Cody Deaner shares his thoughts on stabbing Eric Young.
Young and Deaner worked closely together for nearly two years, as the former world champion was the leader of Violent By Design and recruited Deaner to the group. The stable also included Joe Doering and, for a few months, Rhino, before Deaner took control by violently removing Young from the equation when he stabbed Young on the December 1 episode of IMPACT Wrestling, and it was subsequently reported that Young would be returning to WWE.
In an interview with Fightful's Joel Pearl and Matt Young, Deaner reflected on Young's dramatic exit by first noting that he is leading the Design now. He then looked back on some aspects of the angle that he thought were particularly cool. He pointed out an interesting connection, as the same venue was previously used for taping Young's first re-appearance with IMPACT. Likewise, the venue was also the site of the first segment in which Young recruited Deaner to join Violent By Design. He then described how the story spanned two years, which speaks to the strength of IMPACT's storytelling. Deaner also stated that the stabbing was the most unique and creative" passing of the torch moment in wrestling history.
"I’ll give you some of the key points and the CliffsNotes version of the things I thought were really cool about it. In terms of the venue, the very first backstage filming that was done with Eric Young to hype his first re-appearance with IMPACT Wrestling was done in that venue. The very first segment that involved him getting into my mind to join Violent By Design and to transform me was done in that venue. So this final scene was done in the same venue. This is a two year story arc which I think isn’t recognized and appreciated enough in terms of what IMPACT Wrestling does with their storytelling and their creative. There’s no other television show that, I think, tells stories in a way that IMPACT Wrestling does. They don’t just start something and go, ‘We’ll just forget about that,’ and ignore it. No, we’re sticking with that and there’s a story arc there. So that was one of the cool things there for me. This story came full circle and resulted in what I said publicly and on my Twitter— @CodyDeaner, if you’re wondering—I said this, and I’ll stand by it, I said that tense moment you’re talking about, I felt is the most unique and creative passing of the torch moment in professional wrestling history," Deaner said.
Deaner than described how he had an "overwhelmingly awesome experience" with the angle because it was so unique. He noted that there are few times in wrestling where the performer can do something that fans have never seen before, but he felt like he was able to do that with the storyline stabbing. Deaner also stated that doing the angle with Young, a close friend of his, made it even more special to him.
"Very few times in anyone’s career do they get to do something where people talk about it and they’re like, ‘I’ve never seen anything like that in wrestling.’ That’s an almost impossible statement to hear anymore. ‘Oh, I’ve never seen that before.’ Because everything’s been done, right? So nothing has quite been done in wrestling like that moment. So to get to be a part of that moment and do that with someone who’s personally a close friend of mine was a very overwhelmingly awesome experience," Deaner said.
Deonna Purrazzo previously discussed the stabbing angle and noted that IMPACT does a great job of writing people off. Check out her comments here.
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