IMPACT Wrestling executive Scott D’Amore recently spoke with Simon Miller of What Culture Wrestling for an in-depth interview covering all things pro wrestling.
During the discussion, D’Amore spoke about the pride he has in TNA Wrestling, the company rebranding back to the TNA name and the crowd reaction to the news.
Featured below are some of the highlights from the interview where he touches on these topics with his thoughts.
On how he takes a lot of pride in TNA wrestling: “In my heart of hearts, it’s always been TNA Wrestling. In my heart, it’s TNA Wrestling, and I think in a lot of fans’ hearts. In 2018, I think if we would have said, ‘Hey, we’re TNA now,’ people would have been like, ‘Ugh.’ Because it had gone TNA, IMPACT, TNA, Global Force, back to IMPACT. It wasn’t the right time. I think now we’re at a point where we’re in a great spot for it. I think this group deserves to be called TNA Wrestling. TNA Wrestling, I take a lot of pride in, and I’m very proud to have the group of individuals we have on the roster and behind the scenes carry that name. I had an exchange with Jeff Jarrett about this the other day. I actually was flying over here [to the UK], and I was messaging him back and forth. I said, ‘We haven’t really talked about it, but I just want you to know, this has our 100. This is getting everything we got because this is something you created, and it’s something that means the world to me.’ We had a wonderful exchanges about it. He was very supportive. So to me, the timing’s right because we are ready to get out there and do bigger things. I think this group is ready for that.”
On how excited wrestlers and fans are that the TNA name is back: “I think that when you see the effect that it has on people in our locker room and the Trey Miguels and the Josh Alexanders, and you see a guy like Will Ospreay, who’s excited about it, you’re like, ‘Okay, this is kind of neat.’ I think fans have just wanted to cheer it, and out of respect, they haven’t. It’s kind of like, ‘Okay, they’re IMPACT Wrestling. We’re going to go, ‘IMPACT Wrestling.’ [Claps] But I think they truly wanted to chant TNA. They did it when Bobby Roode and AJ Styles were in the Royal Rumble. They did it when Jeff Jarrett and Sting [were at] an AEW pay-per-view. They did it at Wembley, from 80,00 people. They’ve wanted to chant it. I think part of it was, we went to an audience that wanted to do it but out of respect, hasn’t, and said ,’You know what? Run wild with it.”
Check out the complete interview via the YouTube player embedded below. H/T to Fightful.com for transcribing the above quotes.
