Mickie James' immediate reaction to finding out WWE wanted her in the Royal Rumble match revealed
Mickie James said that she was shocked when she knew that WWE wanted her to compete in this year's Women's Royal Rumble match.
The company wanting her to perform in the bout is surprising since James is the reigning IMPACT Wrestling Knockouts Champion. Following her release last year, she called out the company for returning her belongings in a trash bag. No one would've imagined that she'd return to WWE in less than a year following the incident.
During a recent interaction with Ariel Helwani, Mickie James admitted that IMPACT Wrestling EVP Scott D'Amore was the person who told her about WWE's offer. She was taken aback but ended up agreeing to compete in the Rumble match.
"I was shocked. I think I was very shocked because I know it's not really ever been done, especially for the women, and so I think all things considered, but I also feel like everyone from that camp has honestly, we've talked and there's been apologies and all the things and so, I still maintain a good relationship with everyone in that sense."
"And professionally, I just think it's just something to be able to do and hopefully open the door for future possibilities of that as well, you know? So yeah, I think my knee jerk reaction was like I was kind of shocked, you know, because this is not unheard of," said James.
Fascinating to talk to @MickieJames about how this Royal Rumble deal came about while under contract w/ @IMPACTWRESTLING.
For the MMA fans, and yes I know it’s not apples to apples, it would be akin to, say, Mousasi, fighting @ UFC 273 while w/ Bellator. youtu.be/D3vCRnVHsZE https://t.co/gid9eRuVX8
Mickie James reveals if she knew that WWE was going to make the announcement on SmackDown
WWE announced the participants for this year's Women's Royal Rumble was unexpected. Apart from Mickie James, Lita, Summer Rae, and Kelly Kelly, among others, have also been confirmed for the match.
The Knockouts Champion said she had no idea that WWE would reveal her name on SmackDown. She was expecting her appearance to be a surprise.
"Not until Friday, No. I was headed to IMPACT because we obviously had the championship on the line, it was going to be the main event and that was already a thing. So I was actually driving around looking for a guitar when it aired on SmackDown in Dallas."
"So, I don't know, I think, like we said, we talked about it being a surprise, like more of like, just one of the surprise entrants but then I think Johnny really and the camp really wanted to kind of get it out there because they were doing that big announcement in the reveal that night, and they wanted to put it as part of that," said Mickie James.
Who are you most excited to see in the 2022 Women's #RoyalRumble Match? https://t.co/1O6nbzU00x
Mickie James added that she was worried at first that the news was going to cloud the hype for her match with Deonnazzo Purrazo at Hard to Kill. Instead, it just made things better.