0Posted by Brett Clendaniel on May 23, 2013 at 4:07 pm
Mickie James was the featured guest on this week’s Monday Night Mayhem, hosted by The Big Mosh & “The Chairman of the Board” Todd Vincent. Here are interview highlights.
How the release of her new album is being received by her peers and by TNA:“They have been really accommodating. TNA got the album a couple days prior to the official release date, and Dixie (Carter) has been totally cool since Day 1. She already knew this is what I wanted to do. They have been amazing.”
Why she wants Velvet Sky at 100% for their TNA Knockouts Championship Match this Thursday night:“I am little bit worried because I’m worried about her knee. She wasn’t 100% last time, and I really want to get in there and go. Even if I do win it, I will know that she wasn’t at 100%.”
The influence of Trish Stratus on her career: “She taught me so many little things. She is an amazing individual. The fact that she took time out of her moment at her (WWE) Hall of Fame speech to recognize so many women that have been a part of that along the way just shows what kind of person she is.”
0Posted by Brett Clendaniel on May 13, 2013 at 1:59 pm
As noted earlier, Mickie James recently spoke to Scott Fishman of The Miami Herald. Here are some highlights of the second half of the interview.
On Velvet Sky:“I love Velvet. She is a sweetheart. She is fun, and the company is really behind her now. They have really started to make her the face of the knockouts. I always try to do my best when I work with anyone and make sure the match as a whole is as wonderful and spectacular and tells that story as much as it can. She is awesome.”
On Women’s Wrestling and the WWE Divas:“For me, and granted I don’t watch as much WWE programming as I used to when I was part of the company, but I think that has a lot to do with how much trust they have with those people in those matches and telling those stories. Trish [Stratus] said it in her [WWE Hall of Fame] speech that this golden era of women who were some of the best women’s wrestlers in the world, and they aren’t there anymore. This is all over. This isn’t just within that organization.”
“With the exception of Nattie [Neidhart] and Alicia Fox and ones like that, they haven’t been maybe wrestling long enough, but I’m not going to bury anybody. I don’t like doing it…But I learned so much valuable, little things, on the independent circuit coming up the hard way that you can’t learn in just starting to learn how to wrestle in developmental. You can’t. It’s impossible, but there were tons of stuff I learned in developmental. Granted, it was different when I was coming up just because when the business changes everything kind of changes. There were lessons that I learned and all things that made me a superstar. This is what molded me and made me kind of form that I was in the ring.”
On not being used as much as she had hoped lately in TNA:“I think this is a conscious decision I’ve made within myself,” James said. “I wanted to be more real with myself and my fans because I feel like I have been sitting at home a lot lately and more than I should. Especially, while knowing who I am in the ring and what I’ve done and accolades I have and the level of wrestler that I am when it comes to females in this industry. I feel like often times that gets overlooked, which is bull because if I was a male in this industry that would not happen. But because I’m a woman in this ever-changing cycle of sex sells, this sells or that sells.
“At the end of the day there are very few and far between of those who can stand toe-to-toe at the same level…That is what frustrates me. I can’t stand sitting on the sidelines and watching. I don’t think anybody as a professional or as an entertainer or as an athlete can stand. If I was injured, then that’s one thing, but to be completely 100 percent healthy and be doing absolutely nothing. To me, it built up my frustration up to the point of being just pussyfooting around as the girl-next-door with a big smile on my face and happy about every little thing when in reality I’m frustrated.”
0Posted by Brett Clendaniel on March 29, 2013 at 6:41 pm
Seven-time WWE Women’s Champion Trish Stratus joined “The Rack” Thursday night she discussed her pending Hall of Fame induction, what will she be wearing to the ceremony, the poll from her website about her top 10 favorite outfits, who are some of the people she wished she could have faced, her feelings on the state of the current Divas division, her iconic match at WrestleMania 22 vs Mickie James, how does someone come down from the highs of WrestleMania, possibly getting a Mattel Trish Stratus Barbie, an update on her yoga studio, who would she like to see as the next female inductee to the Hall of Fame and more. Highlights from the interview are as follows:
Her reaction to entering the WWE Hall of Fame: “I’m super excited; oh my gosh. The call was like ‘Oh my God, seriously?!’ That was my first reaction. But I mean I’m actually honored; I know I keep saying this but I felt like ‘it feels like a little bit too soon’ but then I realized I have been retired for seven years. I don’t know, I think I have such an active role in the company at this moment that I don’t feel like I’ve been away from it for that long, you know? But I’m just, I’m thrilled, I’m very honored and when I heard the class this year, it’s just like wow; I’m just blown away. And as the fan, I feel like it’s amazing. I’m really looking forward to that weekend.”
Who is someone she wished she could have faced in the WWE today: “I feel like I’ve been saying it a lot but I mean the two women that really did some awesome stuff after I left was, well, one thing I say is I was so satisfied when I retired because I felt like I worked with just about everyone I wanted to work with, right? And then, all of a sudden, there was this wonderful burst of Nattie and Beth and it was the ‘Divas of Destruction’ and it was just this awesome stuff that they were doing and I’m like ‘I want a piece of that’. That is something I would like to go back to because it was good wrestling again. And Beth, thankfully, I had a chance to go back and wrestle with her, and you know Nattie is just, and we both say it, I would just love the opportunity to work with her, I think. And when I say work with her, I mean partner or even I would, it would be my pleasure to kick her butt. So, you know, we both being a Canadian mix of things and I just see some double Sharpshooter action; I just see some good stuff that would be really good. But you knows? It’s kind of like who is on my wish-list. “
Her thoughts on the current state of the Diva’s Division: “I think what is missing is I think everyone has the right tools. I think we’re seeing; listen, when you look at, and it’s funny, I fell in Kaitlyn because I loved her quirky attitude and she reminds me of me and I like that a lot, and there’s that afraid to not be silly and I just think that the fans don’t know that side of her, or know as much as we do on the inside, right? So, what I think is missing overall, and it’s something I’ve said for years, is the development of the characters.
So, everybody’s got the right tools, everybody has the skills to wrestle and definitely I think we have distinct personalities out there, even someone like Rosa Mendes. To me, the lost art is the valet to full-time wrestler transition and I think the more we see of Rosa in her valet role, it allows us to really get to know her and develop her character, right? And for her, and I hope she realizes, it’s one of the best places to be to really understand and to get wrestling. Like, I know when I was ringside watching the guys wrestle and watching every movement and what evokes and emotion and you kind of watch what works and what didn’t work, it made me when I got in the ring, it made able to draw on that, those experiences, and really bring that into the ring and be a better performer. So, I think everyone’s got the capabilities, certainly everyone’s been wrestling more and I think there’s some great wrestling technique going on now and characters for sure. I think now, we just have to sort of look at the division as a whole and it would be awesome to just think ‘Ok, how do we position each person a little differently and make these storylines?’ because everyone’s kind of wrestling with each other but there’s no storylines. And it’s like, what’s the direction, what’s the storyline, why are they wrestling, why do they hate each other? And I want it to be more than ‘You’re a girl’ and ‘I want the title’ it has to be more than just the title because obviously, that’s what we’re all going for, that’s the purpose of being in wrestling and why you compete in your division but there’s got to be an underlying storyline and that’s usually what stems from your characters. “
On the quality of matches given by Divas today: “That’s the thing, these girl’s matches are great; they’re actually having really good matches, to be honest. Tamina is fantastic in there, I mean and it’s like everyone happens to be under the radar because they’re like ‘Yeah, that was a good match’ but it’s true. It’s like, you need that storyline, there’s no way around it. You see they deliver the good, they just need something to fuel them in there, so when they’re there it’s like I care what that kick means, or why that cheat means so why I hate her for that cheat. So, that’s one thing missing, that’s for sure.”
Who would she like to see next inducted into the Hall of Fame, female wise: “I mean, I think Lita would be a great pick. She and I obviously sort of have this parallel our entire career. She’s a great friend of mine, I respect her and our career was a real special thing that we had; the relationship and our character’s relationship as well; I think she would be deserving. But, at the same time, you know it’s a long list. There’s some great women; I know one thing I kept hearing was Luna Vachon; why is Trish Stratus going in before Luna Vachon and I concur. You know, I think Luna, to me it would be great to see her go in but there’s so many women who’ve contributed to the overall of what women and how women are perceived in wrestling, but these women will all get in at some point. It’s not a matter of will they, it’s a matter of when.”
0Posted by Brett Clendaniel on March 17, 2013 at 6:36 pm
TNA Taped their Knockouts Knockdown pay-per-view earlier today. Here are the full results.
* Gail Kim defeated Alissa Flash (Cheerleader Melissa).
* Lei’d Tapa defeated Ivelisse.
* Tara w/Jessie Godderz defeated Mia Yim.
* Brooke Tessmacher defeated Santana Garrett.
* ODB defeated Trinity.
* Jackie Moore (Jacqueline) defeated Taryn Tarrell.
* Hannah Blossom defeated Sojo Bolt and Taeler Hendrix in a triple threat match.
* Velvet Sky defeated Jillian Hall.
* Mickie James defeated Serena Deeb.
Battle Royal
Rules applied for the match were that a knockout entered every two minutes. Over the rope eliminations but the final two face off in a match.
Entrants
1) Hannah Blossom
2) Gail Kim
3) Lei’d Tapa
4) Tara
5) Mickie James
6) Brooke Tessmacher
7) Jackie Moore
8) ODB
9) Velvet Sky
Eliminations
1) Hannah Blossom
2) Lei’d Tapa
3) Jackie
4) ODB
5) Velvet
6) Tessmacher
7) Tara
The match came down to Gail and Mickie, Gail acted like she was injuried and rolled up Mickie for the win.
Madison Rayne then came out to the ring and put a crown on Gail’s head. Gail forced Madison to leave the ring and posed for the crowd. That concluded the tapings.
0Posted by Brett Clendaniel on December 31, 2012 at 10:31 am
- MichelleMcCool.net passed along the following highlights of Michelle McCool talking about working with Mickie James:
Stomping Grounds: “Piggie James was the storyline that brought LayCool to fruition and really started and helped develop our characters. It was a main storyline that, at the time, started giving Divas more screen time and longer matches — we even had a huge celebration. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times: I give every single ounce of credit for that storyline to Mickie.”
Keeping It Professional: “It was tough on everybody, but obviously tough on Mickie, to say the least. She was the utmost professional in that situation. She never complained about the material that was being written. She never bitched, moaned, or tried to change it or get it shut down. She knew it was business — she knew it was going to help us.”
Working with The Best: “She was already an incredibly over babyface, she was a great wrestler — people loved her. She was one of those people who came in as a heel during the whole ‘psycho/Trish’ thing, but the fans loved her so much that WWE ended up turning her babyface. I don’t think we could have done that storyline with anybody else.”
Fan Reaction: “We got so much hate from that storyline from fans. People would send stuff in and we’d just be like: ‘holy moly, we’re getting genuine hate — but on the other hand, I feel horrible! What kind of message is this sending out?’ You just have to kind of remember that it’s just a character on TV. A lot of times people just forgot that and it’s easy to do.”
The Birth of Piggie James: “It literally got started out of the clear-blue air. I remember being overseas, and that’s when they told me at the arena that day that I was going to be singing the ‘Old McDonald Had a Farm’ little vignette, and I didn’t know what to think. Honestly? I thought they were joking at first, a rib on me because my singing is so horrible — so I was already nervous about that. I hid all day; ‘I can’t believe they’re making me do this — where is this going?’ I had no idea where the storyline was going to go after that. During rehearsal that day, I’m literally sitting on the ground by the ring, like hiding… I felt awful.”
Advance Apology: “There were so many times, time after time, where we would go up to Mickie and apologize in advance. We’d be like: ‘this sucks and I’m sorry. Obviously, we didn’t write this. I’m just sorry… we don’t know what else to say.’ Like I said: she was always completely cool with it. I’m sure it hurt; things like that do. Obviously she’s not big — she’s one of the smallest people. There’s no way anybody thought she was really overweight or ‘Piggie James.’ Again, that was just our stupid, silly LayCool characters that we had. Like I said: all credit to her. It would have not progressed, gone as far, or had gotten over like it did if it weren’t for her. I don’t think any other babyface could have pulled that off.”
What Goes Around..: “I don’t feel like LayCool ever got our butts handed to us by her enough. I never understood that… it was like: ‘why isn’t she killing us here? Doing this or doing that?’ I think the story could have even gone further because the fans, week after week, wanted her to just embarrass us. At the Rumble we ended up with birthday cake in our face, and everybody loved that. Here we were embarrassed by her — that was great!”
A Night To Remember: “During the Piggie James send-off, LayCool was cutting a promo. Then Maria came, she came, and then she cut a promo. I remember that she almost made me break character. We were talking about how dumb Maria was, or something like that, and Mickie flew off the cuff and said something about: ‘oh, really? We all saw ‘Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?,’ mmmhmm!’ — I’m looking at her like: oh, gosh! I wanted to break character so bad! As soon as we got backstage I told her that she almost got me — almost busted out laughing!”
Vince’s Angels: “Vince ended up loving the LayCool character as a result of that storyline. That’s kind of how things kind of kept happening for us. But, like I said: I give credit to Mickie James. She was fighting with us to get TV time, to get pay-per-view matches, to raise the bar… not many people will always do that. But she did, and I will forever be grateful for that.”
Working With Mickie: “We’ve pulled off some really good matches together. We always kinda clicked; worked well together. That always makes it fun inside the ring when you know you can work with somebody. You can fly off the cuff while you’re in there; you can improvise. We had some fun. Plus, her finisher was always one of my most fun ones to take! It was hard and trying at times, but was fun. She was a true professional and always wanted to do business — what was best for the business.”
Stealing The Show: “Something to add: the night we smashed cake in Mickie’s face, during her send-off… she was just brilliant on her response! That was the point where LayCool finally got to Mickie James, she just looked humiliated as she ran off in tears. Nobody else could have done that the way she did it. As we all came backstage — and very, very rarely does this happen — Vince, Michael Hayes, and everybody in the gorilla position were standing up and clapping saying: ‘the girls just stole the show.’ That was a very, very special moment. I give her all the props in the world. So, thanks Mickie if you hear this — I really, really appreciate you!”
0Posted by Brett Clendaniel on October 28, 2012 at 3:38 pm
As noted earlier, Trish Stratus was filmed in a video for a single from Mickie James’ upcoming album “Somebody’s Gonna Pay.” The two former rivals filmed a fight scene in the video, you can check out a photo of it below from Stratus’ Twitter account.
@trishstratuscom:Just doin what we do best! mickiejames- so proud of u! Thx @MattWRoberts #somebodysgonnapay #goodoledays instagr.am/p/RMDJsJG5j-/
0Posted by Brett Clendaniel on September 27, 2012 at 6:43 pm
The Wrestling Observer reports that one of the reasons ‘some women’ have quit TNA Wrestling in the past year stems from the belief that Bruce Prichard, Senior Vice President of Programming and Talent Relations, is not in favor of women’s wrestling. This would also explain why the Knockouts division is not as given as much prominence as in the past, with only a few talents being highlighted.
Angelina Love and Velvet Sky reportedly left the promotion on their own accord and the roles of Mickie James, Rosita, Sarita and Winter were greatly curtailed after Prichard came into power last October.
WWE Diva Elizabeth Carolan, a.k.a Beth Phoenix, is reportedly finishing up with the company shortly. According to a source, Phoenix will be retiring in October.
Phoenix made her WWE debut in 2006 as an ally to Trish Stratus during her feud with Mickie James. She would go on to hold the WWE Women’s Championship three times, as well as the WWE Diva’s Championship.
Phoenix was en route to displacing Maryse Ouellet as the longest reigning WWE Divas Champion in history earlier this year, however lost the belt a week before she could break the record to Nikki Bella on the April 23rd episode of Raw.
Her thoughts on the teased incest angle between Paul Burchill and herself: I can’t exactly remember who (came up with the idea), it was put to us by one of the agents and honestly, I thought it was a great idea. I was totally for it and I thought it could have been cool, something like “The Crow” where you have the bad guy with the sister and they teased that incest thing. It has that ambivalent “you don’t know if it is happening or isn’t happening” feeling but
people are kind excited about it. Any incest angle that has been on any kind of television had amazing ratings as people are fascinated by anything that is a little taboo. I thought we were lucky to have a storyline that would have been a
little “on the edge” but unfortunately, with the whole PG thing, it got nixed.
The idea behind the “drugging “Angelina Love storyline: It’s about the lingering effects. It’s like when you take a drug a lot (to a point) where certain parts of your brain with simulate to the effects of the drug and it might change you forever. So seeing as I was drugging Angelina and putting her under my hypnotic spell, eventually it just so happened her brain altered itself in tune with the drug.
Her feelings about her 18 day Knockout’s title reign last year before dropping it to Mickie James then regaining it: Honestly, I thought it was kind of pointless with the little switch-a-roo in between. Sometimes it’s worth building the storyline with one person holding the championship for a little longer. The same thing happened when Velvet (Sky) won it (at Bound For Glory), she was built up at the top babyface and finally she won it and she dropped it immediately and I felt like it was kind of weird.
Her thoughts on leaving TNA Wrestling and if she is happier now she has left: I’m happier because I’m making the transition into acting to where I don’t want to be restricted by contacts or obligations to a wrestling company. I still love wrestling but in terms of having a career, I’m not going to have a career in wrestling now, I’m going to have a career in acting. I don’t want a thing that could stand in the way of that number one, and number two, I don’t want to constantly be on the road and constantly traveling for wrestling as I don’t want to get injured.
Other subjects covered in the interview include her thoughts on the state of the Knockout, her thoughts on Vince Russo, what movies she has upcoming and much, much more.
The full audio can be found HERE (starting at the 1 hour 29 minute mark)
0Posted by Brett Clendaniel on September 4, 2012 at 12:27 pm
Former WWE star Luke Gallows was on the road with TNA this past week working as one of the Aces & 8s members so he likely has signed a contract.
TNA will be running a split crew this Thursday night as they have a live Impact and then a live event in Dalton, Georgia. Advertised for the live event are Kurt Angle, Mickie James, Mr. Anderson, Crimson, Miss Tessmacher and Zema Ion, so it’s likely that they won’t be on TV this week.
0Posted by Brett Clendaniel on September 1, 2012 at 9:26 pm
Mickie James spoke to Mike Jones of DC101 in Washington, D.C. and discussed current happenings in TNA Wrestling and the Knockouts Division. One particular point of interest was about her biggest career influences. James couldn’t pick one person but gave credit to those who she really likes wrestling with.
“I’ve had so many people who inspired me along the way so it’s hard to pinpoint one person,” she said. “You’re only as good as the people you’re in the ring with, you know, and to be able to work that magic with whoever you’re in there with and have different chemistry with everyone and their styles and move sets, and you just work it, I guess.”
0Posted by Brett Clendaniel on August 20, 2012 at 11:40 am
The former Bella Twins, Nicole and Brianna Garcia, recently participated in a multi-hour shoot interview with RF Video where they discussed their entire WWE careers. Here is a preview of what you can expect in the soon-to-be released video.
“What a fun interview this was for us to conduct. These girls were great story tellers, and their chemistry together was amazing as you will see when you watch this interview. They play off each other amazing. We talked all about their pre WWE history as soccer players and models and talked about their 2006 Diva Search contest which they lost. Then we chat with them for hours about their entire WWE career. You will hear stories all about every girl in the company. From Beth Phinoex, Kelly Kelly, Katie Lee, Mickie James, Gail Kim, Kharma, Layla, Alicia Fox, Michelle McCool to everyone in between. You will hear about how Bri got off screen feeling for Daniel Bryan which lead to a real life relationship…There are plenty of road stories and backstage scoops. If your a fan of the WWE you will love this career perspective interview.”
0Posted by Brett Clendaniel on August 9, 2012 at 9:43 am
TNA did a conference call with Knockouts Champion Miss Tessmacher earlier this week to promote Sunday’s Hardcore Justice pay-per-view. Here are a few highlights:
* She credited Tara and Mickie James with helping her improve in the ring.
* She says growing up homeless has kept her grounded. She added that she’s living the dream now.
* She doesn’t feel that you can compare her WWE and TNA careers because things have been so different with the two companies.
* Regarding her critics, Brooke said she tries hard to prove every night that she’s not a fluke and is deserving.
* She started working harder when she won the tag team titles with Tara. That’s when she knew she wanted to be a full-time wrestler.
* She’s working on releasing a workout video and is interested in some acting.
* She was disappointed with going back to using just Miss Tessmacher as her name.
0Posted by Brett Clendaniel on August 8, 2012 at 2:20 pm
The Wrestling Observer has compiled data on the most popular or most talked about professional wrestling performers in the first six months of 2012, based on Google activity and searches, and among female wrestling talent, AJ garnered the most interest in the United States by a considerable margin. She is trailed by Eve Torres, Velvet Sky, Vickie Guerrero, Beth Phoenix, Mickie James and Gail Kim. No other female talents gained substantial interest.
Though not foolproof, the rankings are a good gauge of how “over” somebody legitimately is with the general public, as well as whether WWE and TNA Wrestling’s promotional efforts are working.
WWE Raw this past Monday was a great show overall. They have good things going for them and they have us captivated by us wanting to know ‘what happens next?!’. They have finally given the ball to CM Punk and he seems to be running with it quite well thus far. The AJ Lee and Daniel Bryan storyline is also a storyline we can look forward to each week. WWE are using their third hour well, but it could be better. Here are four problems with it that I would like to address.
Lack of Wrestling
For a 3 hour wrestling show there were just 56 minutes of wrestling this week on Raw. Now that is not enough. With the extra hour I think WWE should have at least 90 minutes of wrestling. This has got to be most important part of the show and it doesn’t feel like wrestling matters at all with WWE anymore. WWE would not be where it is today if it wasn’t for quality wrestling matches, so they really should feature more or longer matches. The matches they had this week were good and I was really in to them but felt they ended too sudden. They should give us at least two fifteen minute matches and two ten minute matches then work around the rest.
48 minutes of Commercials
This bothers and it doesn’t bother me. It doesn’t bother me as 80% of the time I watch Raw is through my DVR so all I have to do is skip the commercials. It bothers me as it’s practically one third of Raw. It’s sad, one third of a 3 hour ‘sports’ show is dedicated to commercials. I do not know what way commercials work across seas but I know in the UK when a LIVE sport is on it takes up only around one fifth of the show. This has got to stop, it must really piss off paying fans in the arena to wait around that long when nothing is happening. Now I know WWE wouldn’t be on the air if it wasn’t for commercials but if they had less, maybe more people would watch it LIVE.
Recall Promos
There is too many recall promos, or recap promos. I’m going to call them recall promos. Sounds better IMO. Two Brock/HHH recall promos aired twice last Monday, each being about 4-5 minutes long. Is that necessary? I know WWE want to make sure we are hyped up for it and all that but come on, no need to shove in down our throats. All I can say is; thank God for Sky+ (DVR).
Diva’s division
Quite frankly, I don’t really care for it at all at the moment. I’m not a smark or anything but ever since Trish left WWE, the whole division began to get less and less interesting to me. Trish was a huge void that was never filled with the Diva’s division. They had Mickie James, Gael Kim, Kharma but WWE really dropped the ball with them. They now have Beth, Natalya and more who are good but refuse to use them. But my biggest problem is I have no desire to watch them and that’s probably because I don’t know who their characters are. To me, they’re just a bunch or barbie dolls. I know they are more than that but I am not connected with them. All WWE Diva’s are the same, there is nothing different from one to another. AJ lee and Eve are an exception because they’re in storylines with the likes of Cena and Punk which automatically makes them interesting.
I just want you all to know I’m not annoyed or disappointed with Raw this week, I just think WWE need to apply some changes so the extra hour doesn’t get stale or unbearable in the near future. I think you all can agree with me on that.
I cannot say more about the third hour of Raw as it’s really only been one show with the regulars. However I can comment on what I loved about this weeks Raw. The AJ/Bryan storyline has really caught my interest and I look forward to seeing what will happen next week. Bringing Kane in was interesting and perhaps he’ll fight Bryan at SummerSlam on behalf of Sheen with Sheen in his corner? Who knows, we’ll have to find out in the upcoming weeks. CM Punk/Cena/Show all featured well and I’m glad Show is involved with the WWE title at SummerSlam, the chances of Punk retaining are greater as it’s not only Cena that has to lose. I love the way WWE are slowly turning Punk heel, or are they? That’s the question on everyone’s mind and we can ramble all we want about it, but we will not find out unless we tune in to Raw every week. There is a new buzz about Raw which I really like.
That’s all she wrote for this column so please let me know your thoughts! Also follow me on twitter @RayTheRamblerand check out my website for more rambles - http://wrestlingrambles.com/. Keep checking back right here on WC for non-stop updates on all news around the wrestling world!
