Posted on 10/29/125 by Colin Vassallo
Mickie James sat down with Chris Van Vliet in Nashville,
Tennessee to discuss her recent Hall Of Fame induction at
Bound For Glory, if one more match is possible, wrestling
most of her career under her real name, her rivalry with
Trish Stratus and the infamous spot during their
WrestleMania 22 match, receiving her belongings in a trash
bag after being released, if her husband Nick Aldis could
return to the ring, and more!
On being inducted into the TNA Hall of Fame:
“It’s crazy to even say Hall of Famer. I gotta change it in
my bio. It feels amazing. I’m super humbled, and I think,
you know, you spend your whole career trying to be humble
and all that other stuff. And it’s like the one night you
can kind of pat yourself on the back, but it’s super
uncomfortable to do it. But still, it’s always incredible, I
think, when you’re recognized for your contributions to the
company or to any business, and for TNA to do that for me, I
was incredibly honored.”
On being able to use her real name in WWE:
“I was Alexis Laree in OVW. I just love the name Alexis and
Laree is my legit middle name, so that’s how that name came
about. But I’m about to debut this crazy stalker character,
and Vince is like, ‘What’s her name? Alexis Laree? I don’t
like that name. It sounds like a stripper name.’ And I’m
like, Oh, guess it does, doesn’t it? Yeah, okay. He’s like,
‘Well, got anything else? Got any other names?’ And I was
like, ‘Uh, Mickie James?’ [He said] ‘I love it.’ I didn’t
say, Oh, it’s my real name. I was like, oh, okay, great. So
I was able, and probably one of the last few people, to
actually be able to use their real name. I was able to use
my real name. Crazy! And how grateful I am for that.”
On who is her biggest rival:
“Trish, for sure, every day, all day, even still. I think
about how we’ve not had really a chance to do a whole bunch,
but even like that Rumble moment where we had a chance and
the people just erupted. And I think that that says it all
and that was such a validation that what we did then still
holds true and still connects today.”
On that moment in her WrestleMania 22 match with Trish
Stratus:
“[The backstage reaction] was not good. I mean, the people
loved it. The reaction, in my opinion, I made the right
choice, in my humble opinion. Not what I expected. So I had
asked Steve Keirn. Steve Keirn was our agent. I had asked
Steve Keirn, ‘Can I lick my finger?’ Because we had already
had the crotch grab spot. We’re gonna do it. So we knew we
were going to do the vag grab. You think about the whole
story. I have pretended to be Trish. I have accused her
boyfriend of terrible crimes. I have kidnapped Ashley
Massaro, I have stalked her in the shower, her home. I have
done many things, tried to kiss her numerous occasions,
access denied. So we’re at WrestleMania, and I’m like, all
the things that we’ve done to lead to this and they want
this moment. I’m like, okay. I felt like that’s what anybody
would have done in that moment, after all that. Finally, you
got, I don’t know, I’m not going to go there. That’s a
little too crass, even for me. But I also thought, you know.
So I had asked if I could lick my finger. Clearly, that’s
not what I did. He was like, ‘Lick your finger?’ I was like,
Well, yeah, I mean, wouldn’t I? I’ve been trying to get my
hands on her forever. This would be my dream come true,
right? And he’s like, ‘I will see.’ I went away, and he
comes back, and he goes, ‘Yeah, okay, I think you can lick
your fingers.’ Fine, whatever. Sorry, Steve Keirn. So that’s
not what I did, and I did this actually, I think it was more
like this [does gesture]. It was a double, so they made sure
they saw it, because my hands aren’t big enough, obviously.
I thought in my heart and in my soul, I honestly believed I
was going to walk back through that curtain, and I had never
received a high five. I’d seen other women get high fives
from Vince and thumbs up and all these things. I got a
thumbs-up before. I got a few thumbs up. I thought I was
going to get the biggest hug of a lifetime, and fist bumps,
maybe even a hoist on a shoulder and out the door, something
for being so brilliant. It’s not what happened at all. Go
back through the curtain and Vince is pissed. He’s like,
‘That was crass! Do you know what we’re gonna have to do?
How much money it’s gonna cost to edit that and to pull it
from everything? We’re a publicly traded company! What are
you thinking?’ So if you can imagine the high of a lifetime
and then walking through and just shanked right through the
curtain, I was like, Ooft! But clearly he didn’t hate me too
much, because I still was the champion, so maybe deep down
he really loved it.”