Tonight’s SummerSlam go-home edition of WWE RAW featured the in-ring return of Mickie James.
Mickie wrestled Natalya and lost by Count Out after just a few minutes. The count out came after Natalya knocked James from the top turnbuckle, in a fairly routine spot.
There is a lot of fan chatter and speculation surrounded the quick loss for James on tonight’s show. Fans took to social media during RAW and expressed frustration over how James lost the match, and the fact that she didn’t get an entrance. This was her first TV match since the Women’s Battle Royal at WrestleMania 35 in 2019. James suffered a torn ACL in June 2019 and had been on the shelf until being cleared earlier this year. She was doing some commentary on WWE Main Event until making her return to RAW in a backstage segment last week.
As seen above, WWE released post-show footage of James expressing frustration over the loss to Natalya, and over Lana, who was filming her for TikTok during the match. She also noted that she planned to return to RAW to build up her legacy and reclaim who she is in the business.
“I feel awful, I feel awful,” James responded when Schreiber asked how she’s feeling. “And not because I’m hurt, I feel better than ever. You know, I’ve been off for a year and a half, off of WWE television. I’ve been away, I’ve been at home, I’ve been rehabbing, I’ve been working my butt off, to get back, and not just to get back but to get better than ever. I come back… and I come back with these goals, and to reclaim who I am in this business, and to really build my legacy, and the first person I run into is someone who I considered a sister, someone who I considered a locker room leader. A fellow veteran, and someone that helped pass the torch, and lead the future, and she’s completely been blindsided by Lana and this obsession with social media, and whatever else… that it’s completely blown my mind.
“I didn’t expect to lose my first match back, I didn’t expect to come back and have someone who I considered a fellow veteran act like a 20 year old. My nieces have TikTok, they’re 13… come on. I don’t even know what to say. I don’t even know what to say, I’m so frustrated, honestly. Just gonna have to go home, reset, re-focus…”
There is some social media speculation that James lost her return match the way she did because of a recent back & forth her husband, NWA World Heavyweight Champion Nick Aldis, had over Twitter and podcasts with WWE Senior Vice President Bruce Prichard, who also leads WWE creative as the Executive Director of RAW and SmackDown. You can read the reports on Aldis and Prichard from July by clicking here and clicking here.
Aldis took to Twitter after Mickie’s loss and wrote, “¯\_(ツ)_/¯”
Mickie also tweeted a storyline message after the match but speculation is that she may have been expressing some real frustration in the first line of the tweet.
She wrote, “I have so much to say about tonight @WWE but it seems I don’t need to! The @WWEUniverse is doing it for me… Ps.. congrats on this dub @NatbyNature also… Did you post that @tiktok_us yet @LanaWWE [fist emoji] [celebration emoji] [lips emoji] [toast emoji] #MJ2020 #itfactor #wwe #WWERaw #mondaynightmilf #Respect #WelcomeBack,” she wrote.
Stay tuned for updates on Mickie’s WWE status.
Below is video from the James vs. Natalya match on RAW, along with the full tweets from Aldis and James:
I have so much to say about tonight @WWE but it seems I don’t need to! The @WWEUniverse is doing it for me… Ps.. congrats on this dub @NatbyNature also… Did you post that @tiktok_us yet @LanaWWE 👊🏼🥳💋🥂 #MJ2020 #itfactor #wwe #WWERaw #mondaynightmilf #Respect #WelcomeBack https://t.co/hXfjyS6mO1
— Mickie James~Aldis (@MickieJames) August 18, 2020
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
— Nick Aldis (@RealNickAldis) August 18, 2020
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