Mickie James Says She Had Just Been Cleared When Pandemic Hit, Talks Knee Injury and Her Immediate Reaction to It

Mickie James spoke with Chris Van Vliet about the knee injury that has kept her out of action since last summer, and how she was just about to come back when the pandemic hit. James has been out of action for over a year, having suffered an ACL injury back in June of last year that required surgery.

James discussed her immediate reaction when she felt the injury, when she learned how long she’d be out and how close she was to coming back. You can check out highlights and the full video below:

On knowing something was wrong right away when the injury happened: “Yes, instantly. It was so crazy, because it was just a regular match, it was a simple hold. I was the heel, you know what I mean? And I’m like, I got Carmella. I was in some kind of cravat or something. It was literally the last — we probably had like two more minutes left in this match. It was that level, getting ready to go home. And she rolled me off from the hold and when when I went to pivot I heard [makes a popping sound], like a pop. But then my body popped, like I could feel it in my knee. Not pain, just like an explosion. But it was literally a pop that I felt and heard in my head. It was crazy. And I was like, ‘That was weird.’ I went to go stand up, I kind of buckled. And I was like, ‘Whoa.'”

On learning from the doctor how bad it was: ‘So he told me with a torn meniscus, I’d probably be like six to eight weeks, six to nine weeks maybe out. And I was like, ‘Oh, that kind of sucks. But at that time I had already been transferred over to Smackdown. I hadn’t debuted on TV on Smackdown after WrestleMania. So I was just kind of sitting and waiting, and that was actually my first loop of house shows, which was the ironic thing. You know, maybe it just wasn’t mean to be, me and Smackdown.

“I got to the car and he’s like ‘Oh, are you sitting down?’ I’m like ‘Well, yeah kinda, in my car.’ He’s like, ‘So it’s not your meniscus, it’s your whole ACL.’ And I’m thinking, ‘How is that even possible?’ Because I’m up walking around. I think football players go down from an ACL thing and I see them buckle, and they’re wincing in pain. Mine wasn’t painful, it wasn’t any of those things.”

On the pandemic cutting her planned return short: “I’m good, I’m ready. I’m honestly just waiting. The process of getting cleared is a whole thing. And unfortunately, my clearance time came right in the midst of this whole outbreak. And I was actually in Florida, I was at the Performance Center training, working with Tara [Halaby, WWE’s physical therapist], with everybody down there just [to] kinda see where I was at. I’d already done all my therapy leading up, I’d seen the doc. The doc had already cleared me. So I was literally just getting that last two weeks to get cleared to come back to in-ring action. And all this stuff, and everything got shut down. And so I went home and I just haven’t been back since.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Chris Van Vliet with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.