Source: Busted Open Radio Show
During an interview on what has become one of the premiere talk shows for professional wrestling fans – the Busted Open Radio Show – former TNA World Heavyweight and X-Division Champion Austin Aries talked about the current roster reorganization in iMPACT Wrestling, his thoughts on the Bound for Glory Series, and more. Highlights of the interview are included below. Enjoy!
On the Current Roster Reorganization
Some people look at the turnover and the releases and they put a negative connotation on it but I think in any business and especially in the sports world, you need to keep that middle ground fresh and in wrestling, it’s the same way. You give guys opportunities, some guys run with the brass ring and some don’t but you can’t stagnant with that, you need turnover because it keeps that fire lit under everybody, keeps everyone performing to the best of their abilities, no one gets comfortable, you don’t want anybody getting comfortable and going to work and collecting a paycheck. You want to keep people on their toes and I don’t think the turnover is a bad thing. It gives new guys opportunities, it keeps fresh faces for the fans and they don’t get sick with the same old, same old and that’s a successful recipe for any business.
On the Bound for Glory Series
This is a personal preference if you are going to put up 20 points for some battle royal match or gauntlet match, it defeats the purpose because these should be one-on-one singles matches with a 15-minute time limits because that’s what this is about… In some ways, it cheats the fans because for those fans who were really invested in it and they thought that this was the last night to see who advances now: ‘Oh hey, next week we are going to throw another gauntlet match for 20 points,’ it’s kind of insult and I can understand as a fan, why at the time, I would tune out. I think it has a lot of potential but I understand there are a lot of moving parts and a lot of factors behind the scenes that had to be changed or maneuvered around and that’s the part that the fans do not understand… I think I would bring the competitors down to eight, shorten it up, and put a real importance on it and maybe a couple Impacts would be strictly Bound for Glory series matches that night. Or, the other thing that I heard thrown out there which is a good suggestion is make it more of a tournament style because people can follow tournaments and that’s an easy concept to understand and I think the points can’t get confusing.
On Storylines Focusing on Behind the Scenes Drama
The thing that we all have to be mindful with the performers that are out there, we don’t want to be too smart for our audience. We are a lot more plugged in and tuned to those behind-the-scenes things but the vast majority of them are not. Sometime we can outsmart ourselves with the things that we can do out there.
