The IMPACT President reflects on the company’s recent tour.
IMPACT Wrestling wrapped up a tour of the United Kingdom over the weekend. The company was present in Glasgow, Newcastle and Coventry for shows and fan events.
On night one of the tour, IMPACT World Champion Alex Shelley suffered an injury and was pulled from the remainder of the tour.
IMPACT President Scott D’Amore provided an update on Shelley during a chat with Cultaholic Wrestling’s Tom Campbell. He then went on to praise the talent roster and crew for stepping up and offering suggestions and ideas. D’Amore mentioned that Frankie Kazarian offered to do double duty.
Yeah, I mean look, he’s (Alex Shelley) gonna need a little bit of rest and a little bit of time but, he’s gonna be more than healthy and ready before he needs to be back in an IMPACT Wrestling ring so it’s gonna be a good chance for him to rest and recharge. To your point, I think that like this company really does, like this group does, the talent and the crew, they rallied around each other. Before I even had a chance to turn my mind towards it, talent was coming up and offering suggestions and one of ‘em was Frankie Kazarian stepping up and saying, you know, ‘Look, I’ll step in. I’ll do double duty when needed. I’ll still go out there, I wanna still go out there and wrestle Leon Slater because I’m stoked to go out there and do that but then I’ll circle back in the main event. I got history with the Machine Guns and I’ll be happy to take Shelley’s place and team with (Chris) Sabin and be in the main event.’ So it’s just, to your point, everybody was turning their mind to it while I was still worried about other things. I already had other people coming up and, ‘Hey, we can do this.’ ‘Well if you need me to do this’ and a guy like Frankie who’s been around for 20-plus years and doesn’t have to was like, ‘Hey, I wanna step up, I wanna fill that void, I wanna be part of that solution’ so, I think that’s truly amazing so I think to your point, you (Tom Campbell) got to see a bit of it on this tour, you got to be part of it. The hanging out in the locker room, making the bus rides. It’s a lot of fun and it was great to see so you’ve seen it. It’s a very welcoming locker room.
On the night that Kazarian pulled double duty, he wrestled 19 year old Leon Slater. After their bout, Slater was presented with an IMPACT contract and signed his deal on the back of D’Amore.
D’Amore said Leon is one of the most promising talents he’s ever seen, adding that he’s the perfect acquisition for IMPACT and has the tools to be a generational talent.
I think we’ve set a great course as far as how we develop a roster so, I think that’s gonna evolve and change but I don’t think our approach to things is gonna change. We’re gonna look for the right mix of established veteran talent and people out there that deserve their opportunity like a Leon Slater. 19 years old and is as promising as any talent I’ve ever seen. So having a guy like Leon Slater join us, I think he’s the perfect type of acquisition for us and I think it’s great… The second wrestler that we signed for the TNA era is Leon Slater. A 19 year old, wise beyond his years, mature beyond his years, blue chip prospect who has all of the skillset to become a generational talent.
To close out the chat, D’Amore confirmed that IMPACT/TNA will be coming back to the United Kingdom in 2024. He said it’s just a matter of sorting out logistics.
We’re looking at options right now and it’ll definitely — we’ll be back here (in the U.K.) in 2024. We’re just trying to figure out our schedule. It boils down to a combination of our schedule, what’s going on here in the marketplace and the availability of venues. But we have a few things circled on the calendar and after taking a little bit of time to breathe, and get a couple of deep breaths and settle in, we will be back tackling exactly what the right time is to be back in market but definitely in 2024.
On the final day of the tour, they wrapped up the Gut Check tryouts and emerging victorious was Harley Hudson. She secured a developmental contract and a bursary with IMPACT in Canada to go train at the Can-Am Dojo.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Cultaholic Wrestling with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
