Former WWE Superstar Mickie James has opened up about what she feels is a lack of long-term planning in WWE, where things sometimes seem to happen with no rhyme or reason for them.
James was one of a slew of talents released by WWE on the 15th of April this year alongside the likes of Samoa Joe and The IIconics. James’ release caused headlines after she revealed she had been mailed her belongings in a trash bag by the company.
Speaking on Busted Open Radio, the former six-time WWE Women’s Champion spoke candidly about what she perceived as a lack of long-term planning in the company.
James explained:
“There is the best talent in the world there. You look at the brands and there’s no one that produces the television that they do because they have a monopoly on the market and everything. And there’s a reason why they’ve been able to do that. But it’s unfortunate when, creatively, you’re held back from your true potential. Whether it’s because there’s a certain vision for this one thing because a lot of people just become afterthoughts, and that’s a terrible thing. When you feel like you’re an afterthought, that’s a sucky feeling. And it’s not done on purpose, it’s just, like, it’s so single-minded because they have this one vision for this one idea that they have to be on. That’s the one that’s the little golden egg at the moment, and then everything else just kind of works itself out.”
“And I think that we, or me anyway, come from a perception of ‘where are we going here? Where’s the payoff, how far is it? That’s where we’re going to get there’ kind of thing. Three months from now, whatever that is. And I like to think backwards so each step is a bigger step in that direction. And I think a lot of times when television is being written short term like there’s no long term perspective except for one or two storylines. When it’s so shortsighted, you end up cutting off your nose to spite your face sometimes. Because you’ll bury a talent two weeks ago, and then you’ll turn around and start building them or pushing them or they’re winning championships three weeks from there, out of nowhere.”
James then conceded that perhaps her vision of things may no longer be the way wrestling works anymore:
“So it’s just kind of crazy sometimes. And maybe people just don’t watch wrestling that way. Maybe it is the wrestling fans that have changed. I don’t know, that’s kind of what I’m trying to understand. Then I started to feel like ‘okay maybe my long-term vision or that kind of thing of building in those story aspects or moments and emotions, maybe that’s just not the way we work wrestling anymore.’ I don’t really know.”
Mickie James then went on to discuss going above the creative department’s head and straight to WWE Chairman Vince McMahon to let him know she was keen to go to work after being sidelined. James explains that going straight to the boss made things a little awkward for her.
James said:
“I went to Vince and was kind of like ‘hey, I just want to you know that I’ve been just sitting at home, just chilling, I’m ready to come back whenever you guys want me to come back.’ I think that’s what had me come back for the whole Asuka thing right there. But then, I felt like because I went to Vince it all made it awkward cause I went around the creative.”
“It’s just crazy, it’s politics, and I don’t want to get into all of that because I don’t want to expose too much. It’s like, good times and bad times. You have the best times of your life, you have some of your best friends there. And then also sometimes you get really disheartened, in that capacity. And it’s all stuff to do with things that are sometimes out of your control, and it’s very frustrating.”
Mickie James surprised many when she turned up on NWA programming and announced a new all-female pay-per-view.