During his run as TNA President, Scott D’Amore had plans in the works to try and bring TNA Bound For Glory in London, England or Tokyo, Japan.
The founder of the soon-to-be relaunched Maple Leaf Pro promotion based out of Canada spoke about these plans while discussing his sudden departure from TNA Wrestling during a recent appearance on Chris Jericho’s “Talk Is Jericho” podcast.
“At the end of the day, one, business is business,” D’Amore said. “I think a lot of times, people lose sight of that when people are invested emotionally. Look, a business decision was made. Did we have a difference in opinion of how to tackle things? Yeah. Had I stated my thoughts on things and where I saw the brand was going? Yes. Were we aligned on some things? Yes, some things no. I think certainly that was part of it. I really thought 2025 was the year to really take some major shots and I think they’ve done some of that now. After I left, the first thing they did was put the next major tentpole pay-per-view back at The Palms in Vegas — and that was a terrible decision. Not my call, we actually planned on being at Hammerstein Ballroom, we had it on reserve. But, part of our plan was to go to Montreal for Slammiversary. They did that, it was a huge success.”
D’Amore continued, “Part of our goal was to be in Tokyo or London for Bound For Glory. They’re going to Detroit. I think they’re going to do fine in Detroit, it’s a great wrestling market. I think it will be a success. I think ultimately, I wanted to make some moves and do some things that didn’t quite align for Anthem’s vision for things. That goes on a few different levels, not just the shows, not just the talent but on everything. Ultimately, the decision was made that they wanted to go in a different direction. As I was told, they wanted to have a seasoned television operator run the business and there choice was Anthony Cicione. Anthony is a great guy first and foremost, perfect guy to have a bite with or have a drink or coffee with. He’s been in television for years, so if you want a television executive, yeah, Anthony is an amazing television executive and a great person. That decision was made. It’s odd, it’s interesting that I found out two days before Hard To Kill, the first TNA show. That was a little tough, having to go into Vegas and keep my chin up and say, ‘We’re still gonna knock this out of the park.’ My approach of it was, I’m probably done. I told Len Asper, we’ll have an amazing pay-per-view, we’ll get this brand. We’ll go to Vegas next week, I’ll get you four TV episodes so that you have a little runway to figure out what you’re doing next. I’ll handle this professionally and properly. Went into Vegas, my goal was to knock it out of the park and execute on what we planned. If nothing else, let those two days in Vegas where Will Ospreay was there, had that match with Josh Alexander. Closed the final wound with New Japan by having Okada there. We had 1800 or however many people it was there for the relaunch and it was electric. I was like, okay, mission accomplished. Not happy with how things transpired, but I’ll move onto what is next. That’s what I’m starting to do now with Maple Leaf Pro. TNA, can I say there’s no hard feelings? That’s tough. But there’s no malice, I know Len Asper didn’t wake up one morning and say, ‘I’m going to do this because I’m gonna get Scott.’ He made a business decision, it’s his company. It’s like a coach getting fired or anybody else. Decision was made, cool. Do I like it? No. Do I agree with it? No. Len and I had communicated since then. Len’s not the devil. Move on, they do their thing. I don’t ever want that brand to die and go away.”
Scott D’Amore’s Maple Leaf Pro promotion returns with a special two-night “Forged In Excellence” event on October 19 and October 20 at St. Clair College in Windsor, Ontario, Canada.
Check out the complete interview at Spotify.com.
H/T to Fightful.com for transcribing the above quotes.
