Moose discussed in an interview with Wrestling With Sports about how the COVID-19 pandemic completely changed Impact’s initial plans for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship.
Here is what he had to say:
On where the TNA Championship storyline came from: “Okay. First of all, the first thing I wanna say with answering your question is, screw coronavirus. Yeah, because this whole thing was supposed to — we actually had to change the storyline a bit. Actually, a lot. Because the initial storyline was, we were supposed to have the Mania show, WrestleMania was in Tampa this year. And we had a big show going on that weekend called ‘There’s Nothing Like Home.’ And it was supposed to be a TNA-featured show, and the main event of that show was supposed to be the King of the Mountain match. And they were gonna announce the day of the show on social media that now the King of the Mountain match will be for the TNA Heavyweight Championship. And I was supposed to win it.
“But then coronavirus happened, and everything got shut down and everything got cancelled and that show got canceled. So the idea was, how do you still introduce the TNA Heavyweight Championship now that we don’t have any shows before our next PPV which was — was it Rebellion, I think it was? So they came up with an idea of, ‘You’re a f**king asshole, and you’re a bad guy, you’re a heel. How about you just bring the title and claim it?’”
On his reaction to the plan: “I automatically fell in love with the idea. Because one of my favorite wrestlers as a kid, and still to this day, was Ric Flair. And I remember when Ric Flair showed up in WWE, I think for the first time, and he had the NWA title. So to me, it was like, ‘This is the greatest idea ever,’ because I remember watching Ric Flair showing up, I’m a big fan of Ric Flair. And I remember him showing up to WWE claiming he was the real world champion because he had the NWA Title. So they told me what they were thinking, and I loved it, and we just went on with it.”
H/T to 411 Mania
