IMPACT star Eric Young recently spoke with Sportskeeda to talk all things pro-wrestling, including how he feels to be back with his old promotion after his WWE release back in April. Highlights can be found below.
Whether his return to IMPACT felt like a rebirth:
Yeah, I mean, it’s kind of a little of both. It’s interesting because the history of the company and I’m a pretty big part of that history, but the truth is it’s all new personnel. The wrestling world is a small place so it’s tons of people that I’ve crossed paths with, tons of people I’ve worked in other companies with and a few people that are still there. For me, it felt good for my soul, it felt good to be part of something that I believe in again – which is very important for anybody that is creative or who does anything creatively, or puts it out there anyway. To be part of something you’re proud of is, I think, one of the most important things for professional growth and professional happiness, so it was a big deal for me to be back, obviously a great spot for me to step in and it was a very cool experience.
The current product being a night and day difference to what it used to be its TNA days:
The people who were at IMPACT or before TNA who were there for the last couple of years who brought this company back from obscurity, I was talking to Josh Mathews and Madison Rayne about this, they can be so proud of the work that they’ve done just to get the company to the point where it’s at now. Obviously the point for me and for everybody there, the entire locker room, is to grow the company and grow ourselves but from where it was, even a year and a half, two years ago, it’s night and day and it’s definitely cool to be a part of that.
On his role backstage as a locker room leader:
I feel like I’ve always kind of taken that role. I don’t know if I’m super verbal about it but I just kind of let my work ethic and my work and how I carry myself do the leading for me. I’m not pulling guys aside, telling them what to do. I’m not that. I’m not a big ra-ra guy and getting everybody together, and trying to make myself look more important than I really am. I go about my business the way I’ve always gone about it. That will never change, no matter my level of stardom or where I am on the card. I show up for work and whatever I’m doing, I’m going to work on that as hard as possible and I think that’s the kind of leadership in pro wrestling that is the best. When someone is preaching to you and there’s a million different ways to go about it. For lack of a better word, pro wrestling is art, so everyone is going to have their own take and our own way of doing things. If someone asks my opinion, I’m going to be honest. If someone asks me to watch their match, I’m going to watch. If someone asks if I saw their match and what I thought, I’m going to tell them. I feel like I’ve earned it that I can take them aside and say, ‘Look, man, this isn’t how it’s done. You’ve got to do it this way or do it that way, think about changing this or think about changing that.’