Mickie James Goes In Depth On Trish Stratus Stalker Storyline, Piggie James, Getting Fired In 2010

During an appearance on The Kurt Angle Show, Mickie James spoke about the original angle for when she was Trish Stratus' stalker.

“I pitched the character and I had written out like 18 weeks of TV when I pitched the idea when I was in OVW. It was probably like the 27th storyline idea I pitched for myself to get myself on television.”

“You know, you’re in developmental and you’re throwing stuff against the wall praying something sticks and they might bite on something. They would come down every so often and do the evaluation. It was never my wrestling ability. It was always the story that seemed to be holding me back. It was also in that era of the Divas and I wasn’t a Diva. I wasn’t the model. I had been training to be a wrestler for years.”

“I pitched that idea with Lita because I knew Lita. I asked her if I could pitch an idea for her. I didn’t know Trish. So I originally pitched this character idea based around Lita, but she was a heel at the time, obviously. I think they saw it around Trish, and I’m so grateful for that because I mean, she was the golden girl of the company at the time. That was probably like my fifth time I was supposed to debut as well.”

“I finally debuted and the storyline was even bigger than I could have ever imagined and they put it right with her. Immediately I was taken seriously as a number one girl because I’m aligned with the number one girl. They actually took the time to develop the character and the person. That really kind of set the stage for the rest of my career.”

Mickie then spoke of the Piggy James storyline.

“I didn’t love the piggy James angle. I really didn’t. I hated it because I felt like it was like ribbing on the square.”

“It was meant to get real heat for Michelle and Layla. I kind of felt like it was cheap heat and it was a different way to go.”

“At that moment, I was very torn. But I’m also of the mindset like, okay, they’re going to give me this thing that I saw, I felt in my heart at the moment they’re gonna give me this crappy storyline about calling me fat and all this stuff.”

“I had several conversations with the girls too. It wasn’t like the girls were over the moon about doing the storyline, either. I think they were heavy in their hearts about it as well, and I’m just going to try to make it gold and try to get these girls over as monster heels because that’s obviously the end result of what we want is the girls need to get over as monster heels, and they weren’t at that time, but they were by the end of it, especially with Vicki Guerrero involved. I felt like it did achieve that purpose.”

“I didn’t love it, however, the amount of women now who have come to me since then, and we’re now 10 years removed from that story, and said that story empowered them because they felt very bullied, or they were very self conscious about their weight or their body, and they had body dysmorphia and all these things that it really empowered them is pretty remarkable.”

“I never really thought of it that way when I was in it, but now to be removed from it and that if you can change one person’s life or the perception of themselves, then perhaps it’s worth it in the end. So no, I didn’t love it, but now looking back, it was a pretty powerful part of my career that happened and I know it’s like a kind of a mixed bag of how people feel about it.”

On getting released in 2010:

“I’ll never forget that day because the day I got released, they were getting ready to come to Richmond, Virginia. I had gotten up at like four in the morning to do media for Richmond to do all the interviews, and everything to do the radio tour, and the TV station tour. I did all of that. I did the whole media tour that morning.”

“I’m literally driving back home because I was in the country. I grew up in the country. I lived in the country, and it was 45 minutes. So on the way I go like okay, I’m just going to go to the gym now because the show was literally that weekend. I’m going to go to the gym now. I’m going to go tan.”

“I came back out and I saw a missed call from Nicole and from Johnny or whatever. I was like, Oh, this is weird. I tried to call back but no answer. So I ran into CVS and missed the call again. I call them right back. I came back out, and that’s where I was sitting in the parking lot getting ready to go over to the gym after doing the media tour, and that’s when I got let go.”

“That’s why I never forgot it because I literally just finished doing the media tour. Richmond is my hometown. They took every single Mickie James sign from that show because there were a lot of them and they pulled all the Mickie James signs down. I was pissed. I was really upset. I was more insulted because I went, why didn’t you tell me last night, and I wouldn’t have gotten up and done the media tour. I sat in a parking lot for about an hour bawling my eyes out because I’d lost my dream job.”

On Kurt Angle being the reason she got into TNA:

“This is all thanks to Kurt Angle because he talked me into coming over there.

“When I was like, ‘I’m so sad about wrestling, I don’t want to wrestle anymore. I can’t believe it.’ So I do appreciate that. I really do because I could have given up at that point. I was very, very sad, and I was in a dark place about it. And I think that had I not come to Impact or come to TNA at the time and been able to create Hardcore Country, but also to believe in myself again, because there was a whole period of of doubting myself.”

“Just to take my power back was what I needed at that time. Then I was able to do something completely different and away from everything that the WWE audience knew about me, but they then fell in love with this other character that was me and it was closer to me”