Impact Wrestling Officials Comment On Talent Departures And Contracts

During a recent interview with Metro.co.uk, Impact Wrestling’s Don Callis spoke about the recent departures. Here is what he had to say:

“Here’s the problem with the narrative that goes around with that. I’m not knocking wrestling journalism because it is what it is, but the narrative that’s been kicking around is that all these people are leaving.

That’s fine, and that’s true, but the context is not there. Are we okay with them leaving based on the new talent? They talk about who has left, but a lot less about who came. Yes, EC3 is a tremendous performer, he’s gone on to NXT and we wish him all the best. But, people just say he’s left, they don’t say that Brian Cage or Austin Aries debuted.

We use a lot of sports analogies around here. If you have new Head Coach for a team, they’re going to change talent and they’re going to draft new players that fit their particular system. That’s what we’re doing. It is a process, there will be more people coming in.”

Scott D’Amore also commented on contracts that they have with their talents:

“It’s a false narrative that we don’t have talent under contract. The vast majority of our talents are under long-term contracts. Take a look at the departure of Bobby Lashley. He was under contract to us until almost Summertime this year. When he had other opportunities, we made a decision as a group that we were okay facilitating his release earlier than anticipated. Contracts are going to come up and will need to be renegotiated on an ongoing basis, but there’s only a small number of talent that are going to have deals coming up in the next six months. The talent we’ve been bringing in have been signing one or two year deals. People are always scared of change. EC3 was a great talent, but people are talking as if he’s irreplaceable. What was he before he came to Impact Wrestling? He was a guy who had been in developmental and never really panned out. You look historically at this company and the people who have come here and built a reputation, and when they leave, people think they’re irreplaceable. Well, what was Bobby Roode before he came here? Or Eric Young, or AJ Styles?”