Mickie James Reveals WWE Reaction To Infamous WrestleMania 22 Moment

WWE

Mickie James has revealed the backstage reaction to a spot at WWE WrestleMania, revealing that she was told ‘that was crass’.

Mickie James defeated Trish Stratus to become WWE Women’s Champion at WrestleMania 22 in April 2006.

With James having been somewhat obsessed with Stratus, going as far as kidnapping a fellow WWE star, accusing her boyfriend of crimes and stalking her in the showers, the recently-inducted TNA Hall of Famer wanted to go a step further at WrestleMania.

Having been given the go-ahead for a finger-licking spot during the match, James revealed the less-than-stellar backstage reaction during a recent appearance on Insight with Chris Van Vliet.

James revealed that her return backstage wasn’t met with displeasure from one person in particular, revealing:

“(The backstage reaction) was not good. I mean, the people loved it. The reaction, in my opinion, I made the right choice, in my humble opinion. Not what I expected.

“So I had asked Steve Keirn. Steve Keirn was our agent. I had asked Steve Keirn, ‘Can I lick my finger?’ Because we had already had the crotch grab spot. We’re gonna do it. So we knew we were going to do the vag grab.

“You think about the whole story. I have pretended to be Trish. I have accused her boyfriend of terrible crimes. I have kidnapped Ashley Massaro, I have stalked her in the shower, her home. I have done many things, tried to kiss her numerous occasions, access denied.

“So we’re at WrestleMania, and I’m like, all the things that we’ve done to lead to this and they want this moment. I’m like, okay. I felt like that’s what anybody would have done in that moment, after all that. Finally, you got, I don’t know, I’m not going to go there. That’s a little too crass, even for me. But I also thought, you know. So I had asked if I could lick my finger. Clearly, that’s not what I did.

“He was like, ‘Lick your finger?’ I was like, Well, yeah, I mean, I’m grabbing (her), wouldn’t I (do it)? I’ve been trying to get my hands on her, you know, forever. This would be my dream come true, right? And he’s like, ‘I will see.’ I went away, and he comes back, and he goes, ‘Yeah, okay, I think you can lick your fingers.’ Fine, whatever. Sorry, Steve Keirn.

“So that’s not what I did, and I did this actually, I think it was more like this. It was a double, so they made sure they saw it, because my hands aren’t big enough, obviously.

“I thought in my heart and in my soul, I honestly believed I was going to walk back through that curtain, and I had never received a high five. I’d seen other women get high fives from Vince and thumbs up and all these things. I got a thumbs up before. I got a few thumbs up. I thought I was going to get the biggest hug of a lifetime, and fist bumps, maybe even a hoist on a shoulder and out the door, something for being so brilliant.

“It’s not what happened at all. Go back through the curtain and Vince is p**sed. He’s like, ‘That was crass! Do you know what we’re gonna have to do? How much money it’s gonna cost to edit that and to pull it from everything? We’re a publicly traded company! What are you thinking?’

“So if you can imagine the high of a lifetime and then walking through and just shanked right through the curtain, I was like, Oh. But clearly he didn’t hate me too much, because I still was the champion, so maybe deep down he really loved it.”

James would keep the title until her loss to Lita in August 2006, recapturing the WWE Women’s Championship a further four times in her career.

Released in 2021, she would also open up about receiving her possessions in a trash bag, and the aftermath of sharing a photo of the article on social media.

Transcript from chrisvanvliet.com.

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• wwe
• WrestleMania
• Trish Stratus
• mickie james

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