Ex-Women’s Champion Reveals How Tommy Dreamer Saved Her WWE Career
A former WWE Women’s Champion has explained how Tommy Dreamer saved her wrestling career when she was ready to walk out of WWE before she even began.
Mickie James is one of the most highly decorated women’s wrestlers of all time. She captured the WWE Women’s Championship on six occasions as well as holding the TNA Knockouts Title four times. James is currently on ‘The Last Rodeo’ of her career in IMPACT Wrestling where she says she’ll retire after her next loss.
Speaking on Wrestling with Rip Rogers, Mickie James revealed that the legendary career she has had could have been over before it began. James explained how WWE’s obsession at the time with signing ‘Divas’ meant James felt like she didn’t belong while still in the developmental system:
“I’m friends with all these women, you know, Candice and all these girls. But I felt like I had this moment there in OVW where I was like, ‘what the hell,’ like, ‘I’m not even what they’re looking for,’ like, ‘I’ve dedicated all this energy all my time into perfecting my craft to be the best female wrestler, hopefully, in the world or at least one of, and they don’t even want female wrestlers,’ like ‘what am I doing wrong?’ and I almost quit.”
“Tommy was the Head of Developmental at the time and he saved my career because he quietly told me to go on vacation – to go home for a couple of weeks and just reset. […] And then I came back and that’s where I had written that storyline which I originally wrote for Lita, which was this crazy stalker fan.”
The crazy stalker fan storyline took Mickie James all the way to WrestleMania 22 where she defeated Trish Stratus to win her first WWE Women’s Championship.