Impact/WWE News: Impact Wrestling executives comment on the departure of Bobby Lashley & other stars
What's the story?
Mike Johnson of PWInsider is reporting on a recent interview that Impact Wrestling executives had with Newsweek magazine. Scott D'Amore, Don Callis, and Ed Nordholm were on the call where they discussed their thoughts on several talents who have recently left the company.
In case you didn't know...
Impact Wrestling's new set of tapings begins tomorrow, and they are calling it a new era as many of its long-time stars will not be involved in those tapings. It will be a true look into the future of the company.
The heart of the matter
They first talked about Jeremy Borash's departure; which was covered on Sportskeeda Tuesday afternoon. Nordholm wished Borash all of the best and called him a talented guy who was with the company forever. Nordholm would then note that Impact Wrestling has a lot of talented people and the change is good to allow for others to step up.
Scott D'Amore would say the following about Borash:
"We always wish Jeremy well. I got one of my first breaks [from him]—Jeremy hired me to be a producer at World Wrestling All-Stars. But we have editors on our team who don’t get the notoriety that Jeremy does. We have great players ready to step up."
Regarding EC3 (who debuted in the front row of the crowd at NXT Takeover: Philadelphia), D'Amore stated that his contract was not up, but had a frank conversation about where he was EC3 saw himself going. They decided to sit down and worked something out to wrap up his career with Impact Wrestling.
D'Amore stated he didn't watch Takeover, but once EC3 appeared on camera, his phone was blowing up and he would send the following text to EC3:
‘Congratulations. All the best to you. You’ve got nothing but love and support from us here. And if you need anything, you know where we are.’ And he wrote back the same thing.”
And finally, Nordholm would say the following about Bobby Lashley:
"Bobby is free to figure out what he wants to do next, whether it be wrestling or mixed martial arts. We wish him all the best. He’s a great talent, it’s foolish to say, ‘No, we wouldn’t want to retain him,’ but he has his own ambitions about what he thinks is good for him next in his career."
What's next?
NXT's next round of television tapings from Center Stage in Atlanta, Georgia take place this Thursday, February 1st. Stay tuned to Sportskeeda for further information regarding the potential debut of EC3 and Jeremy Borash with the company.
Author's take
It is definitely an interesting time in professional wrestling. Without giving away any spoilers, the next several weeks in Impact Wrestling look to be very interesting and worth seeing.
The WWE clearly gained some major talent with EC3 and Jeremy Borash. With EC3 he gets to re-write a chapter he started in NXT as Derrick Bateman; while Borash is multi-talented and will definitely make the company better in many ways.