Trish Stratus Replaced By Mickie James Due To Pregnancy Announcement

The wrestling world was shocked earlier this week when it was announced that Mickie James was set to return to the WWE for the first time in almost six years when she faces Asuka for the NXT Women’s Championship at NXT Takeover: Toronto.

Related: Mickie James Returning To WWE

Mickie has more recently been performing in TNA and has given birth to her first child following her marriage to fellow wrestler Magnus. But whilst Mickie James return has come as a shock to many, it seems she wasn’t the female wrestler that WWE originally wanted to bring back.

NXT is taking place in Toronto which is the hometown of the most decorated female wrestler in WWE history Trish Stratus. The former Women’s Champion was set to return to the WWE until she announced her pregnancy this past week.

Trish Status announced on her Twitter page that she was expecting her second child after giving birth to Max back in 2013.

When WWE realised that Trish could no longer fulfill her agreed dates and fight Asuka in Toronto the night before Survivor Series later this year, they drafted in Mickie James, who herself is a decorated women’s wrestler in her own right.

Mickie is the only women to ever have held the Women’s, Divas and Knockouts Championships, she’s a five-time Women’s Champion, three-time knockouts champion and one-time Divas Champion but when she left WWE back in 2010, it wasn’t on the best of terms.

Mickie was the subject of a ‘Piggie James’ storyline in her final months because WWE officials had told the former Champion that she had to lose some weight and she refused. This was WWE’s way of forcing her to lose weight and it seems not long after Mickie left the company with her head held high.

Since then she has enjoyed her time in TNA, met her husband and had a child, she has grown up a lot over the past few years and she definitely won’t be the same woman returning to WWE in a few weeks time.

Because of the fact that Mickie has had to be drafted in at the last minute, there has been a lot of talk online that WWE could have offered her the NXT Women’s Championship as a way of tempting her to return because of the way she left the company all those years ago.

Right now Asuka isn’t needed on the main roster, she needs some decent competition down in NXT because since Bayley, Sasha, Charlotte, Alexa Bliss, Carmella, Nia Jax and Becky were all called up to the main roster they have left NXT almost threadbare when it comes to female talent.

Many of the women who are currently being used on NXT tapings are horrific in the ring, Billie Kay being one of the worst and WWE really needs someone like Mickie to come back and hopefully challenge Asuka a few times to keep her busy so that she doesn’t have to defend her title against some of the NXT current women.

The NXT women’s division needs a boost and whilst it would have been a great move to bring Trish Stratus back for that one night in Toronto, it would be a better move to bring Mickie back for a few months to help build NXT back up into what it once was.

Lita should have been another name that WWE could have brought in if they needed female talent, she already works for the company and would easily be able to perform if the company needed her too.

It is great that WWE is finally looking at some of the legendary female wrestlers who came through WWE’s ranks a few years ago, because many fans have fantasy matches that they would love to take place between the likes of Sasha Banks and Mickie James or even Charlotte and Trish Stratus.

Whilst it is great news for Trish Stratus that she is expecting her second child, it is a blow to the WWE Universe because the seven-time women’s champion would have been a fantastic addtion to the NXT Takeover card. But Mickie James is by no means a bad replacement, the talented superstar will put on an incredible show and hopefully WWE will allow this to be much more than a one off match.