– WWE announced several surprising competitors for the Women’s Royal Rumble match including Lita, The Bella Twins, Kelly Kelly, Michelle McCool, Summer Rae and IMPACT Knockouts champion Mickie James. According to a report from fightfulselect.com, WWE began reaching out to these outside talent much earlier than usual about appearing in the match as in recent years they often waited within ten days of the PPV to make contact with some talent who hadn’t even wrestled in years.
– Out of those non-active wrestlers that were contacted, most were under the impression that their names wouldn’t be announced ahead of time but WWE ended up revealing the names in a strategic decision to try and boost ticket sales as well as generate some buzz for the PPV. Despite these names already out there, the report adds that there is still plenty of room for more surprises which there likely will be some at very least. WWE has contacted other talent, some of whom haven’t officially committed to the match so the company has also formulated a list of backup names in case their original choices don’t pan out. There are said to be pitches for “interesting” and “big” outside names which could also align with a recent report (click here to read) suggesting that WWE is open to working with other promotions to bring in talent from those companies.
– As for Mickie James, the only talent announced who is wrestling for another promotion, fightfulselect.com reports that the backstage buzz at the recently completed IMPACT Hard to Kill PPV was that a part of the agreement between WWE and IMPACT was that the IMPACT title had to be mentioned on TV. IMPACT was said to have been happy with the buzz that announcement created, especially since it came right before one of their PPVs.
