Mickie James Admits Being "A Little Bit Disappointed" About Her WWE RAW Return

WWE Superstar Mickie James sat down with Denise Salcedo on Instinct Culture to discuss her return to WWE as well as her goals for her return run. She said her goal is win a championship and also help out the young, up-and-coming women from NXT that are making their way onto RAW and SmackDown.

"I wanna win one more championship," James affirmed. "I didn't come back for this whole run to not win one piece of gold, and maybe those shiny tag team championships because they're new, that would be fun. As far as wrestling, I wanna continue to contribute. I do have so much more to give I think on both sides of the arena. I do eventually want to crossover and help a lot of the younger talent because there are the girls, there's Nattie, there's me, there's women in the locker room that are helping, but there isn't a lot to be able to give that to the talent that is coming up from NXT.

"To be able to help them with their promos, stuff like that, just kind of guide them or show them because even though it's 2020 and we do have all these movements and we do have all of this stuff and it is a different world out there, we still are the Women's division, and we are still fighting. We've come a long way, and it's taken a long time to get there."

James made her return on the SummerSlam go-home episode of RAW. She noted that her return didn't result in ideal circumstances as she expressed those frustrations in a backstage promo. On Instinct Culture, she discussed her return and the fans' reaction to her return.

"It feels good to be back. I feel better than ever, from a personal standpoint," James stated. "I feel great. I am excited to be back. I am excited about new opportunities, new matches. As far as my return, I am a little bit disappointed, but you can't win them all. You can't knock it out of the park every time. The fan reaction has been amazing. I love them. I am so grateful, so grateful that my fans have always been loud and they've always been proud. I couldn't have said it better myself, so I let them do my work for me."

This was James first time back in the ring since suffering a torn ACL in June 2019 while wrestling Carmella at a WWE live event. She commended everyone's efforts in wrestling under the current circumstances and thanked the NXT talent who have served as an audience fill-in.

"It was very very different because that was my first time back performing in those circumstances, so hats off to all the talent who have been working through these circumstances," James said. "It's really hard to go out there and get your butt kicked or kick butt with zero audience out there, and thank goodness for the NXT talent that are out there to create that noise and create those reactions, create those emotions because it helps. It helps so much.

"It's hard work. It's so quiet so empty. You're so used to feeding and living off the energy from the audience, and you don't have that immediate satisfaction to know whether something is getting the response and the emotion you want out of it or not, you don't know until you check the internet. And you hope you're telling the right story, you hope you're doing what you need to be doing, but it's hard."

James pointed out that she has not had a true singles program in quite some time. She named her dream singles opponents that she hopes that she can work with in the future.

"I haven't had the chance to have a true singles program, I think with the exception of Alexa, everything has been tag team matches, everything has been an alliance or something," James noted. "The story hasn't really been about me for the most part except for my storyline with Alexa. So, I can't wait to work with all of the girls.

"I wanna work with Bayley. I wanna work with Sasha. I wanna work with Becky Lynch when she comes back. I wanna work with Charlotte when she comes back. This is actually my first time really working with Nattie, like in a program kind of thing, so I am excited about what we can do together. I mean I love Nattie. I've always thought Nattie is one of the best wrestlers we have."

James also spoke on the main-event level spot that Becky Lynch has left behind since announcing she was pregnant and taking her leave of absence from WWE. She noted how that spot is now open to women since it was typically occupied by male wrestlers but pointed out that it would take a lot of investment for someone to take over that spot.

"It's a rarity when someone gets red hot like that, that's a different level. We all aspire to get to that," James said. "Sometimes it's just that one thing, that one thing, and she got it. And she rolled with it. She was on fire. Nobody was more over than Becky. It's so awesome to see that now as being a female spot because those spots were always delegated for men, that kind of big money, big level push, that much time, that much investment and getting the microphone and all of that stuff.

"She took the ball and she ran with it, and she kicked ass. And I'm so proud of her. I think that spot is open, but it's one of those things where, yeah, that spot is open, but it's going to take not only a big character but the right investment."