Steve Maclin has opened up about the creative frustrations that contributed to his departure from TNA following a five-year run with the company.
Speaking with TSN, Maclin explained that toward the end of his time with TNA, he began to feel as though he was “spinning the wheels” creatively. Maclin said he regularly presented ideas to the creative team, only for many of those pitches to go nowhere.
“I kind of felt towards the end of my fifth year I was just spinning the wheels where I was throwing ideas to creative and they were taking them and then nothing would come of it. Even when I became International Champion (in April of 2025), it was like, ‘All right, cool, where are we going to? Am I going to Mexico, Japan? How are we going to make this title mean something?’”
Maclin said he continued pitching ideas for the championship, but his plans never came together as he had envisioned.
“And every pitch that I threw just never came to fruition like I imagined. It just felt like I was always fighting an uphill battle where I just folded every time, like, ‘Okay, cool, whatever you guys want, then.’”
The situation became particularly frustrating for Maclin because of how much effort he put into developing his programs and attempting to improve the overall product.
“For me, that’s not something I like to do, especially when I try to put every bit of me into a story to better the product, to better the company and to better the person I’m in the ring with.”
Toward the end of his TNA run, Maclin attempted to incorporate some of those legitimate frustrations into his storyline with then-TNA World Champion Mike Santana.
“I was trying to really dive into that story, like here I was as a guy trying to be so selfless for so long for the company and (management is) just clamouring for people getting ready to leave right away. The writing was on the wall with certain talent just leaving as to how the story was going to end.”
Maclin said he wanted TNA to find ways of using impending departures to benefit ongoing storylines rather than allowing programs to abruptly reach a dead end.
“All right, cool, so how do we make the most of this story to make the product, for when they do leave, continue to move on instead of just coming to a dead stop? None of it made sense sometimes.”
While Maclin emphasized that he wasn’t part of TNA’s creative team, he appreciated having the opportunity to contribute ideas.
“Obviously, I’m not part of the creative process. I can add my two cents, which I’m really appreciative of, where I can throw my opinion into the hat, but it just doesn’t come out of it.”
Maclin added that he was ultimately trying to channel his genuine frustrations into his on-screen character.
“It was just one of those things where I was trying to take real-life situations and feelings and add that into the storyline.”
Maclin’s final TNA match came against Santana for the TNA World Championship on an episode of iMPACT in May.
Since leaving TNA, Maclin has remained active on the independent scene, appearing for promotions including PWE, Fight Factory, NCG and MLP. He is also scheduled for a notable first-time-ever match against Adam Copeland on October 3.
