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With the 20 year anniversary of TNA/Impact Wrestling coming up, what do you think is the legacy of the promotion?
I think the legacy is that it opened the doors for a lot of talents to become national stars via the experience there that set the stage for them to appear elsewhere, including Samoa Joe, AJ Styles and Bobby Roode but also an important place where veterans could go to continue their career, whether that be Kurt Angle, Mick Foley or Drew McIntyre. I think it was and remains an important place for talents to go and help discover themselves and in the era before AEW came to national TV, Impact and ROH were the companies that, through their respective good and bad periods, kept the lights on for fans who wanted something above and beyond WWE or an alternative because they wanted nothing to do with WWE.
Do you think the promotion will ever return to touring at the level it used to or running PPVs in front of thousands again, touring overseas, etc.?
I don't know. I think the COVID-19 pandemic wiped out so many plans for so many promotions and wiped out momentum that was never found again that it is impossible to know whether Impact can get itself back to that level. Previously, there weren't other companies beyond WWE at such a strong national level. Now there is AEW and they have captured an important piece of the fans' attention and dollars. I think Impact will likely be where they are now for the forseeable future and continue to focus on continuing to have a strong weekly TV series. In my mind, slow and steady wins the race here. They've done an admirable job building a nice roster and solid storylines with some damn good PPV events. The worst thing they could do is over-extend themselves. To me, slow and steady is a lot smarter than trying to tour in front of empty venues. Impact leaving Universal and trying to tour nearly killed the company years ago.
Is there anyone left you've never interviewed you'd want to? Do you have a favorite interviews you did?
I've conducted hundreds, if not thousands, of interviews at this point. The easy answer is Vince McMahon, but that's never, ever going to happen. These are just for me and me only, but I know I've never interviewed Rick Steamboat and that would be a lot of fun if I could come up with an angle that he's never gone into detail on before. Terry Gibbs was the first heel I ever saw live in the ring, so it'd be fun for me to talk to him about his career if he's ever interested in talking about it. There's names like Jushin Liger and Atsushi Onita, etc. I pretty much feel like whatever the next interview I do, that will be my new favorite. It's up to those who read or listen to them to decide what their favorite it, but obviously the CM Punk one stands out since that aired live on PPV and was a completely off the cuff conversation that ranged from funny to raw to inspirational at times. I am very proud of that moment.
Any update on Brian Knobbs?
He's out of the hospital. He's been seen a few times at Hulk Hogan's pub in Clearwater, using a cane to get around.
Whatever happened to the AEW DC Comics crossovers that were teased?
To date, nothing has been announced. My guess is it's still on the backburner somewhere, being developed.
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