James wore the War Bonnet as a link to her Native American heritage.
At WWE WrestleMania 33 in 2017, Mickie James was part of a six-pack challenge for the SmackDown Women’s Championship. For her entrance, James wore a headdress/War Bonnet as a link to her Native American heritage.
On the newest episode of GAW TV, James revealed that she received pushback for it. She stated that women aren’t supposed to wear them and they’re only for male warriors. She stated that there was an incredible amount of pushback that surprised her.
At WrestleMania (33) yes, I did have pushback (for wearing my headdress)… Because women aren’t supposed to wear headdresses. Warriors wear headdresses. It’s a War Bonnet and it’s supposed to be only for men and also, each feather represents certain achievements or whether it was a battle one or a spiritual journey or different levels and stuff like that so yeah, there was an incredible amount which I was pretty shocked about and in my mind, I said, oh, I’m a female but I’m a female warrior and it was WrestleMania. Everything, it’s theatrics, everything is super as big as possible, it’s WrestleMania and it’s like, I still have that headdress and I thought I was gonna be able to showcase it, do all the things and I’m like, oh, it sits in my closet (she laughed).
At IMPACT Wrestling’s 2023 Hard To Kill pay-per-view, James paid tribute to her heritage during her entrance before going on to become Knockouts World Champion.
If the quote in this article is used, please credit GAW TV with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcription.
