Eric Young proved himself to be one of the best entertainers in wrestling during his run in IMPACT from 2004 to 2016. Young played a variety of characters during that time and always found a way to succeed, which led to him joining WWE in 2016.
Speaking on Busted Open Radio, Young discussed his decision to sign with WWE instead of remaining with IMPACT.
"It was time to move on from the structure of the current company, I felt I had done everything I was going to be allowed to do there. Obviously, WWE is a place I wanted to work my whole career, that was the goal. My first goal was to sign a contract to say, 'this is what I do for a living,' and I signed my first contract in 2004 with TNA. My other goal was to make it to WWE," he said.
Young started his run in WWE on the NXT brand as the leader of Sanity. Alongside Nikki Cross, Killian Dain, and Alexander Wolfe; Sanity became the top group on the brand with Young winning the NXT Tag Team Titles alongside Wolfe.
When discussing his NXT run, he said, "The NXT part went great, I was treated well, Hunter and me worked very closely on the development of Sanity and the group. I really felt like I had a say of what went on. Obviously, not the final say, but I was listened to and asked to contribute. The NXT run, Sanity was one of the top acts in the whole company. Then we transitioned to the main roster and everyone knows how that went; it didn't go well."
Young, Dain, and Wolfe were called up to the main roster in April 2018 and almost immediately became lost in the shuffle.
"Sometimes you fall out of favor. It's not what you did or didn't do, I never changed who I was and I'm not going to. I'm not a political person, never have been, that's probably been a hindrance to my career. I refuse to be political. The truth is, the system is broken. It's hard to get a word in. Even when you're doing nothing, it feels like you're trying to fix people's mistakes all day. There's no creativity, they want everyone to be the same, bump the same, sell the same, and there's millions of rules, those change daily. It's really hard to understand what's going on. The system is flawed and I would say that to anyone there and Vince himself. I'm not the first person he's made a mistake on and I won't be the last person he's made a mistake on. I don't think it's anything personal. Anytime we were in a room together and we spoke, he was always respectful. We had two decently long conversations, they went well, and I thought he understood where I was coming from. I'm a man and I'm not gonna stand in a hallway for four hours to talk to him. That could be wrong and stubborn on my part, but I'm a 40-year-old man and I'm not gonna wait in the hallway like a child to maybe get five minutes to talk to him. I said my peace, he seemed to be responsive, but nothing ever came from it. I don't take it personally. He made a mistake and as the leader of the company and the person who decides everything, it's a massive mistake. You have a three-hour television show, if you can't find five minutes for Eric Young, your show is broken," said Young.
Young was released by WWE on April 15 as part of the company-wide cutbacks due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He returned to IMPACT Wrestling at Slammiversary as one of the mystery opponents for the main event.
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