Mickie James Reveals How Her WWE Royal Rumble Appearance Came Together

In a recent interview with Ariel Helwani, current Impact Knockouts Champion Mickie James discussed how her WWE Royal Rumble appearance came together, the reaction to the announcement, and much more.. Here are some of the highlights (via Fightful):

Mickie James on how her Royal Rumble appearance came together: “It was a few weeks ago. Scott [D’Amore] called me first, just to kind of see where I was at and if I was interested. Immediately, I was excited. Historically, this has never happened before, for WWE to do this or to have anyone to participate in the Rumble, especially to acknowledge the championship. It’s cool and shows a different amount of respect. I feel really great about it. In my mind, the last thing people bring up or talk about was on the other end of the spectrum with them. It’s cool to not have that be the thing or the last thing. I’m so excited, honestly.”

On John Laurinaitis reaching out to Scott D’Amore and the reaction to the announcement: “I feel like Johnny [John 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 announcement…the response back has blown my mind. It’s incredible, different, and kind of historic and to be the person to do it is really cool.”

On her initial reaction to her return to WWE: “I was shocked, very shocked. I know it’s not ever been done, especially for the women. All things considered, everyone from that camp, we’ve talked and there has been apologies. I still maintain a good relationship with everyone in that sense. Professionally, I think it’s something to be able to do and hopefully open the door for future possibilities of that. My knee jerk reaction was shock because it’s not unheard of and, especially for me, it was like, ‘Oh, really.’ It’s weird. It’s a weird place to be sitting.”

On when she found out WWE was going to announce her appearance instead of it being a surprise: “Not until Friday. I was headed to IMPACT, I was driving around looking for a guitar when it aired on SmackDown. We had talked about it being a surprise, but I think Johnny and the camp wanted to get it out there because they were doing the announcement and the reveal that night and they wanted to put it as part of that. It worked out. I was a little apprehensive because I knew Deonna and I were going to be the main event at Hard to Kill and IMPACT hadn’t announced it because internally, it was a conversation of ‘look at this thing we’re doing, it’s great,’ it’s more powerful that it was just going to be the main event. That was my only immediately reservation, ‘I don’t want it to step on anything going into the Deonna match.’ It actually worked out better because I think a lot of people thought I was going to lose. More people thought I wasn’t going to keep the championship because I was going into the Rumble.”