Mickie James Okay With Retiring At IMPACT Hard To Kill

Mickie James is currently on her ‘Last Rodeo’, with the multi-time world champion set to retire from in-ring competition when she next loses a match.

James’ is set to face IMPACT Knockouts World Champion Jordynne Grace at Hard to Kill in a Title vs. Career Match, and during an appearance on the Alliance Pro Wrestling Network, James revealed that she is okay with retiring at the event should she lose:

“I will say that Jordynne [Grace] has been a remarkable champion. I think she’s the perfect representation of this generation of women’s wrestling. I think that she is, you know, held onto that championship very, very strongly and gracefully if I will (James smiled) and she’s a wonderful representation of the brand and a wonderful representation of that Knockouts World Title and what that division represents. So, I would never take that away from her. I know she’s done it the right way and she’s worked really hard to be the champion and to keep that championship and hold it close and so I know it means a lot to her. But it also means a lot to me, my career means a lot to me and it would mean a lot to me to have one more championship run, but if this is the way it has to end, I’d be okay with that too just because, you know, I could go out my way, and I’m okay with that,” said James.

When James does eventually hang up her boots, she revealed that she would be open to a behind-the-scenes role in the business:

“I’ve been studying — and even when I was at WWE, I was working behind the scenes and I was studying commentary, from being a commentator to training to, you know, different things within the industry that I could be more well-rounded in the business of professional wrestling. But I feel like my strengths have always been my creativity and I’m a creative person, that’s why I write. I write songs and I draw and I doodle and I’m an artist, I’ve always been an artist and I always considered wrestling a form of art and artwork but I feel like where my strengths would really be is to help people find that thing about themselves and those — whether it’d be creative-wise or character-wise because that’s what I fell in love with when I fell in love with professional wrestling. I fell in love with the characters, I fell in love with the stories, I fell in love with that over the top, larger than life kind of look at life and if I can help some people tap into that and find that for themselves, that would be pretty amazing.

“So yeah, I think behind the scenes is a natural fit for me at some point and just creative endeavours but, I don’t know. I don’t know if the company feels that way or other companies. I certainly wouldn’t feel comfortable and that’s kind of another thing, I would not feel comfortable stepping into a role like that unless I was done wrestling because you never wanna blur that line of player-coach. I think that’s a very fine line and I’d want the women to respect me, or men, because I could coach men as well. I would want them to respect me and not think that my motive wasn’t genuine, and so that’s kind of my thing is I don’t wanna switch into a coach role until I’m not one of the players anymore,” said James.

H/T: POST Wrestling