Moose was as good as gone from IMPACT Wrestling.
The summer of 2021 was a hot period for wrestling free agency. Former IMPACT Champion Moose was a huge part of that, as he confirmed that there was interest from WWE and AEW before he ultimately re-signed a two year deal with IMPACT.
In a new interview with Fightful, Moose even went as far as note that he was about to walk straight into WWE before re-signing with his current home promotion.
"A lot of people don’t know this, but I was pretty much about to walk into WWE. Yeah and I was literally gone and the last talk I had with Scott D’Amore really showed me how much they wanted me. It’s one of those things, I talked to my wife about it, I said, ‘There’s still a lot of things I haven’t accomplished at IMPACT. So leaving to go to the WWE really would be not fair to myself and not fair to Scott, who I really look up to as a mentor and a big brother.’ So I decided to give it one more shot. IMPACT has done a great job keeping some of their core guys and homebred guys. I’m hoping we keep doing the same. I think Scott’s done a phenomenal job with the turnaround he’s done with IMPACT and it’s only gonna get better."
During the Dixie Carter era of IMPACT Wrestling/TNA, there were plenty of claims made about the company about talent not getting paid, bad locker room morale, and more. In the interview, Moose talked about only getting paid once during the first five months of his run with the company and how Scott D'Amore has completely turned the former bad reputation of the promotion on its head.
"I’ve been there since when people wasn’t getting paid. I remember my first contract I signed with IMPACT under the Dixie Carter era and I got paid when I first signed and I didn’t see another paycheck until four or five months later. I’ve been here since that era. Now Scott taking over has really, really turned the locker room around in terms of what IMPACT is known for. He’s made it an actual company people want to come work for." Moose said. "We have the Briscoes with us now and hopefully that’s gonna be a long term thing based on a long term build with us. I’m really hoping that gets done with them. A name like the Briscoes, probably the best tag team in all of professional wrestling signed with IMPACT after the Good Brothers just signed with IMPACT. After we just got Jonah and Morrissey, all these guys that come in. Hopefully that shows that, ‘Man, IMPACT is the place to go and actual names want to go there.’ That’s what I’m praying and hoping for. So we’ll see what happens."
On the flip side of the coin, many WWE talents have signed with IMPACT Wrestling following their departure from the company. IMPACT has made former WWE talent like JONAH, Matt Cardona, and W. Morrissey center pieces of their weekly programming in recent months.
Elsewhere in the interview, Moose spoke about his respect for Josh Alexander. Click here to learn more.
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