Injury Update On IMPACT's Mickie James

Hardcore Country was forced to vacate the Knockouts Title this past week.

Apr 16, 2023 April 16th, 2023

Having had to relinquish the IMPACT Knockouts Title this past week, there's now an update on Mickie James.

Ahead of tonight's Rebellion PPV, the most recent episode of IMPACT Wrestling closed out with Mickie vacating the Knockouts Championship. Previously, Hardcore Country was to defend that prize against Jordynne Grace and Deonna Purrazzo in triple-threat action at Rebellion, and now Grace and Purrazzo will go one-on-one for the Knockouts Title instead.

In reality, James is dealing with a rib injury and a slight shoulder tear. There was hope that she would be cleared in time to compete at Rebellion, but that has unfortunately proven to not be the case.

Per Fightful Select, Mickie was originally told by doctors that she could miss several months to her rib injury. This report also notes how James has still managed to make her booked convention dates this month and was also fully involved in DressleMania.

For those who've been sleeping on IMPACT lately, Mickie James' Last Rodeo storyline has been one of the best things in all of wrestling. Back in September, James announced her aim to once again become the Knockouts Champion, but that the next time she lost a match would be the end of her career.

Subsequently, Mickie picked up wins against the likes of Raychell Rose, Hyan, Gisele Shaw, Mia Yim, Chelsea Green, Taylor Wilde, and Deonna Purrazzo before toppling Jordynne Grace for the Knockouts Title at Hard to Kill this January. Since then, James has retained that belt against Masha Slamovich and Gisele, and this week's vacating of that title brings the Virginia native's fifth reign as Knockouts Champion to an end at 90 days.

Of course, the Knockouts Title isn't the only championship vacant heading into Rebellion, with Josh Alexander forced to give up the IMPACT World Championship last month due to a triceps injury that required surgery.

As it stands, the card for Rebellion is as follows:

- Kushida vs. Steve Maclin for the vacant IMPACT World Title

- Jordynne Grace vs. Deonna Purrazzo for the vacant Knockouts Title

- Trey Miguel vs. Jonathan Gresham vs. Mike Bailey for the X Division Title

- Ace Austin & Chris Bey vs. Motor City Machine Guns in an Ultimate X match for the World Tag Team Titles

- Team Dreamer vs. Team Bully in a Hardcore War

- PCO vs. Eddie Edwards in a Last Rites match

- Dirty Dango, Joe Hendry & Santino Marella vs. The Design

- Pre-show: The Coven vs. The Death Dollz for the Knockouts Tag Team Titles

- Pre-show: Heath & Rhino vs. Champagne Singh & Shera

Andrew Pollard

Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.

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