During an appearance on the Not Sam Wrestling Podcast, Mickie James spoke about the reasoning for having herself, as IMPACT Knockouts Champion, appear in this year's WWE Royal Rumble.

“I’m sure that they certainly didn’t seek out the Impact World’s Champion, the Knockouts Champion. I don’t think that was it. I think they called me because it’s me. Given everything, I’m grateful for that opportunity, and for an opportunity to do something that’s never been done before, not just to do it for the women, but for all of wrestling because it really opens the doors to so many potential things and the idea of dream matches, the idea of champions vs champions and things you would have never thought possible before. But, also I’m really excited. I want to represent Impact and I want to represent myself. Don’t get me wrong. I always was open to, and I always still want to move behind the scenes, and I’m still constantly learning and evolving. I also wanted to do something awesome, and I’m having a chance to do it now. I think to be asked to even come back for the Rumble was a really unique thing, and I wasn’t going to say no. I felt like when I left, that whole incident (trash bag incident) took precedence over my whole career. I felt like it put an asterisk beside my name. Here’s all this magic with Trish, Lita, Melina, and with Beth that I had done, and it was almost overshadowed by this little dark cloud. I didn’t want that to be the final thing.”

On her plans for the match:

“I would like to eliminate Charlotte for obvious reasons. Charlotte for sure because I think we had a little moment in the Rumble before organically, but the whole time we were there, we were never in a match together. I think too because she was working with a lot of the legends. I felt like this was organically going to happen eventually, and it just never did, but that’s ok. Bianca, I’m going to throw her butt right out too because she’s probably the number 1 draft pick to win. I got to get rid of her. I love her, but there can only be one winner.”

Do you think Mickie could be the first non-WWE wrestler to win a Royal Rumble match?