Thrilling End To 'Last Rodeo' For Mickie James

"The Last Rodeo" is over for Mickie James, but it is not the end of her career in professional wrestling.

James captured the fifth Knockouts World Championship of her career in the main event of Impact Wrestling's "Hard To Kill" pay-per-view on Friday in a title versus career main event against Jordynne Grace. Neither woman held back on the other, with James notably delivering a bulldog off the top rope and Grace later delivering a delayed vertical superplex before rolling through into a Juggernaut Jackhammer. The twenty-minute contest ultimately came to a close with James managing to deliver a tornado DDT out of the corner for the pin.

James declared on the September 1 episode of "Impact on AXS TV" that she'd win every match on her way back to the Knockouts Championship or she would retire. She dubbed her journey 'The Last Rodeo' and went on to defeat the likes of Gisele Shaw, Mia Yim, Chelsea Green, Deonna Purrazzo, Taylor Wilde, Tasha Steelz, and Savannah Evans.

James has been involved in the wrestling business for over two decades. She signed with WWE in 2003 and made her main roster debut in 2005. She left the company five years later, heading to Impact shortly after and capturing her first Knockouts Championship after defeating Madison Rayne at the Lockdown pay-per-view in 2011. She won the title two more times before returning to WWE in 2016. She was controversially released in 2021 and returned to Impact later that same year to dethrone Knockouts Champ Deonna Purrazzo for her fourth reign.