In the end it would be Vince McMahon who changed the storyline to include Trish Stratus instead, even though he loved the angle and Michael P. Hayes backed Mickie James in pitching it to him. 

“I literally waited outside of his office after the show,” she recalled. “I did exactly what Michael told me to do, and was like: ‘Mickie James from OVW, and I heard you read my storyline idea. And I heard you really liked it, and I just want you to know that I wrote her, I know her, she is me, and there’s no one that can play that character like me.'”

James admitted that despite trying her best to be confident in her pitch, she felt very intimidated but McMahon was impressed by her boldness in pitching directly to him. 

“And then I walked out, and I wanted to throw up, and yeah… And that was that, and I didn’t hear anything back for like six months, and I was like: ‘Oh, God! What did I do?'” she recalled. However, she was eventually called into office and told that they were bringing her storyline onto television after all. “He’s like ‘Yeah, but we’re going to do it with Trish.’ And I was like [gasp], I didn’t know Trish… I’d met her, and she was always pleasant and she was always amazing…Never really had a full conversation with it.”

James was taken by how Stratus never wavered.

“The way she embraced it and embraced me? We’re still best friends,” James said.

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit “Insight with Chris Van Vliet” and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.