Jim Cornette Backs Mickie James After Backlash Over Women’s Ring Gear Remarks

Mickie James created a massive debate in the wrestling world after making harsh remarks about women’s ring gear on the March 30th episode of WWE LFG, where she specifically called out Zena Sterling’s outfit. Her remarks got a lot of backlash online, and now Jim Cornette has stepped in to support her.

While speaking on his YouTube channel, Jim Cornette supported Mickie James after she spoke out about how many modern female wrestlers wear gear that looks like fancy lingerie. He said he agrees with her because there’s some truth in what she said.

Cornette explained that people often talk more about what the women are wearing than how well they wrestle. He said it’s hard to focus on the match when someone’s body is so exposed.

“I actually don’t have any issue with what she just said there, because there’s proof of that. How many times have we been talking about a match, and someone brings up, ‘Did you see so-and-so’s ass cheeks hanging out?’ Yeah, I mean, you couldn’t look past that. I don’t disagree with what Mickie James is saying. Mickie’s right—there are matches you watch where you want to focus on how talented someone is or isn’t, and it’s just ass. Just nonstop ass, right there in your face.”

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Cornette also pointed out that Mickie came from a time when women were expected to dress like that, so she knows what she’s talking about. Even though she wore revealing outfits too, Cornette believes she’s saying that women from her era went through that so today’s wrestlers wouldn’t have to.

“Now, to be fair, that’s kind of what she said too. She came through that era where they had to put up with that stuff. It’s not like she was saying, ‘Hey, I think I’ll go out in this f***ing teddy from Dressing for Pleasure in Montclair, New Jersey,’ or something like that.

Mickie James isn’t saying anything wrong. Yeah, it’s also true she wore revealing outfits, but I’m taking it as her saying, ‘We did that in my era—that was the battle we had—so you didn’t have to do that.’ And there’s truth to that.”

Cornette added that top women wrestlers want to be taken seriously as athletes. While looking good is part of the job, he thinks it’s too much when everyone is showing off their body just to get noticed.

Cornette compared it to wrestling moves; when only one person did something special, it stood out. But when everyone starts doing it, it doesn’t mean as much. He thinks that might be the point Mickie was trying to make.

“At the same time, there’s also truth to the fact that now it feels like everybody’s got their ass hanging out. And I get why the women, especially the top-tier ones, want to be taken more seriously as athletes. They understand that glamour and sex appeal are part of the overall package, sure, but if everybody’s approach is, ‘I’ll get noticed because I’ve got a good ass, and I’ll wear lingerie and show it,’ it becomes the same thing as when there was just one guy doing a piledriver—like, ‘Oh my gosh!’ But now, when twenty guys are doing it, it doesn’t mean anything. That might be part of her point too.”

Jim Cornette’s comments were a direct response to Mickie’s original remarks, where she praised Sterling’s gear but criticized the decision to wear it. “I lived during the Diva era, and we fought very, very hard to not have to wrestle in lingerie anymore,” James said on-air. “Since because I am a female, I can speak on this. It’s very frustrating when women go out there and wrestle and all I see is their ass… You want to be taken seriously as a wrestler, but you are pretty much wrestling in jazzed-up lingerie.”

An indie wrestler also taunted Mickie James for her remarks and even Zena Sterling joked that she would wear “full-body gear from now on,” making fun at Mickie’s old-school attitude.

Mickie James’ comments have started a lot of talk about how women wrestlers dress. Some people think what they wear changes how fans see them, while others believe they should be able to wear whatever they like without being judged. In the end, Mickie is just sharing her opinion, and Jim Cornette simply agrees with her.

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