In a recent interview with Chris Van Vliet as part of the INSIGHT With Chris Van Vliet podcast, former TNA Wrestling President Scott D’Amore discussed several topics, including his departure from the company, his offer to buy TNA Wrestling and more.
Highlights of the interview are below:
On his TNA exit: “The funny thing is, obviously not the choice of how I wanted things to play out. Took me by [surprise a bit]. I can’t say I was shocked when it actually happened, because I could see the process playing out where we weren’t quite on the same page on things. And as I said on Busted Open, I found out two days before Hard to Kill.”
On why he was let go: “We saw things differently as far as how we wanted to proceed. So I think partially, they just wanted their guys in charge. And I mean, I had a good seven years with those guys, but I’m not an Anthem guy. I don’t sit in that Toronto office. I have my thoughts, and you could say it’s my ego. I just don’t think it was the right move, and I don’t begrudge them. They’re doing their thing. They’re still going, and they’re going to run that company. I always say that everything is bigger than one person, even me. If I’m gone tomorrow, things will still go on.”
On announcing that TNA is back at Hard To Kill: “By the time we announced the TNA announcement, that’s at Bound for Glory. I’m jazzed about what we’re doing, but I also know on the corporate side we’ve got a couple of things where I’m not overly thrilled. The funny thing was there was no promo. The most ironic thing is, of all people, the person who said, ‘Somebody needs to say something here’ was Lance Storm. He was the producer of the segment. And that was just kind of like, Hey, we’re going to air this video, and then we’re going to come up and the talent’s going to be in the ring. Then Lance is like, ‘I think somebody needs to say something.’ We talked about it for a little bit, and it was Lance, myself, Lou D’Angeli was there, and there was one other person. Lance is like, ‘I think it should be you.’ I was like, Okay. I said, I’ll say something, and then we did that. That was impromptu. I mean, I had no idea what I was going to say, I was so concerned about so much time and effort went into that reveal video, crafting that, and keeping it a secret, and the whole thing that it was like, let’s get through that. Then it’s just lights come up, the crowd’s going to cheer and chant TNA. Okay, sure, I’ll thank the people, or whatever. So I might have been a little jazzed up.”
On offering to buy TNA: “I presented it to them. I actually sent it to them the day that the Jericho Cruise was leaving. I know that because I wanted to get it out before going on that cruise, because then I don’t know how [the Wi-Fi was]. I was on the first Jericho cruise, and the Wi-Fi was really rough on the first one. And people said, no, no, it’s better, but I don’t want to be trying to do business on the Jericho Cruise. So got the offer out then and then waited for the process to play out for them to say yes, no, or come back and negotiate. And ultimately, it wasn’t something that they were looking at, we weren’t going to come to a deal.”
The full interview is available at this link.
