Jimmy Jacobs had plenty of suitors ahead of choosing Impact Wrestling, the way he tells it.
After being fired from WWE for taking a picture with an "invading" Bullet Club at an episode of WWE Raw, Jacobs made a brief appearance in Ring of Honor, before landing in Impact Wrestling. I spoke with Jacobs recently, and asked him about other offers that were on the table.
"I absolutely did have offers from others. I talked to ROH about going back there but I have been there for a lot of years. I wanted to do something new, I had a conversation with Scott D’Amore and Sonjay Dutt on the phone about different things at Impact and it just seemed like a nice fit. So my first time in Ottawa (for Impact) was a test run to see how the fit was. We are in a rebuilding phase and they needed somebody who could wear a lot of hats and do a lot of different things and I had experience in all those things. It was a nice week in Ottawa and solidified that Impact was the direction that I wanted to go. I also felt valued and that might seem like a small thing, but it was a big deal. I felt valued and not just by the boys and locker room," said Jacobs.
Jacobs elaborated, even admitting that Ring Of Honor's Delirious was the first person he got in contact with before news emerged of Jacobs leaving WWE.
"Hunter Johnston (Delirious) and I are longtime friends, so he was the first person I called. We set up that little cameo with me on their pay-per-view. We talked about a role for me after that, I told him that I was in discussions with Impact, and that was that," said Jacobs.
The transition for Jacobs from a tougher schedule to a cram session while working in creative has been a unique one, something that he was willing to open up about.
"It's a different thing. WWE's schedule is 24/7. It was nonstop. With Impact, right now it's the calm before the storm and in the next few week's we're going to put together creative for the next shows. It was like nothing I've ever done in my life, man. It was six days of taping two episodes per day, going to the hotel, looking over the next day's creative, staying up until 6 am," said Jacobs.
During the talk, Jacobs joked that he'd worked for Vince McMahon for two years, but had never worked as hard as he did working creatively for Impact Wrestling.
You can hear my full discussion with Jacobs above.
