Mickie James intends on having the Knockouts World Championship belt with her as she enters the Royal Rumble

It’s been one week since the shocking news that Mickie James will be part of the upcoming 2022 WWE Royal Rumble. James is currently the IMPACT Knockouts World Champion and she recently retained her title against Deonna Purrazzo in a Texas Death Match at Hard to Kill.

She was released by WWE in April of 2021 and went to work with IMPACT! and NWA. What caught people by surprise the most in the announcement that Hardcore Country would be joining the rumble was that she is a current champ for IMPACT and it was acknowledged on WWE programming. Something that has never happened before.

James sat down with Ariel Helwani and discussed how this upcoming appearance had been brought about.

“It was a few weeks ago, and Scott [D’Amore] had called me first just to kind of see where I was at and if I was interested. I think immediately I was excited because I think about this historically has never happened before, for WWE to do this or to have anyone participate in the Rumble, especially to acknowledge the championship. It’s really, it’s cool. And it just shows a different amount of respect –I feel really great about it. Plus, I think, in my mind, the last thing most people bring up or talk about was on the other end of the spectrum with and so it’s just cool not to have that be the thing, or the last thing, or whatever that is. So i’m so excited, honestly.”

“I feel like Johnny [Laurinaitis] reached out to Scott, to first talk to him professionally. It’s never been done before by them. Definitely, they talked first to see if this was something (they could do). IMPACT worked together with WWE in the past for when Flair went in the Hall of Fame and Christian Cage. It wasn’t unforeseen that it could possibly happen, I think that’s why Scott first reached out to me to see what my interest was and obviously we were all able to make this happen somehow. I think it was going to be a surprise, we talked about having it a surprise, but the…