As noted, Eric Young returned to Impact Wrestling at the recent Slammiversary pay-per-view, teaming with Impact President Scott D’Amore as his mystery partner for the win over Deaner and Impact Hall of Famer Bully Ray. This came after Young returned to WWE from Impact in late 2022, and had been working behind-the-scenes. It was reported after Slammiversary that Young asked for his WWE release in April of this year because WWE Chairman Vince McMahon returned to the company for the Endeavor deal, and Young did not want to work with McMahon in any capacity due to “moral, creative, and personal reasons.” He was granted the release, but was signed to a 90-day no-compete clause. You can click here for Young’s post-Slammiversary statement.
In an update, Young recently spoke with Mike Johnson of PWInsider and seemingly confirmed the departure story. Young discussed his decision to leave WWE for Impact, and his relationship with Impact’s parent company, Anthem.
“The [tweet] with me in front of the laptop with the keyboard is definitely a side project that I’m working on. The thing with Anthem is the truth be told, is I, I’ve never not worked for Anthem since leaving Impact,” he revealed. “I’ve been appearing one twice or sometimes four times a week on Game Plus Network for the last three years, so I was still linked to them when I was under contract at the other place…I signed up for one thing and it turned into something completely different, and personally, professionally, and more importantly for me, morally, I just couldn’t work there anymore. If you’re a wrestling fan, you know what’s going on, and I know that you’re a smart guy, Mike, and you’re well aware of what I’m saying and what’s going on.
“It was not, uh, a super difficult choice for me to be honest. I know it was a dream come true, going back, for sure. The contract was fantastic and all this other stuff and what I was poised to do on the TV show was excellent, but in the end, I would’ve had to answer to somebody that I’m just not willing to do.That’s where we ended up now. Like I said earlier, I’m a believer in fate and everything happens for a reason, and I’m not mad about it. I’m not bitter about it, just like I wasn’t last time. Obviously it was, it’s a massive mistake on one person’s part, but a huge gain for wrestling. I’m still very good at this and, and it’s something that I’m very passionate about. Something that I work myself to the bone trying to, to make the best possible outcome of each thing that I’m handed to do. So, I’m excited for the future, and I’m always working on other stuff. The reality is, wrestling, you can’t do it forever. I’ve got tons of other interests outside of wrestling, but wrestling is my first love. It will always be one of my biggest passions in my life and I think it’s the perfect creative medium for anybody that loves sport and loves cinema, and those are the two things that I love most in the world.”
Young was also asked if he regrets leaving Impact for WWE in 2022. He had major praise for Impact as the best minute-for-minute pro wrestling show on TV.
“No. Yeah, I don’t. I can say that I don’t really regret anything that I’ve done,” he said. “I’ve said this in other interviews before, as I’m a very experiential person. Even Scott [D’Amore] would say, he would tell me…he told me himself I would be a fool to not go. That’s just the reality of the business side of it. The truth is, is anybody close to me, my wife and, and a bunch of guys on the Impact roster that are some of my best friends in the world. I said it and I said it to Scott, I don’t want to leave. Like there was part of me that was really, not wanting to, and I’ve never had that where I felt like this weird regret of leaving because I felt we were doing something very special.
“I think Impact Wrestling for people that love pro wrestling…it’s a very special place to work. You could ask almost anybody that’s on the roster and they’re gonna tell you the same thing to varying degrees. But, to me it’s the best minute-for-minute pro wrestling show in the world. That’s biased because I work there, but I would’ve, I would’ve told you that at any point because it’s written for pro wrestling fans by pro wrestlers, so it’s for the minute-for-minute, the best one. I’m proud to be part of it, but [do I have] regrets, no, but I didn’t want to leave. That’s, that’s the truth. It just was, it was what it was business wise. It totally made sense to me. I can’t do this forever and, uh, I’m hoping to not work when I’m 55.”
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