Former WWE Superstar, Santino Marella was a recent guest on the Behind The Lights show, which takes place on IMPACT’s Twitch channel, and he answered several questions about the company.
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Change in ownership:
“I tell you what, Impact Wrestling, this is such an interesting phenomenon, because they’ve had different incarnations — TNA, Impact Wrestling. Sometimes there’s somebody new at the helm and then people wonder, ‘How is this going to turn out?’ And sometimes, ‘Ah, it’s kinda the same thing, they’re shuffling old guys, whatever, whatever’, and it hasn’t really connected in the past in terms of that renaissance. But this one here there’s a different feeling — again, Scott (D’Amore) at the helm and Don (Callis) — there’s real change. It was getting a reputation in the past of being, ‘Oh they’re just recycling old WWE guys’, you know, hand-me-downs, and that was the reputation they had for a while. Now that’s not the case. Now they’re developing fresh, new talent that’s not… I mean if there’s someone there from WWE that’s fine, but the roster’s not comprised of leftovers anymore. The mentality, the direction they’re going in, it’s very good for the business because you need competition. There was a long time when there was no competition to WWE. Now there’s places to go.”
The future of IMPACT Wrestling:
“For the viewers at home, the pro wrestling universe, enjoy watching this evolution. This is history right now in the making. Back in the day when ECW was growing and there was something happening. You felt it. And it was a legendary moment in wrestling. This is the beginning of another legendary moment in wrestling. So watch it, be a part of it, so you can say, ‘I was there, I was a part of it, I watched it happen’ and I would love to even have my fingerprints just a little bit involved on this evolution’ to say that, ‘We did something great in the professional wrestling business and we became something that could compete with the big juggernaut.’”
IMPACT’S Redemption PPV:
“I thought it was awesome. It solidified the notion of the change of direction for me. It’s funny because to be competition with WWE already means that you’re on the map, you’re on the radar. But you can’t compete with the budget. You can’t compete with the juggernaut marketing machine that they have. But you don’t have to have a massive budget to have that one creative genius especially with the different platforms we have today to be able to get out there. So before it was only TV, and now because of all these different mediums you can compete with TV.”
H/T to Rajah.com for the transcription.
Behind The Lights