Former TNA World Heavyweight Champion James Storm was in talks to return to WWE earlier this year.
Storm recently spoke with Pro Wrestling Sheet and revealed that he was first approached by WWE during Royal Rumble Weekend back in January. He missed the e-mail while working a show for the NWA, and didn’t see it until he returned home. Storm noted that WWE’s Senior Director of Talent Development Canyon Ceman e-mailed him about coming in as then-RAW Executive Director Paul Heyman wanted to use him.
“I get home and I see I got an email from Canyon Ceman saying, ‘Hey, we’re interested. Paul Heyman wants me to reach out and bring you to Raw,” Storm said. “I was like, ‘Wait … I think Bobby is going to Raw. Hmmm. This could be interesting.’ Ya know?”
After a successful run in TNA that ran from 2002 through 2015, Storm left the company and made a few appearances for the WWE NXT brand in October 2015. He defeated Danny Burch on the October 21, 2015 episode, and then defeated Adam Rose on the December 2 episode. He ended up returning to TNA/Impact Wrestling in December of that year after passing on a WWE contract due to TNA offering him more money.
Storm, who currently holds the NWA World Tag Team Titles with Eli Drake, noted that the most recent WWE contact came around the time NWA boss Billy Corgan let him out of his deal early by not exercising a rollover clause in his contract, because they wanted to help him finally get to WWE. Storm offered to work the NWA shows during WrestleMania 36 Weekend but COVID-19 forced several events to be cancelled that weekend.
“I told them I would work the weekend of WrestleMania shows with Eli [Drake] to drop the NWA belts to whoever they wanted to drop it to. Just go out on good terms. Good business, ya know? Then that show got cancelled for the NWA, and then it kept snowballing,” Storm said.
Storm said he prepared for WWE’s mandatory pre-signing physical in the months that followed WrestleMania Weekend, paying out of pocket for his own test each month, just to make sure he would pass when he had to take the tests for WWE. He also bought new gear and it looked like he was finally returning to WWE, this time under contract.
“We agreed on all the terms. It was signed,” he revealed.
Storm was told that WWE had to put the offer on hold because of the COVID-19 pandemic. He last spoke with WWE in July, and nothing had changed. Storm remains hopeful that another opportunity with WWE will come along, and he’s optimistic that he and former “Beer Money” partner Robert Roode will get to work together in WWE.
“You just take it and keep rolling,” Storm said. “It’s not their fault. It’s just how everything is right now.”
You can see a clip from the Storm interview below:
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