Impact Wrestling president Scott D’Amore recently appeared on Impact Wrestling’s Press Pass for an in-depth interview covering all things pro wrestling. During the discussion, D’Amore commented on the company rebranding back to TNA. Here are the highlights:
Six-sided ring: “The six-sided ring question comes up all the time, I get it, I was in the ring when the six-sided ring was brought in. I know it has its supporters. The fact is, at the end of the day, almost to a person, the athletes that have performed in the six-sided ring don’t prefer it. They say it’s harder on the body, it creates more injury, and more than injury, it creates more wear and tear on the body. Doing it night after night is harder on the body. We’re happy to have conversations about how to make the product look the best, but one of the things, unwaveringly, that we’re not willing to negotiate on or compromise is the athlete’s health and safety. We’re going to be a four-sided ring. I know that disappoints a lot of people, but my respectful and honest question to that is, ‘do you really love the six-sided ring more than you love ensuring the health and safety of the men and women who get in the ring and put their health on the line? Do you want to make a more dangerous situation for them?’ It’s wrestling, never say never, there could be changes in the future. It’s a simple one for us, athlete safety is number one, so we have four sides. Take that off the table and anything else is possible.”
New set: “I know the fans have been waiting for a new set, and some have been waiting very patiently and some have been waiting a little less patiently than others, and it all comes from a point of passion. We’re hard at work designing a new look and new feel for TNA to both honor our history but also to be forward thinking and forward moving.”
New title belts: “We have all new championship belts. I know people have talked about returning to this design or that design, there are some amazing designs. The belts will continue to evolve and change, but we felt it was important that, we’re TNA Wrestling, but we’re still moving forward. We have all new championship belts and those will be revealed as we lead up to Hard to Kill. One of the things to address is, all the current IMPACT Champions and that lineage will continue. We’re not crowning new champions. Fans will be excited to see the belts. We wanted to give them something new and something we push forward with into a new era.”
You can check out the complete Press Pass below:
(quotes courtesy of Jeremy Lambert)
