Mickie James Recalls Pitching An All-Female Brand To WWE
WWE's decision makers met Mickie James' pitch "with a lot of resistance".
The NWA's recent EmPowerrr event is one Mickie James is very proud of, but she wanted it to happen in WWE first.
James has told 'SportsLine One' that she actually pitched a follow up to 2018's critically-acclaimed Evolution pay-per-view. When that fell on deaf ears, Mickie tried to convince WWE management that producing a weekly all-female show was in their best interests.
Again, nobody was listening - James said that her second pitch (in particular) was met "with a lot of resistance". Vince McMahon, Triple H and others were skeptical about the need for such a spinoff brand, but Mickie believed there was a ton of women's talent who had nothing to do and zero chance of getting over with such meagre amounts of TV time.
Her plan was to help develop female workers away from the pressures of Raw, SmackDown and even NXT. Then, if they excelled, they could benefit WWE long-term. The idea was doomed to never really get going, and James admitted during the interview that some in the company didn't understand why she was so passionate about it in the first place.
Billy Corgan and the NWA offered sanctuary then.