Mickie James: If The Chase Didn’t Come To Fruition, We Wouldn’t Be Doing EmPowerrr Before NWA 73

Mickie James is set to be the executive producer for NWA EmPowerrr, an all-women’s pay-per-view under the NWA banner, on August 28.

The event will be held at Chase Park Plaza in St. Louis. Chase Park Plaza is famously the home for Wrestling at the Chase, a local television series in St. Louis that was held by the NWA.

Speaking to Busted Open Radio, Mickie James explained how The Chase being available helped bring EmPowerrr to fruition.

“I didn’t realize how significant it was to go back to the Chase,” she said. “I had to research and go, ‘Holy crap, this is a big friggin’ deal.’ Apparently, a lot of wrestling has attempted to go into The Chase and they’ve always turned it down and weren’t interested. I don’t know if it was the pandemic or this show, but the cards and the stars seemed to align right to be able to present it. I think had Wrestling at the Chase not come to fruition that we wouldn’t be doing EmPowerrr prior to the Anniversary show. It was that final thing where Billy was like, ‘We should do the pay-per-view now.’ I was thinking ‘let’s build it’ and maybe we do things like 10 Pounds of Gold, but for the ladies and really build up the roster and get people, then hopefully, for a pay-per-view down the line. He was like, ‘No, we need to come out of the gate hot. It’s a big test and it’s a lot, but so far so good. It’s been great. Every other sports industry has carved out and done something special with the women, from MMA to basketball, and for wrestling it’s about time we step up on a television scale. I know we’ve done it on pay-per-view and little things, but in a real television and outside of the box. I know I’m going to succeed on some level, I just hope it’s a huge success for all the ladies. That’s the goal.”

James won’t wrestle at NWA EmPowerrr, but will be in action the following night at NWA 73.

With the event being under the NWA banner, NWA owner Billy Corgan had a big hand in bringing everything together.

When asked how involved Corgan is with EmPowerrr, Mickie replied, “He’s very passionate about wrestling. The beautiful thing is, I’m not trying to write Powerrr or NWA 73 creative and he’s legitimately given me the whole space to do it myself, he hasn’t chimed in at all for EmPowerrr. He just said, ‘You book it.’ Obviously, there is going to be stuff like we’re bringing back the NWA Women’s Tag Team Champions and the NWA Women’s Invitation Cup. Those are two big things we’re introducing. It was my idea to do the Cup and we talked about the tag championships, so he’s having those made. He’s really just allowing me to build it. I’ve never had that. You say, ‘Here’s a thing you can do, but I’m going to micromanage all the little pieces of it’ instead of trusting and putting faith in (that person). Billy is amazing and he’s been good to me. To be put in the driver’s seat for the women, especially that I’ve put a lot of my fight into it, I have a lot to prove and this has to be successful. I can’t accept anything less than perfection.”

While the NWA EmPowerrr card hasn’t been filled out just yet, IMPACT Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo will be in action after accepting James’ invitation on IMPACT.

You can find Mickie’s comments on being the executive producer and the challengers involved by clicking here.

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