Mickie James on TNA’s Future, Her Hopes to Compete at WrestleMania, and More

Former WWE Womens and Divas Champion and former TNA Knockouts Champion Mickie James recently sat down with Doug Nunnally of RVAMag.com to talk about her career, childhood, and more. In the interview, James discusses her thoughts on TNA and the company’s future, her hopes to compete at WrestleMania once more, and where she sees herself going in the immediate future.

(Nunnally) So first thing, I wanted to ask about TNA. Not just what your status is with the company, but what’s it like with the company right now? There have been tons of speculation about late pay and the mood of personnel there.

(James) I can’t really speak on my status right now. Honestly though, I’m not technically under contract with them right now. As far as TNA itself, I wasn’t at the last TV so I can’t speak on that. The company is in the midst of change obviously and that process of changing over. They’ve gone live on the road and they just brought in this new head of talent [John Gaburick] who was with WWE for twenty years or so. I feel like there’s good energy around it, but in the midst of change, people get scared and there’s a bit of that as well. It’s hard to really say. There were rumors and speculation about late paychecks, but my paycheck was never late. It’s not untrue though; I do know that was an issue with some of the people.

What do you think about TNA’s future?

I’m very hopeful for their future. I hope that they stick around. In reality, nothing is good without competition. If WWE is the only thing left, then it’s just hard for anybody else that’s trying to make it in the industry. Right now, there are two legit companies with obviously Ring Of Honor doing really well as a high profile Indy. So for the sake of wrestlers and the industry itself, I really hope they do stick around and do well. I feel pretty confident that they will.

Anybody in WWE you see that you’d love to work with?

I would love to work with Nattie [Neidhart] again. I don’t think we really had a chance before. I mean, we wrestled a few times, but we didn’t have any storylines so it was just a few matches and that was it. Definitely AJ too because there have been so many comparisons between her and I or her character and mine when I first came in. Even though she’s had different storylines, the character development is about the same so there are a lot of parallels. It’d be cool to do something with her like crazy versus crazy. I don’t know. I’m not that crazy anymore.

So how do you think the Women’s Division in WWE has changed since when you were that crazy character back in 2005?

Honestly, when I came in, there was still that Golden Era of Women’s wrestling for WWE. There was Trish [Stratus] and Lita there to legitimately pass that torch of credibility. They were genuine wrestling athletes. They weren’t just characters or beautiful women. They could go in there, wrestle like the men, kick serious ass, and hold that spot. I was very fortunate to have that coming in and be in that transitional phase. As they were leaving, it was myself, Melina, Beth Phoenix; all the girls that kind of grew up on the Indy scene. We all kind of came in that same way, that grass roots kind of way. We fought and clawed our way up the Indy scene to try and make a name for ourselves and build credibility just so WWE would take a look at us in the first place. I don’t think that there’s anyone there who legitimately has had that torch passed to them in a way so that’s the main difference to me. There are obviously legit wrestlers like Nattie and I think Alicia Fox is great. I think it’d be great for someone to come in and take that division to a whole new level. I’m not sitting here burying those girls though because obviously they’re on TV, doing a great job, and they have the Divas reality show. I think that show is awesome because it’s giving depth to those characters that you wouldn’t necessarily know anything about other than they are great wrestlers. You don’t know anything about their personal lives and it’s kind of opening that door to get people more emotional invested into them. But yeah, I think having someone pass the torch would be great for those girls.

For someone who has won the WWE Women’s Championship, WWE Diva’s Championship, TNA Knockouts Championship, be the only person to hold all three of those belts, be on WrestleMania, and has main evented shows, what is left in wrestling for you?

I think my goal would be that I leave this business better than I found it before I walked way. There are so many more things though. Who wouldn’t want to wrestle one more WrestleMania and do it right? I would have loved to hold the TNA Knockouts Tag Team Championship because that’s one thing I never did, but then they retired those so that’s kind of out. Really though, there’s a lot for me left. Every time I go out there, I try and have the best match of the night or take it to another level so at least that’s something left for me and I’m definitely more than happy going for it.