Injury Update On Mickie James & Potential Return To Impact Wrestling

Back in February, Mickie James suffered a rib injury, prompting the Impact Wrestling Knockouts Championship to be vacated when she couldn't return within a month to defend the title. Since then, there has been little word on her condition, there appears to be some movement on her return to the ring, per Fightful Select.

James was cleared to get back into the ring several weeks ago, but her unique contractual situation makes it so that she can't just be called back to work by Impact. James is — as she has always been throughout this run in Impact — a free agent working without a contract. Before the injury, she was slated to stay in the company through at least the summer, and she's still expected to return in large part because Impact trusts her at her word and hasn't seen anything that'd make the promotion believe she'd back out of her commitments. 

James was released from her last WWE contract in April 2021 and has not signed elsewhere since — despite being an Impact regular. Soon after her WWE exit though, she ended up as the flashpoint of a social media firestorm when she shared that WWE sent her belongings back to her in a garbage bag. After other women chimed in with similar anecdotes about their dismissals from WWE, longtime talent relations director Mark Carrano took the fall and was fired.