Impact Wrestling Knockouts Champion Mickie James was confirmed to be one of the participants for WWE Royal Rumble 2022. Her return to the WWE in the upcoming match came as a huge shocker for the fans since for the first time ever, a superstar from a different company competed in a WWE TV show. Plus, this appearance was also originally planned to be a surprise.
As noted, WWE announced 19 competitors at a time for the 30-Woman Royal Rumble 2022 Match. WWE also acknowledged on TV that Mickie is the current Knockouts Champion during their announcement.
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Speaking about the future appearance, the reigning champion talked about the same on The Ariel Helwani Show and said she was “shocked, very shocked” after getting the call from WWE to return at Royal Rumble 2022. She was surprised as didn’t see WWE moving out of their ethics to do something like this in the past, especially for the women’s division.
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Impact Wrestling gladly asked Mickie to enter Royal Rumble 2022
In the conversation, James also revealed that it was WWE Talent Relations head John Laurinaitis who called Impact Executive Vice President Scott D’Amore to pitch the idea of Mickie James’ return. Then it was Scott to call her and discuss how she felt about the idea.
“It felt amazing. It shows a level of respect and gratitude,” the six-time WWE Women’s Champion said of the announcement. “It was a cool move from their part and it’s cool to be able to represent Impact.”
WWE was originally planning to have James appear as a surprise Royal Rumble 2022 entrant, but then they wanted to make the big announcement on the Friday Night SmackDown episode of January 7, made by SmackDown Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair. James said she also had no idea that the announcement was going to be made just a day before her title defense against Deonna Purrazzo in the Texas Death Match in the main event of Hard To Kill PPV.
WWE seemingly announced the Women’s Royal Rumble 2022 match entrants ahead of time to generate buzz and ticket sales. Summer Rae and The Bella Twins were also announced to make the return for the match, also revealed that their returns were originally planned to be a surprise but then that wasn’t to be the case.
