Former TNA star Gunner recently spoke with Mark Suleymanov of The Inquisitr, and below are some interview highlights:
Feuding with James Storm:
“To me it was great, I think that they did a really, really good job of building the story between me and James and the animosity of the story. It wasn’t like one week we were teaming the next week we’re turning against each other, I liked that it was a six-to-seven month feud. But to get to wrestle James, always one of my good buddies and somebody I respected there. Since day one, when I started as security, he was always there as a helping hand, really believed in me and saw that I was driving down to Orlando on my own to try and get my foot in the door.”
Concerns of being too old for WWE:
“They’re pretty honest with guys. There’s been buddies of mine who are 35, 36 (years old) that were told ‘absolutely no, you’re at the cutoff age.’ I’m only 33 and if that was the case, I think (William) Regal would’ve told ‘we’re not going to waste our time.’ What I hear is that 35, 36 is the cutoff unless you’re somebody different, unless you’re AJ Styles, who’s a little older. I’m still pretty young, you can probably get another 10 years out of me if my body holds up.”
If He Never Joined The Military:
“I would’ve probably gotten signed quicker, I would like to think so. But being in the Marine Corps from 2002-2006, that kinda hinders me for about four years. I definitely think I would’ve been signed quicker, maybe like OVW or something like that. It would’ve been awesome to be in the same class as Ken Anderson, Batista, and Randy Orton.”
Why He Never Reached Main Event Status:
“I was never given a reason why they wanted to release me. The writers were pretty straightforward about going ‘hey, you need to work on this and you need to do this and this better.’ There were a few times during my run with TNA where some young guys and I, like Sam Shaw and Bram, were given the ball and told to run — like when I wrestled Magnus for the title in Manchester in 2014. They give you that ball, you do nothing wrong and pull off a great match, or storyline, or have a great character and then all of a sudden, they jerk the rug out from under you.”
Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.
