Mickie James On If She Will Wrestle On NWA All Women's PPV
On the latest edition of the NWA Powerrr Post Show, veteran wrestler Mickie James joined fresh off her announcement of an all women's PPV title NWA Empowerrr. During the show, James discussed her role in the NWA.
"Executive producer, co-owner, it's a pretty amazing," James stated. "Billy [Corgan] and I have always been good friends for a long time. I wanted to be able to find something that felt right for me. I've talked about and thought about wrestling here, wrestling there, doing all these things. For me, I did that the last time. I did that. I made all the rounds.
"It was awesome, and don't get me wrong, I still might do some of that stuff, but I wanted to do something that I could really sink my heart and teeth in. This is ours. I still am an independent contractor. I'm just building a brand. I'm building a company. This is something really really cool, and it's something that's been needed for a really long time. I tried to do it, so now I have an opportunity to do that, to build my vision."
James discussed the change in the women's wrestling scene over the years. She discussed how that affected her goals in wrestling.
"I was kind of in this weird space for the last two years there of really trying to find what my next chapter there was going to be, and I had envisioned of what I thought was a plan for what it might be," James said. "Obviously, my plan is not always everybody else's plans, so it's okay. There's so much female talent out there, now more than ever.
"When I was on the independent scene, there wasn't Shine's, or Shimmer's, or even RISE or these other female branded promotions that were doing this when I was around. I got to see that when I went to the indie scene the second time around, and it was really really awesome to see. When I first broke in, there were not a whole lot of females training wrestlers, and if we did, they mostly trained with the men, and that's how it was.
"So it's just really really cool to see this growth happening, and I feel like it's a real movement. I think everybody's wanted it. The fans have really really wanted it on a television aspect, on a real television level for a long time, and we've given them a taste of it. We've given them one-offs or things like that. I think we have a real opportunity to do really amazing business right here and bring women's wrestling to the forefront. I'm excited to head that up."
James later talked about her impressions of the NWA, where her husband, Nick Aldis, has held the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship for nearly three years. She also spoke more on her goals as someone working behind the scenes in wrestling.
"It's incredible. I've obviously watched everything with the NWA from the sidelines with full support because it's my husband, it's Billy," James noted. "I love what they're doing. I love the way they present the product. It's so different. It's so raw. It's so unique, and I love it. It's what wrestling is to me. That's the type of wrestling I grew up on, and I love the elements where we've grown and evolved, but there's something to be said for the business itself and the word 'wrestling' still belongs in it.
"That's the business I fell in love with. Even with the history of the women's championship and there's definitely an opportunity to bring back the women's tag team championships. There's so many things that we can do, and I think the beautiful thing is that we're all friends here. I don't want bad blood with anybody. I think Billy's so much of the same way. That's why there's so many open relationships, and so there's potential to do some really cool stuff you're not going to see anywhere else. There's more opportunities to build women's wrestling the right way. In 80 years of wrestling on television, we've only seen it from a male's perspective.
"We've only seen women's storylines from a male's perspective. That's okay. That's how we got up to here now, but I think at this time, in this day and age, there is an immense amount of uber-talented and knowledgeable women who know how to make money in this business that can really help build the foundation and be that core that helps build women's wrestling as a whole. And so it's all about that end goal. United we stand, that would be really cool for me."
James was asked if she would ever return to an in-ring role in the NWA, specially challenging new NWA World Women's Champion Kamille.
"I love a bit of gold," James stated. "I don't know if you've seen all the sparkles. I enjoy all the bedazzles, accessories. I could use an extra 10 pounds. I know people are probably wondering if I'm actually going to wrestle on my show. I don't have intentions of wrestling on my show. I'm not in here to go into business for myself and just wrestle all my favorite people on my own show. That doesn't make sense, plus how can I run a show if I'm in the ring? But there perhaps might be a chance to do something on the NWA show in that aspect."
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit NWA Powerrr Post Show with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.