Mickie James appeared on Ariel Helwani’s show today to discuss her upcoming involvement in the Women's 2022 WWE Royal Rumble match and how the deal came to be.

“It was a few weeks ago, and Scott had called me first…just to kind of see where I was at and if I was interested,” James said. “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.”

John Laurinaitis was the WWE name that reached out to IMPACT's Scott D’Amore:

"Johnny reached out to Scott to first just talk to him professionally because… this has never really has been done before by them. So definitely, they talked first to see if this was going to be something they because they’ve worked together, Impact worked together with WWE in the past for other things, you know, for when Flair went in the Hall of Fame and Christian Cage and all that stuff, so it wasn’t unforeseen that it could possibly happen. But yeah, so I think that’s why Scott first reached out to me to see what my interest was. And then obviously, we were all able to make this happen somehow. And I think it was going to be a surprise, we talked about having it as a surprise. But you know, the announcement [and] the response back from the announcement kind of has blown my mind. I think it’s pretty incredible. You know, it’s different, and it’s kind of historic, and then to be the person to do they’ve done it with it’s really freaking cool."

On the trashbag incident which saw he belongings sent back to her in a black trash back following her WWE release:

“Um, I was shocked. I think I was very shocked because I know it’s not really ever been done especially for the women and so and I think all things considered but I also feel like everyone from that camp has honestly, we’ve talked and there’s been apologies and all the things and so I still maintain a good relationship with everyone in that sense. And professionally, I just think it’s just something to be able to do and hopefully open the door for future possibilities of that as well. You know, so yeah, I think my knee jerk reaction was I was kind of shocked you know, because just it’s unheard of. And especially for me I was like oh really okay, um and so yeah, I don’t know It’s weird, right? It’s a weird place to be sitting.”

On not knowing about the WWE Royal Rumble announcement:

“Not until Friday? I was I was headed to Impact because we obviously had the championship on the line and it was going to be the main event. And that was already a thing. So I was actually driving around looking for a guitar when it aired on SmackDown in Dallas. So I don’t know, I think like we said, we were we were talked about it being a surprise, like more of like, just one of the surprise entrances. But then I think Johnny really in the camp really wanted to kind of get it out there because they were doing that big announcement in the reveal that night, and they wanted to put it as part of that.”