IMPACT Executive VP Scott D’Amore recently appeared on Busted Open Radio to discuss a wide range of topics, including his thoughts on NJPW returning to AXS TV, and how he feels about Moose re-signing with the promotion and representing them as the world champion. Highlights from the interview are below.
On Moose deciding to re-sign with IMPACT:
Yeah, the world championship match coming up this Saturday is a great example of what IMPACT Wrestling is. You’ve got Moose who is pretty IMPACT through and through and I mean heck, if you ask Moose, I mean he was sent up here very, very early on in his wrestling training by a guy by the name of Frank Trigg who had worked with the UFC Hall Of Famer and he had sent Moose up here to train and Moose is a world-class athlete, one of the best I’ve ever worked with, someone who’s a close friend and one of the most annoying people in the world, causes me as much grief as anybody but he’s a world-class athlete who like you said Tommy [Dreamer], chose, ‘This is where I wanna be. I’ve got all these other options out there. This is my home.’ To me, it’s like he’s — although his attitude is a little gruff sometimes and a little different, he almost is like a more modern-day Eddie Edwards in the fact that Moose, everywhere he goes, he wants to fly the IMPACT Wrestling flag and this is where he’s grown, this is where he’s developed and this is where he became a world champion and you know, that wouldn’t have happened if he would’ve decided to go to one of the other places that were out there vying for him.
Says he’s glad NJPW is coming back to AXS:
A deal that’s been pretty exciting for us for a while and it finally got announced just recently is the return of New Japan Pro-Wrestling to AXS TV. It’s been a few years since they’ve been on television over here, since they had previously left AXS TV and it’s been monumental to get AXS TV as the U.S. broadcaster for New Japan Pro-Wrestling. We’ve seen throughout this year how well IMPACT Wrestling and New Japan Pro-Wrestling have been able to collaborate. We’ve seen all the people with Jay White and FinJuice and El Phantasmo and so many people coming over to IMPACT. We’ve also seen, even despite the border restrictions, we’ve seen The Good Brothers, we’ve seen Chris Bey, we’ve seen Josh Alexander, we’ve seen Moose, we’ve seen all these people crossover and go to New Japan, just in the U.S. right now because of the immigration restrictions in Japan but think about that. What happens to that relationship in a more open-bordered world? We could see Moose defending the IMPACT Worlds Championship at Wrestle Kingdom and after that match that he went out there and had with Juice [Robinson] a couple of months ago on the New Japan event there in [San Jose, California], who wouldn’t wanna see matches like that around the world? So it’s an exciting time and it’s great to see that all these different organizations are coming together. I think it’s great for the talent, I think it’s great for the fans and frankly I think we’re seeing that it’s good for business for the companies that are involved as well.
(H/T and transcribed by Post Wrestling)