Mickie James Addresses the Negative Backlash to the ‘Piggy James’ Storyline, Says All The Women Struggled With it

Former WWE Superstar and recently inducted TNA Hall of Famer Mickie James recently spoke to Insight with Chris Van Vliet spoke about one of the more infamous moments in her career, when LayCool (Michelle McCool and Layla) mocked her by calling her Piggy James in 2010. Layla also wore a fat suit as a means to mock James.

James shared her thoughts about her storyline with Michelle McCool and the infamous Piggy James segment. Below are some highlights from insight:

On her storyline with Michelle McCool

“Especially at a time in my career where I felt like I was being kind of punished on a professional level, so I wasn’t sure how much of that was does the company truly think this about me? Is someone saying this in creative and they just think it’s funny, and let’s see how this plays out on TV, or is this just a storyline? I think, if nothing else, that’s where I had to put my ego aside, and I was like, You know what? I don’t care what I’m going to do, because this is powerful, and we’ve all been bullied, and there’s been moments. There’s just a story right now of this little girl, Sophia, in middle school in the town over from where we live right now, who just committed suicide over bullying, and she’s 11 years old. So you think about that, and you think about the cases of suicide and all these things of like people really getting bullied, and I think it was really coming to light at that time because social media was becoming a thing, so it’s really starting to come a light how this can affect people, especially affect people who weren’t weren’t mentally capable of deciphering, like young children.”

Mickie James on how all the women struggled with the Piggy James segment

“Well, it took all of us, because for them too, they had to be the bad guys in that situation and be okay being the bad guys, which I think a lot of people still struggle with. Because as performers, you’re trying to be loved and trying to be hated, to be a heel, I love it, but you have to be okay being hated. But also for them to be able to go out there, her and Layla, both, and do all of these things, and then have to take on all the hate from the fans for doing these hateful things and really embrace it. It was a lot. I think we all struggled with it, doing it in the moment. And I was like, no, what we’re going to do is we’re going to go out there and we’re going to make it gold, and we’re going to make it better than they ever expected. And it did. And not only did it really land in the hearts of a lot of people, but I have people that still come to me about that whole story and how much it helped them. And I’m sure Michelle and Layla have the same, but it helped launch Lay Cool. I think they were looking for something to turn them into monster heels, because there wasn’t really a strong, strong heel, especially on SmackDown in the female division. And they would have wanted to really get some hot steam behind them, and they chose me to do that. I should be honored that they believed in me enough to be able to help in that story. So there’s a lot of conflicting things on there.”

As previously noted, Mickie James was recently inducted into the TNA Hall of Fame as part of the all-women 2025 class. Former WWE Women’s Champion Lisa Marie Varon (aka Victoria) inducted her during the pre-show ceremony before Bound for Glory 2025.