There was a major question looming over tonight’s episode of Impact, which was if Knockouts Champion Mickie James would be able to defend the Championship at Rebellion. James has been dealing with a rib injury and tonight she revealed if she was medically cleared. Unfortunately, she will not be able to compete, so after the episode James went into the ring and gave a promo before laying down the Knockouts Championship on the mat alongside her hat before walking out of the ring. Jordynne Grace and Deonna Purrazzo will now battle at Rebellion to become the new Knockouts Champion.
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James said “With Rebellion right around the corner and with this injury as that reminder, I have to do what’s right for business. What’s right for this Championship. I have to do what’s right for this locker room. With all that being said, I just want to say thank you. Thank you for this last rodeo. Thank you for making me believe in me all over again. It’s been really special and I am forever grateful.”
“But I just got off the phone with the doctor, and unfortunately, I am not cleared to compete at Rebellion. I am a woman of my word. Deonna. Jordynne, it’s your time now,” James said. From that promo and laying the hat down in the ring by the Title, it’s unclear if James will return to Impact after she’s back to 100%. She could return for one more match to face whoever becomes the Champion, but we’ll have to wait and see. We wish James a quick and speedy recovery.
James has done so much in Impact Wrestling, and she’s had a chance to reinvent herself during her time in the company. ComicBook previously had the chance to speak with James about her time in Impact, and she wondered just how different things might have gone if Impact hadn’t been a part of her career.
“Oh my gosh. Obviously, Impact has had its ebbs and flows and ups and downs and all around, but I started as little Alexis Laree in this company at the Nashville Fairgrounds. And I remember when the company first started, and everybody was so excited because there was this new company, and it was giving new opportunities for talent that wasn’t getting seen or had those opportunities before,” James said.
“And I often think back and go, ‘I wonder what my career would’ve looked like without the start of Impact Wrestling?’ Because I feel like that… I had had multiple tryouts with WWE at that point. I think that’s what really put them on, my work with Impact at the time, because I was working with Raven and I got to sit under his learning tree, and working with Jeff Jarrett, and I had the opportunity to be the first woman and the first woman for a decade that had ever done the Clockwork Orange House of Fun match. And I think it’s those opportunities that honestly got WWE to take a look at me,” James said.
“And the second time I came back, to rebrand and really reinvent myself as hardcore country Mickie James and become pretty much my most authentic self, the closest to what I was in real life. It was refreshing, and it was amazing, and it was really cool because I got opportunities like the main event of the show in the cage match against Tara. So yeah, I think that was amazing,” James said. “But then after that, I had an opportunity to perhaps be a Champion again at Impact. And I did, and I had the Texas death match against Deonna, and she came to my house and beat me up at the farm and all these things, and just this incredible almost resurgence of hardcore country all over again and what Mickie James looks like in wrestling in 2022, and it’s just not what I anticipated,” James said.
“And then even going to the Royal Rumble. That for me is equal to my first WrestleMania in a sense, because it was a really interesting… I won’t say a bookend, but it was almost an exclamation point because I always thought that hardcore country, that the WWE audience or that audience would really love that character. And I never had a chance to present her there and I really wanted to,” James said.
Rebellion features a stacked card, and you can find the updated lineup below.
Impact World Championship Match: Steve Maclin vs Kushida
Impact Knockouts Championship Match: Deonna Purrazzo vs Jordynne Grace
X-Division Championship Match: Trey Miguel (C) vs Jonathan Gresham vs Mike Bailey
Impact Knockouts Tag Team Championship Match: The Coven (C) vs The Death Dolls
Impact World Tag Team Championship Ultimate X Match: Bullet Club (C) vs Motor City Machine Guns
Last Rite Match: PCO vs Eddie Edwards
Hardcore War: Team Bully vs Team Dreamer
Are you excited for Rebellion? Let us know in the comments and as always you can talk all things wrestling with me on Twitter @MattAguilarCB!
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