Windsor to defend the @IMPACTWRESTLING Knockouts World Championship against @JordynneGrace at #Sacrifice Tomorrow night. Now I can’t do that & I don’t know what to say. I’m so sorry to let you all down. This. This was supposed to be a MOTY night.”
She added “Injuries happen, frustrated, but I’ll be fine. I certainly didn’t come all this way, to a #Soldout house, to not see my #HardcoreCanada LIVE! I will be at @IMPACTWRESTLING #Sacrifice & I will address my injury & the future of the Knockouts 🌎 Championship then. Thank you. ♥️”
James is well acquainted with Purrazzo, as the two were involved in a thrilling feud last year. That included a brutal Texas Death Match, and when ComicBook had the chance to speak to her, she talked about being excited for the match but not so excited for the recovery time that came with it.
“I will be honest, I was not looking forward to it in the sense of, I knew it was going to be a brutal match,” James said. “I knew that it was going to be a lot of recovery time after, and it was going to be… just getting in the mindset to have that style of match is a lot. And yes, I was looking forward to it because it was a different type of challenge and I’ve never had that type of match, but I was also not looking forward to it because of recovery time alone, right?”
This was also a milestone match for Impact, as it was the first time the Knockouts World Championship was the main event of an Impact pay-per-view. The meaning of that was not lost on her either, and she knew they would deliver.
“Yeah, we knew two weeks ago, like two weeks prior to the event or so. It was a while before… We knew that the Knockouts Championship was going to be the main event. I think it felt right within the company because Deonna and I’s story had been going on since Slammiversary at that point. So it felt right,” James said.
“And we also knew that we were going to have this first-ever Ultimate X Match on this show, and so I felt like just for wrestling, and for women’s wrestling, we knew it was going to be an awesome night. There was already a lot of excitement going into it, and we knew we were going to have big shoes to fill because the main event spot is a lot of pressure and you want to deliver, especially when it’s a first-ever type of thing, the first-ever time that the Knockouts World Championship has been the main event. You’re about to set a precedent moving forward. And it’s the pressure for anyone who’s like, ‘Oh, why are they getting that spot?’ or whatever the case may be that show that you’re worthy of that spot,” James said.
We wish James a speedy recovery and hope to see her fighting for the Title when Rebellion rolls around.
Are you excited for Multiverse United? Let us know in the comments and as always you can talk all things wrestling with me on Twitter @MattAguilarCB!
