'A country girl at heart': Mickie James balances pro wrestling with music career

[Liz]

Country music's female stars performing acrobatic feats have a four-decade-long legacy, from Barbara Mandrell's live act on her NBC program to Carrie Underwood's current residency at Resorts World Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

For the past 12 years, however, 10-time world champion professional wrestler Mickie James has expanded the scope of the physical accomplishments of women in the genre. On June 19, at the Nashville Fairgrounds, she'll be present as Impact Wrestling celebrates its 20th anniversary with its Slammiversary pay-per-view event.

Tickets are on sale at impactwrestling.com.

"I adapt my style to my opponents, and currently, Impact Wrestling's women's division has women who are main event caliber performers," James says.

James started her professional wrestling career in 1999. She's bridged the glitz and sass of women's wrestling during that period's "Attitude Era" into the modern age's hybrid fighting style. Presently, influences for women's wrestling include Japanese and Mexican traditions, freestyle wrestling and mixed martial arts.

Impact Wrestling's top performers include aspiring professional powerlifter Jordynne Grace, lucha libre success story Deonna Purazzo Purrazzo and current Impact Knockouts women's champion Tasha Steelz.

"Women's wrestlers used to be happy to just get four minutes to wrestle on a show," James says. "Now it's like, 'Whoa, we've come so far.'"

James was one of those wrestlers "happy to just get four minutes" as a performer in World Wrestling Entertainment from 2003 to 2010. The period was defined by the company's attempt to usher out the "Divas" era of less athletic-driven women's wrestling but still not ready to commit to a full roster of women's talent more engaged with grappling than gyrating.

Careers in that era "lasted for five years, and then, women were expected to go away, be happy and have babies," James says.

Impact Wrestling helped to usher in an era where women could be long-term, career-focused professionals.

Impact Wrestling was known 20 years ago as Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, started by wrestling veteran Jeff Jarrett as an alternative to WWE. Since 2017, TNA has been known as Impact Wrestling, its ownership changing hands numerous times. Via current owners Anthem Media, the company has found the stability to extend its run as a promotion focused on maintaining industry standards while developing a diverse array of stars, including women skilled at a presentation tilted more toward titillation than combat.

Aside from her duties at Impact Wrestling, James has also appeared for the National Wrestling Alliance and at WWE's Women's Royal Rumble. Her unprecedented success is "a powerful blessing" that she says is based on the fact that wherever she's worked, she's always "left the wrestling industry better than she found it."

She's helped to establish a new legacy for women driven to excel at a level equal to male competitors in professional wrestling.

She hopes to merge her professional wrestling fame with aspirations toward country music acclaim. "As much as I love to wrestle, I'm still a country girl at heart," James says.

James has regularly appeared at CMA Fest over the past decade, been signed to Sony Music since 2016 and her latest single, 2021's "Grown Ass Woman," features CMT Next Women of Country trio Chapel Hart.

She has opened for acts including Rascal Flatts, Montgomery Gentry, Randy Houser and Gretchen Wilson and proclaims close ties with Big and Rich's John Rich.

"I should be playing his bar right now," she said during a CMA Fest week interview.

James has been married to two-time NWA world heavyweight champion Nick Aldis for six years. They are the parents of a 7-year-old son, Donovan. Balancing a family, championship wrestling career, burgeoning music career and a passion for her three horses and two dogs is challenging but worthwhile, James says.

"It's busy, but I'm still following my dreams," she says. "However, I always adjust my schedule to keep my priorities in check."

Concerning supporting herself and Impact, James offers a small yet profound note of perspective.

"This is all remarkable," she says. "The matches and people don't make the money, but the stories do. No matter what I do, I want my fans to be along for the roller-coaster ride of my career."