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Mickie James Praises Kurt Angle & Randy Orton As “Two Of The Greatest Of All Time”

By TJR Staff • Published 16th September 2021

Mickie James has spoken up about some of her favorite wrestlers growing up as well as praising some peers from her era like Kurt Angle and Randy Orton, among others.

In a recent interview speaking to Inside the Ropes Lead Writer Gary Cassidy, the six-time WWE Women’s Champion James took part in a 20 Questions feature where she spoke about some of her favorite wrestlers from when she was growing up.

“Probably some of my favourite stuff that I’ve ever watched was, like, Midnight Express vs. Rock ‘n’ Roll Express, and it wasn’t something that I really understood how powerful it was until I went to OVW and we got all these tapes, which I still have all my tapes. We watched, obviously, because Cornette was there, but we watch a lot of tag team wrestling and stuff. I think that the Rock ‘n’ Roll Express might be one of the greatest babyface tag teams of all time. In my opinion.”

Mickie went on to further praise the Rock ‘N’ Roll Express duo of Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson as one of the best teams of all time.

“I just think they’ve never really played a heel but the way that they would sell, the way that they would make all the towns and really get their talent, get their rivals over and just people loved them. They just love, loved, loved them and there’s a certain art to selling and I feel like that’s one of the arts that is kind of getting forgotten today, and I hope that we bring that back because that is where the emotion comes in. If you can make people believe that you’re really in jeopardy and hurt.”

When speaking of some of the greatest wrestlers of all time in the WrestleMania era, James pointed out Ric Flair and Shawn Michaels as two legends that really stand out.

“I think it’s one of my…I think a lot of people go to the same… Like the Shawn Michaels and Ric Flairs, who I always I mean, anything they literally are the GOATs. Anything that you watch of theirs is going to be amazing. They have defined how to not only make money in this business, but how to make careers and not just theirs, but other people’s careers in the business. If you’re ever going to watch to try to figure out how to become one of the greatest of all times, those are obviously your first top two that you could watch.”

When talking about some stars from her very successful run in WWE in the last 20 years, James specifically mentioned Kurt Angle, Randy Orton and The Rock.

“Kurt Angle, my opinion, one of the greatest of all time, he’s so incredible. The Rock. I mean, Randy Orton, in my opinion, is today’s modern GOAT in the sense of he literally can go in there… I love old school style, I love story-telling somebody he can go in there and work with anyone and I don’t ever not believe anything that he’s doing. There’s zero room for error. I believe everything that he’s doing. It’s just perfection every time. And it’s because he doesn’t cater to the bullshit and he just wrestles how he wrestles and he doesn’t care. He can squeeze your head off for five minutes. And I just love it. I love it. That’s just old school. That’s like that old school style to me that I love, that makes sense to me.”

Mickie is currently working with the NWA. She’s also set to do commentary work for Impact Wrestling this weekend.

You can read the full Inside The Ropes interview with Mickie James in this month’s Inside The Ropes Magazine or, for the rest of the chat this piece was taken from, check out our 20 Questions with Mickie James.