Moose opens up about his time as the IMPACT Grand Champion.
Over the many years of IMPACT Wrestling’s existence, many ideas have been thrown at the wall throughout the many different head regimes in the organization. Briefly, when Billy Corgan was part of IMPACT Wrestling, the company introduced a Grand Championship. A special rules championship that focused on matches based around a rounds system. The title was a take on an old-school British wrestling’s rounds system, much in the way that today’s NXT UK Heritage Cup Championship is.
Speaking on the Juice Pro Wrestling Podcast, Moose, who was the second champion to hold that title, opened up about why he really didn't like the concept and offered some unique takes on how IMPACT could bring back the championship with a new caveat surrounding it.
"That was Billy Corgan's idea. I'm sorry Billy but that was a terrible fucking idea. There was history behind it, I get it, it was something they did in England with the rounds, but I think in this era of wrestling, it's stupid because let's say the last minute of a round, you have the crowd up here, then it ends and you have to take a two-minute break. In that break, you have the crowd from up here to back down to zero. When the round starts, you have to bring them back up. It sucks. It's like watching a killer match, it being over, and you're waiting for the next match. That's how I felt like with rounds and why it was stupid. Great idea, just not for wrestling. Unless you go back to how WWE did it where it was shoot boxing. It was a better idea on paper. I haven't met one guy on the roster who actually liked that format."
He continued, "The belt was cool and all, but I thought it was dumb. The idea I had, and I think it would be a great idea but obviously no one in IMPACT listens to me, and that's for good reasons anyway. I think you come out with a championship and the winner of the championship always picks the match stipulation. Maybe they bring the Grand Championship back and make that stipulation with it. The champion always picks the stipulation. It always puts the challenger in a spot where he wrestles the champion in a match he is great at. You have to beat him in his style."
Now, after many years in the organization, Moose is the IMPACT World Champion. Recently, he explained why, even though he is proud to be champion, he sees the championship as a prop that has brought upon extra responsibility for him outside of the ring. Read his comments at this link.
Should you use any portion of the quotes above, transcription credit should go to Fightful with a H/T linking back to this article.
