Mickie James on Sasha & Naomi: “I applaud them for standing up for themselves”

During an appearance on yesterday’s edition of Busted Open Radio, former WWE Superstar Mickie James shared her thoughts on the Sasha Banks and Naomi situation, where they had a creative dispute and ended up walking out during last Monday’s edition of Raw. Below are some highlights (via Fightful):

James on Sasha Banks:

“Sasha is a star. ‘Oh, are other companies going to be worried about working with them?’ No, because they are stars. You can’t take away from the value that they have a being over and merchandise sales and talent and ability and love and passion for the business. That’s probably more about what this is, unpacking it all, if they were pouring their love into something and feeling like it wasn’t valued. That’s very frustrating. We can all understand being frustrated at time. I’m sure we’ve all had our gripes. You think it’s the power of social media, but WWE is the one that pulled the trigger on letting the cat out of the bag. People are only hearing that one side of it.”

On why she applauds Sasha Banks and Naomi for standing up for themselves:

“When you go, ‘they made a stand for them, but the machine keeps going.’ That’s a reality of when things get to this point, not a lot of people stand up for themselves. I think there are a lot of times where people want to say something or feel a certain way or do something and feel justified in feeling that way, as they should, however, they don’t say anything and they put a smile on and walk out there and do a job, whether they like it or not. We’ve all done that. That’s another reason why I applaud them for standing up for themselves. It is a big statement and it’s unfortunate that they felt the need to get to that level and it’s unfortunate that you don’t hear people standing up for themselves and it gets to that point that it gets to.”

James on how the women wrestlers are treated like midcarders compared to the men:

“The pay scale for men and women are very different. I don’t know what the money actually is. It’s way different. When you say, ‘The tag titles are booked like midcard titles,’ I feel like the women have always been seen as lower to midcard level of the boys. Even the top female stars, I don’t think it’s ever been true equality in the pay structure. When you say, ‘it’s about the money,’ one, money can’t buy happiness. If you’re frustrated and not happy, sometimes it does take a break and you need a reset.”