Mickie James Recalls Hearing Pop In Her Knee, Working To Get Cleared Before COVID-19 Pandemic

Mickie James has been out of action for over a year following an ACL injury suffered on June 1, 2019. James was wrestling Carmella at a WWE live event when the injury occurred.

Though she hadn’t been featured much on television prior to her injury, James was set to return to SmackDown following the Superstar Shake-Up.

Speaking to Chris Van Vliet, Mickie James detailed the night the injury occurred.

“It was crazy because it was a regular match and a simple hold. (I was wrestling) Carmella and had her in a cravat or something. We probably had two more minutes left in the match. She rolled me off, when I went to pivot, I hear a [POP!] in my body. I felt it in my knee. Not pain, just an explosion. Just a pop that I felt and heard in my head. I went to stand up and kind of buckled. I was super hot at the ref because he stopped the match, but he did the right thing. It was just me and my ego that I wanted to finish. I went to stand up again and was a little hobbly and he just rung the bell. I was so pissed, rolled out of the ring, ‘I’m fine!’ I walked myself to the back, a little wobbly because I was so [pissed off]. They thought I tore my meniscus at first,” she said.

James ended up suffering a torn ACL, which surprised her because she had been walking on it in the preceding days.

When asked how her knee was doing now, she said it’s doing good and discussed getting clearance for a return before the pandemic put things on hold.

“The process of getting cleared is a whole thing and unfortunately, my clearance time came right in the midst of this outbreak. I was at the Performance Center, training, seeing where I was at. I had done the therapy and work leading up, the doctor had already cleared me. I was literally just getting those last two weeks to get cleared for in-ring action and everything got shut down, and I haven’t been back since. There’s no need to take the risk of going there if I’m not doing anything,” she said.

It is unknown when Mickie when return to WWE television. While being sidelined with the injury, she did provide commentary work for WWE Main Event. She also reportedly helped put together this year’s Women’s Royal Rumble.

If you use any of the quotes above, please give a h/t and link back to Fightful for the transcription.