Former WWE Women’s Champion Mickie James believes WWE purposefully set up their only all women pay per view event, Evolution, to fail.
MICKIE JAMES HAD TWO TENURES WITH WWE: FROM 2005 TO 2010 AND THEN AGAIN FROM 2016 TO 2021
James made her WWE main roster debut in 2005. She won her first WWE Women’s Championship at WrestleMania 22, a title she went on to hold a total of five times. She also won her first Divas Championship defeating Maryse Ouellet at Night of Champions in 2009, to become the second of five Divas to hold both the Women’s and Divas titles. She was released from the promotion in 2010.
She returned to WWE in 2016 and remained in the promotion until 2021, usually used as a veteran to put over new talents, only to be released as part of the company’s extensive budget cuts. She did not manage to win a Championship in her second tenure with WWE.
SHE HAS JOINED NWA AND IS AN EXECUTIVE PRODUCER FOR THE HISTORIC PROMOTION’S FIRST ALL WOMEN PPV EVENT
She has since joined the newly revitalized National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), where she will both be an active in-ring talent and serve as an executive producer for the first all-female event, NWA EmPowerrr.
SHE BELIEVES WWE SET UP THEIR OWN ALL WOMEN PPV TO FAIL
James was also a part of WWE’s only all-female pay per view till date, Evolution. While she hoped it would be a yearly event, she was told that it had the least viewership rates amongst pay per views promoted by the company, and so could not be repeated.
James believed that Evolution was set up to be a failure. “It was only really promoted for a month. The matches weren’t even announced but a week or two before. There was zero promotion or marketing,” she noted.
According to James, WWE did not promote the event as monumental, which it was. “It was almost set up to fail. If there was as much energy and focus put into it as perhaps some of the other events, and made and highlighted how monumental this actually is, perhaps that wouldn’t be true,” she added.
