Mickie James is far from done with wrestling.
With all the drama surrounding James being replaced for the second season of LFG, it was recently confirmed that the former WWE Women’s Champion is set to wrestle for the first time since September 2024.
She’ll be taking on Maki Itoh, who’s a TJPW (Tokyo Joshi Pro-Wrestling) mainstay. Itoh has also worked for AEW, most notably in 2022, 2023, and 2024. Itoh was in the first-ever Owen Hart Classic, but she was eliminated in the very first round by Dr. Britt Baker. Itoh has mainly worked for Game Changer Wrestling and Tokyo Joshi outside of AEW.
James has been quiet in the wrestling world since her last rodeo story in TNA/Impact Wrestling concluded. Her final match in TNA/Impact was at Bound for Glory 2024, where she dropped the Impact Knockouts title to Trinity (aka Naomi). Since then, James has had three matches on the independent circuit, but she's mostly focused on her personal life.
James made it clear in an interview with Ella Jay that she is NOT retired, but her focus just has been on other aspects of life.
“I am not retired,” James said. “Everything is balance, and I do have a lot on my plate right now. I knew we were planning [HER] in Australia. I’m a co-producer with The Last Match musical, and I’m so grateful to be a part of that. They’re so many incredible names attached to and part of it. So when they offered the role of The Mother, Nick [Aldis] wasn’t with WWE [yet]. A lot of changes have been happening. Obviously, because of that, we’ve had to make a lot of changes.”
Will Mickie James ever have another match in WWE? Only time will tell, but hopefully she's given another chance to mix it up with some current names in WWE. In the meantime, it’s good that James is still active on the indie circuit as this should be a good match between two experienced wrestlers. Check out the line-up so far for the WrestleCon Supershow on April 17th. Former NEVER Openweight Champion Minoru Suzuki is advertised to wrestle as well, so this isn’t just some random indie show:
- Special Guest Enforcer - Dan Severn: Minoru Suzuki vs. Butterbean
- Mickie James vs. Maki Itoh