Wrestling veteran Mickie James is on her “last rodeo.”
James, a longtime Impact Knockout, and former star of WWE’s Divas Era, has said that the next match she loses will be her last. James will next face Impact Knockouts Champion Jordynne Grace at Impact’s Hard To Kill pay-per-view event on January 13th. It would be a “career-defining” moment for any wrestler who could rise to the challenge and retire James.
Another Impact Knockout, Deonna Purrazzo shared her own thoughts about what the honor would mean. Purrazzo spoke recently about what it would mean to be the wrestler who retired Mickie James. The Virtuosa appeared on Counted Out with Mike & Tyler where she addressed James’ in-ring future. Highlights can be read below:
What it would mean to retire Mickie James: “I think that would be career-defining. You know, Tasha Steelz says, ‘I’m the greatest to beat the greatest,’ right? She beat Mickie James to win the Knockouts World Championship, but I think that’s been game-changing for Tasha, it kind of leveled her up a little bit. The person who gets to say ‘I retired Mickie James,’ I mean, what bigger thing is there to do, besides win the Knockouts World Championship, which after Hard To Kill, you might have the opportunity to do? But you’re gonna retire her? That in itself is an amazing feat. So I think it’s made our entire division work harder and level up, and say, ‘what more can I bring to the table? Because I want to be the one.'”
Mickie James’ impact in the women’s locker room: “I get asked this all the time just because Mickie’s so polarizing. She’s been wrestling 20-plus years. She’s done it all. I think that having someone with that experience, and I was actually talking to her the other day and I said, ‘If you give someone advice, or if you said, I’d like this better, or what about this, and we tweak this,’ how could I ever argue that you’re wrong? The experience is there, and is proof itself that it works. I can’t ever tell you, ‘No, you’re wrong’ because you’ve been there, you’ve done it, you’ve been successful, you’ve made money. So having that kind of leader in the locker room, I think has been game-changing. But I think everyone in our Knockouts Division, in our Knockouts locker room, can learn something when they’re in the ring with Mickie, sitting in the back, just shooting the s*** with Mickie. We’re all gaining valuable professional and life experience from being around someone like Mickie James. So like I said, it’s been game-changing for me.”
