Mickie James has started 2022 off in style, kicking things off by defending her Impact Wrestling Knockouts Championship in a Texas Death Match against Deonna Purrazzo, which also happened to be the first women’s main event in an Impact Wrestling pay-per-view. Then she crossed through the Forbidden Door into WWE’s Royal Rumble with her Knockouts Championship in tow. That’s a great year for some, but James is only getting started, and now she looks to retain her Knockouts Championship against Tasha Steelz at No Surrender this weekend. ComicBook.com had a chance to speak to James all about No Surrender and her year so far, including taking on Chelsea Green on the most recent episode of Impact.
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“Right. I think because our we got released on the same day and then our journeys have been so different, but so powerful. And I’m so proud of her. She’s doing amazing and she’s killing it, and I think the fans really wanted to see this for multiple reasons because obviously there was… We were kind of paired up or thought of being paired up before we even left. So to see this match finally happen is very exciting. Plus I just love her so much. What’s not to love about little Chel Chel. I say little, but she towers over me when we’re side by side, she’s like head and shoulders higher than me.”
That match-up ended up being quite entertaining, and hopefully, it won’t be the last time they are in the ring together. For now though James has her attention focused on Steelz, who certainly talks the talk and has the talent to match, but she’s got to back up that talk at No Surrender.
“Well, apparently according to her, she brings a lot of flavor (laughs). She brings a lot of that. No, I think that Tasha is a star. I’ve said it since I watched her at the Knockouts Knockdown. I think she’s got something very special about her,” James said. “She definitely can talk, that’s for sure. That’s what she’s really, really good at, is talking a lot. But she’s incredible in the ring, and I think to be the first woman to win the Ultimate X Match is a pretty remarkable thing. And it just goes to show too a lot of the things that she’s going to continue to do. But unfortunately for me, it’s not going to be at any cost to me, that’s for sure.”
“And that’s just not me being cocky,” James said. “I love Tasha. I think she’s incredible, and she’s going to do a lot of things, but right now, obviously, she writes a lot of checks with her mouth that I don’t know that she can cash yet. I’m looking forward to it, and I think that she’s going to challenge me on a different level for sure. I know that this Knockouts World Championship is important to her, and she’s yet to hold the Knockouts World Championship. I think that she thinks if she can not only do that, but do that by beating me, it would be a huge notch in her career, but we shall see.”
James has already set the bar high this year with her match against Purrazzo at Hard to Kill, and thanks to the Texas Death Match stipulation, both stars were in pretty rough shape afterward. While James wasn’t exactly looking forward to the recovery time afterwards, she was still thrilled to jump into a match of this style.
“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?”
That match ended up being the main event of the pay-per-view and delivering a milestone for women’s wrestling in Impact. James was aware of the milestone ahead of the match, but it didn’t make the night of any less special.
“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. 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.
James also shocked everyone when she appeared in WWE’s Women’s Royal Rumble match this year, which was huge just from a WWE and Impact working together angle but also from James returning to WWE since they had released her the year prior and received all sorts of backlash after no care was put into sending her stuff to her. That’s all in the past though and James is thriving, and with some time to look back on it now, we asked if that moment was everything she had hoped it would be.
“Absolutely. It could not have gone… I feel like it could not have gone more perfect than it did,” James said. “There’s always little things, but as the whole picture, as you look at the whole night and the whole thing, and experience, it was great. It was so perfect, and it just felt like the perfect button on everything, the perfect bow on everything. And I was grateful. I was grateful to be the person to come back and do this pretty historic thing and monumental thing, but also to be able to represent Impact and to represent the Knockouts Championship, and be a part of the Rumble after.”
“I didn’t think I was going to go back or be able to do anything like this, and so there were a lot of emotions, and it was a lot going into it and it was a lot on that night and I feel so good,” James said. “I feel like I can finally sit back and relax and celebrate in it because I think I just wanted it to be everything. You know what I mean? I really wanted it to… the people to react and to make an impression and do all the things and it did. I’m so thankful now and I can relax into it and be like, Yes, I can celebrate this thing now.”
“And I have to say I’m grateful. Thank you to WWE and thank you to Impact Wrestling. Thank you, Johnny Ace and Scott D’Amore. I felt like it was a really cool moment in time and moment in history, because obviously, we’ve seen… for the first time in like 20 years, another Championship has walked out in the Rumble and that’s pretty insane. To be the person to do it and to do it for women’s wrestling, I just thought it was freaking magical. It was so great. And then to have that rivalry with Michelle McCool revived right at the start of it, and then kind of the button on it with Lita, who I retired at Survivor Series, who eliminated me. I mean, it was just full circle all around. It was great. It was so great.”
James was also at the forefront of one of the coolest events of last year in NWA’s EmPowerrr, which had women from companies all over come together and deliver a stellar night of wrestling. With the original being such a success, you know I had to ask about how the second one is coming along, and she’s already keeping an eye out for who could be a part of it.
“Oh, my gosh. You know what? I was just talking to Billy, we were discussing EmPowerrr too and trying to get more detailed as far as what that’s going to look like. I’m open to suggestions. Especially now, because I’m a little bit further removed, so I’ve had a chance to kind of really take a look at what’s going on in the landscape now as the first EmPowerrr, because I was so freshly removed from WWE,” James said. “And regardless, you try to pay attention to everything that’s going on, but wherever you are, you can kind of get so focused, because there’s so much going on within that infrastructure that you don’t get a chance to see what everything else is going on. And so I’ve had a little bit more time to kind of check out the landscape and see a lot more talent out there.”
“So I think too, now that hopefully the pandemic is kicking back a little bit, the idea of more global talent or something like that could be possible, whereas before it was really tough because of the regulations and stuff. So hopefully, that kind of frees up. We’ll see, we’ll see, but I’m very excited and it’s a lot of pressure because EmPowerrr was so well received and was so good. So to be able to try to top it and match it is going to be a feat in itself,” James said.
You can watch Mickie James take on Tasha Steelz at Impact Wrestling’s No Surrender tonight on Impact Plus at 8 PM EST, with a pre-show that begins on YouTube at 7:30 EST.
Who do you want to see Mickie James face next? Let us know in the comments or as always you can talk all things wrestling with me on Twitter @MattAguilarCB!
