Mickie James learned that the money is in the moments.
Throughout her 20-year career, Mickie James has been involved in a number of moments that have stuck with fans. Recently, she created another viral moment when she bit Masha Slamovich’s tongue during their Knockouts World Championship match at IMPACT No Surrender. During a recent interview with Denise Salcedo, James discussed what she’s learned about creating moments.
“I think that’s why I love wrestling. To me, it’s not about the moves. The moves don’t make money, the moves don’t draw people into the story. They just make people go, ‘Ooh, that’s cool,’ and that because that doesn’t have an emotional connection to it,” James said. “So when I look at the stories and creating these memorable moments of moments you can go back to—and this is where early Alexis Laree, I used to be, ‘Oh, I gotta have this great match, and I gotta execute all these moves perfectly.'”
James explained that she would try and do all these flashy things in her early matches, only to return to the back and not receive the praise she thought it would.
“That’s all been the art for me is to create moments and to create unique moments with that opponent and with that story you’re trying to tell within that. When you’re wrestling such different performers, and I think that was another test to me, were we going to go out there and have a Mickie James match, or if I’m really, truly testing myself, I want to have the Masha match. I want to see what she has and insert myself in there where I feel like it makes sense.
“And mind you, Masha had been playing mind games and that’s how she went. She’s been successful and pretty much dominated because of her mental strength and the mind games. Mind games are something I love. I love mind games because that’s the test of a true champion because your mind can get in the way of everything if you let it. So that was kind of ‘bite back,’ if you will, to some of the mind games that she had been playing with me. It was different, it was there. It made sense to me.”
James recalled how she’s been known to do “the kiss,” something she’s infamously pulled out in high-profile matches against Trish Stratus and Chelsea Green. But in her match at No Surrender, she wanted to create a different moment seeing as though Slamovich is a different type of competitor. Ultimately, James bit Slamovich’s tongue to throw her off her game while also providing fans with a moment that they will always remember.
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If you use any quotes from this article, please credit Denise Salcedo with a h/t to WrestleZone for the transcription.
