• Mickie James Says Vince McMahon Chewed Her Out For Non-PG WrestleMania 22 Moment
Mickie James’ WrestleMania 22 victory over Trish Stratus for the WWE Women’s Championship remains one of the most celebrated women’s matches in WWE history, but one controversial moment nearly got her in trouble.
Appearing on Chris Van Vliet’s Insight podcast, James discussed the infamous spot where she made a suggestive hand gesture during the match, which was immediately cut from future airings.
Here’s what Mickie said about that infamous spot:
“Steve Keirn was our agent. I had asked Steve Keirn, ‘Can I lick my finger?’ Clearly, that’s not what I did. He was like, ‘Lick your finger?’ I was like, Well, yeah, I mean, I’m grabbing, wouldn’t I?
I’ve been trying to get my hands on her forever. This would be my dream come true, right? And he’s like, ‘I will see.’ I went away, and he comes back, and he goes, ‘Yeah, okay, I think you can lick your fingers.’ Fine, whatever. Sorry, Steve Keirn.
I thought in my heart and in my soul, I honestly believed I was going to walk back through that curtain, and I had never received a high five. I’d seen other women get high fives from Vince (McMahon) and thumbs up and all these things. I got thumbs up before; I got a few thumbs up.
I thought I was going to get the biggest hug of a lifetime, and fist bumps, maybe even a hoist on a shoulder and out the door, something for being so brilliant. It’s not what happened at all.
Go back through the curtain and Vince is pi$$ed. He’s like, ‘That was crass! Do you know what we’re gonna have to do? How much money it’s gonna cost to edit that and to pull it from everything? We’re a publicly traded company! What are you thinking?’”
You can watch this infamous moment from 2006 below:
— WrestleFeed (@WrestleFeedApp) November 13, 2025
• Eric Bischoff Exposes Vince McMahon’s Hypocrisy
Eric Bischoff shared an interesting story on his 83 Weeks podcast about Vince McMahon’s behind-the-scenes tactics during the Monday Night War.
According to Bischoff, McMahon went as far as to write letters to Ted Turner – and even to U.S. Senators – complaining about WCW’s use of blood during broadcasts.
“Vince was trying to get Turner executives and even politicians to put pressure on us,” Bischoff recalled. “He claimed we were setting a bad example because of blading.”
Ironically, not long after WCW banned blood to comply with the complaints, WWF started using blood on television again.
“That’s Vince,” Bischoff said. “He’d play the PR game, make us look like villains, and then turn around and do the same thing himself. It was classic manipulation.”
Bischoff called it a turning point in the rivalry, when he realized how far McMahon would go to protect his image while sabotaging WCW behind the scenes.
