Scott D’Amore took part in a media interview at IMPACT Wrestling‘s United We Stand event in Rahway, New Jersey. D’Amore spoke about IMPACT’s growing roster, which now includes Rob Van Dam. D’Amore said having RVD is a sign that big stars are choosing to join their company, and says it’s a sign of things to come in the future:
“Having Rob Van Dam sign on here is fantastic. It’s something that shows that people are choosing to come here—I liken it to the early days of TNA. Sting came here, and Sting had a lot of choices in being able to do different things, or do nothing. He chose to come here and that made a difference. Having a guy like him who is an elder statesman, who could still go in the ring, it was fantastic. I know it’s great to have Rob here, our locker room is excited to have him and our company is excited to have him.
I was back there talking to him—you think about it like, sure there’s [potential matchups with] RVD and Johnny Impact, RVD versus Brian Cage, who doesn’t want to see RVD and Willie Mack? Rich Swann? RVD and some type of interaction with The Rascalz—somebody’s got to smoke something there, right? [laughs] I think it’s fantastic and I think it’s a sign of great things to come.”
D’Amore was asked about other potential free agents, again emphasizing the potential for IMPACT’s future while also praising some of the recent signings they’ve made with Ethan Page and The Rascalz, while giving props to Moose for his progression as of late:
“In 2019, there’s a lot of amazing talent out there. Here tonight, we have a bunch of people that aren’t under contract that are part of the event. I think it’s great to see Joey Ryan, who I’ve known for many, many years. In an awkward situation, Joey Ryan used the power of social media, he sent out a tweet and said [he’d] love an opportunity to step in the ring with one of the best competitors, male or female, in the business, and here we’re doing that tonight.
What comes next with him, or Dante Fox, who is an unbelievable athlete. There’s just so much great talent out there that I look at what we brought on board from the last few months from The Rascalz to Ethan Page to Josh Alexander, Willie Mack, Madman Fulton… there’s so much great talent that’s coming in here and meshing together. That’s joining the growth of Moose, who I think is becoming one of the best all-around performers in professional wrestling. I’m obviously totally biased because I helped train him, but to sit back and separate myself from that, the guy can talk, the guy can wrestle, and he can just go out there and bleed charisma. I’m pretty excited for what the future holds.”
D’Amore was asked if there is any chance we can see a long-term intergender feud in IMPACT, which really hasn’t been done before on a national level. He said it’s getting to the point in wrestling where we could see a proper feud instead of just intergender matches without a fleshed out story:
“Certainly, we’re getting to a point in time, and one of the great things about professional wrestling is anything is possible. We don’t have the parameters of so many other things out there, and if you look at it, you’re going to have a perfect example tonight. You’re going to see a fantastic, talented, world class match male performer step in the ring with a fantastic, talented, world class match female performer, and with these two competitors, once that bell rings, there’s no more male and female. There’s going to be two world class competitors, performers, and doing what they do best. I absolutely think when the time is right it’s certainly time we push that stuff aside.”
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