Jake Crist made his return to IMPACT Wrestling on Monday, at least for one night.
After announcing that he was no longer with IMPACT Wrestling late last year, former X-Division Champion Jake Crist returned on Monday, showing up at an IMPACT Wrestling taping in Nashville, Tennessee.
Crist made his return during the taping, accepting an open challenge to face off against Josh Alexander. Crist ultimately lost the match to Alexander, the reigning X Division Champion. Content was taped for several more weeks of IMPACT Wrestling, so Crist’s match will likely air in late August or early September.
It’s unclear what his return tonight means, but Crist does have a long history with the company, so it wouldn’t be shocking to see the superstar showing up more and more.
Crist joined IMPACT Wrestling in 2017 alongside his brother, Dave, as Ohio Versus Everything (oVe), debuting at Destination X. The two later aligned with Sami Callihan and added Madman Fulton to their stable before splitting up in 2019. Jake’s lone X Division title reign was 93 days, and he and Dave also had a GFW/Impact World Tag Team Championship reign that lasted 164 days.
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Jake Crist spoke with WrestleZone after he was released by IMPACT Wrestling in January about how he wanted to take his “Modern Man In Black” character forward on the independent scene. Noting other musical interests in his life, Crist explained how Johnny Cash has played an important role in who he is in and out of the ring.
“When I started booking [Rockstar Pro], I based my ‘Artist’ character around Prince, and I really felt like an artist because of what I was creating every week, as far as building a crowd. When I started booking Rockstar, there was 15 people in the crowd, and we built it all the way up to about 450 on a big Friday. It might not sound huge to a lot of people,” Crist said, “but in Dayton, Ohio, an independent wrestling [company] drawing 450 people is huge. We would sell out every iPPV that we’d have on a Friday, and so I really built that character because I felt deep down that I was an artist, and I still do feel like I’m an artist because of what I create in the ring, as far as matches, so on and so forth.
“I started listening to Johnny Cash, and I got into Prince. [Those were] my two biggest influences, and it still is, with the ‘Modern Man In Black’. Like you said, the ‘JC’ logo is based off of the Prince logo, and that’s basically me being a huge fan of Prince, it’s a big nod to him. Like I said, I feel like deep down, I’m an artist, and with Johnny Cash, he’s the first-ever rock star. In my opinion, it’s Johnny Cash. I know he’s [considered] ‘country music’ but to me, Johnny Cash is the first-ever rock star, and what he sings about, what he sings about, the blue-collar, hard-working man, that’s what I am and that’s what I try to do,” Crist said. “I try to provide for my little ones and bring that bread to the table. And to sum it up like I said, in one sentence, I’m a rock star that happens to be a pro wrestler, and nobody can play the three string like I can.”
Check out our full interview with Jake Crist at this link.
