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Former Impact Wrestling Champion Eric Young, 42, is returning to World Wrestling Entertainment, PWInsider.com has confirmed with multiple sources.
Young's final Impact Wrestling TV appearance, a vignette filmed in secret in Nashville where he was literally stabbed to death by Deaner, aired on tonight's episode of Impact on AXS TV. The idea appears to be that Deaner has ascended to become the new leader of Young's group, Violent by Design, which will continue with Alan Angels and Big Kon as the primary members:
"ELIMINATE THE SICKNESS!!!"@TheEricYoung @CodyDeaner #IMPACTonAXSTV pic.twitter.com/prKamHFMbN
— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) December 2, 2022
During his first run with Impact, Young evolved from undercard comedy performer to a bona fide top star for the promotion, all the way to holding the Impact Wrestling Championship. He left the promotion in 2016 in the midst of the promotion having financial issues under its old ownership. He was signed for the WWE NXT brand, where he headed up the Sanity faction with Nikki Cross, Killian Dain and Alexander Wolfe. He and Wolfe held the NXT Tag Team Championship.
When Sanity was moved to the main roster in 2018, it quickly sputtered on the Smackdown brand as the Vince McMahon regime saw nothing in the group or any of its members creatively, which never made much sense given the quality of Young's work across the board. Young was drafted over to the Monday Night Raw brand, ending the Sanity group officially. Although Young was given the chance to produce some matches behind the scenes, on camera he was never given much of a chance to even showcase himself. He was eventually released by the company as part of their COVID cost-cutting in April 2020.
Young returned to Impact in July 2020, winning the Impact Championship two months later from Eddie Edwards. For the last several years. Young and his Violent by Design group have been one of the highlights of Impact, especially their vignettes and promos. At different points, the group featured Joe Doering, Rhino and Deaner.
There is no word yet when Young will start with WWE. Obviously, Paul Levesque's rise to power within WWE set the stage for Young's return as he was the person who initially brought Young into WWE NXT.
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