James Storm On Possible Impact Wrestling vs. NXT War, His Impact Departure

Former longtime Impact Wrestling veteran James Storm recently spoke with the folks at Cerrito Live for an interview about his departure from the promotion. Check out some of the highlights from the interview below.

On his Impact Wrestling departure: "It actually hasn't [become] official for me, but, yes, I have left Impact Wrestling and it's just one of those things where it just kind of felt like I did everything I can do with that company and the landscape of it has changed from the time I was there, but so many people want to frown upon Dixie [Carter] and Jeff [Jarrett] and all that, but the reason I thank them and Bob Ryder is because basically if it wasn't for those guys, there would be no 'Cowboy' James Storm. There might not be an AJ Styles and might not be a Bobby Roode, might not be all these other guys who got the breaks that Jeff gave us when he started up TNA Impact Wrestling back in the day."

On going into business for himself by doing an unscripted farewell promo: "Hey, I left - who cares if there's heat? No, it's just one of those things. I just grabbed [the microphone] because, like, if I'm going out, I'm going out the way that I want to. I'd do the match however they wanted, but at the end of the day, when I grabbed that microphone and said what I had to say, it was from the heart. And being on the road so long, I wanted to say to my wife and my kids, 'hey, I'm coming home for a little while and daddy gets to spend time with you because I'm taking time off, letting my body heal, and then go back at it.' And also, like I said, Dixie Carter, Jeff Jarrett, and Bob Ryder, without those guys, a lot of the guys you know now wouldn't be around and they gave us a platform."

On the future of Impact Wrestling: "I wish I could say either way and I never wish bad upon anybody and I definitely don't wish bad upon Impact Wrestling because I'm not there anymore because to me, it gives the boys another place to work where they might not have another place to work. It gives them television exposure and all of that. And as far as where they'll be, I don't know. I just know that they need a lot of work in different departments. It's definitely not the wrestling side because the boys are bringing it. So, hopefully, like I said, hopefully, they'll be around for a while, just to give the guys another place to work and be able to make a living."

On the possibility of an Impact Wrestling vs. NXT war on the WWE Network if Anthem Sports were to sell to WWE: "It starts from the head of the snake and that's Anthem. They need to make changes to make it more marketable to me. That's what I always said, 'what would've happened if instead of Anthem, WWE got ahold of [Impact] and put it on the Network and did something [like] NXT versus TNA or something like that or whatever the name is?'"

Check out the complete James Storm interview at CerritoLive.com.