Mickie James made a memorable splash into the world of wrestling when she debuted in WWE as a fan obsessed with Trish Stratus in 2005.
While that storyline became an unforgettable part of both women’s careers, including an infamous match at WrestleMania 22 remembered for a provocative gesture, James recently revealed that she nearly landed on WWE TV in a much different fashion.
Speaking to Ben Veal of the Wrestling Life podcast, James said WWE threw around several different ideas for her debut. One
of those ideas was for her to serve as the manager for CM Punk, who had only recently been signed by the company.
“I was supposed to debut probably five times with different ideas that they had come up with or whatever. None of them stuck, including debuting with CM Punk on Sunday Night Heat as his manager,” James said.
She continued by noting that the scrapped idea would have come with the ring name of “Vicky Adams.”
“I kept going, like, ‘Where does this Vicky Adams keep coming from on my Wikipedia? Somebody delete that. I don’t know who she is,’” she said “But I guess that was the name that they used when I was supposed to debut with him. It didn’t. It lasted that night is what it did.”
During the conversation with Veal, James also said she nearly quit wrestling altogether while working in Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) before she made her WWE debut.
James said: “I remember I was kind of over it. I was in a place where I’d watched a lot of people get fired at OVW. I’d been there for two years. They had started the Diva Search. All the divas were coming down, training and then going to TV. I was helping teaching them how to do headlocks and stuff.
“I had moment of like, ‘Maybe this isn’t the journey for me.’ Because I chose wrestling, did all the sacrifices and finally got the job. Now I feel like I’m not who they’re looking for.”
James recalled speaking to her OVW boss Tommy Dreamer about wanting to quit, because she felt WWE didn’t want actual wrestlers on the female roster at the time.
“I was ready to quit. He’s like, ‘I’m gonna give you some extra time. I really want you to think about this because it would be a real shame,” she said.
Mickie said that her mother encouraged to continue pursuing a wrestling career because she had already worked so hard to achieve her dream. This led her to come up with the unusual gimmick of being a super fan of another female star, which she originally pitched with Lita in mind.
According to James, her proposal would see her being obsessed with Lita and doing her popular moves, such as moonsaults and hurricanranas. However, while the character would come to fruition, the “super fan” would be fixated on Stratus.
“They used the character, and then the story itself between the writers, myself, and Trish — it just came together. It was awesome. It was fun, it was fresh, and it was different,” James said.
She also credited Trish for being “open” to the angle, which allowed her character to flourish.
“Because if she had not been into it, not been open or receptive to this new story, this new character and this kind of different type of thing, it would not have gone the way it did. It would have been much shorter and probably not as cool,” James said.
What do you think, Cagesiders? Would you have liked to see James as Punk’s manager early in her career? How about her being obsessed with Lita rather than Trish? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
