Josh Barnett Says His TNA Deal Came Together Pretty Quick, Talks Facing Lashley

– Josh Barnett spoke with Wrestling Inc ahead of his match with Lashley at Impact Wrestling this week. The highlights are below:

On how long he’s been a pro wrestling fan: “Since I was a kid. I used to watch WWF back in the day and some NWA stuff, AWA when I could catch it. I was always drawn to the titanic struggles between all these big behemoths of sport.”

On who some of his favorites were growing up: “I loved The Road Warriors. I liked The Hart Foundation. I was never a [Hulk] Hogan fan. I never really went for the good guys so much, but I wasn’t always necessarily into the heels either. So I was a big ‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage fan and I liked Vader at the time. I especially watched his UWF stuff, Sting, and Dusty.”

On how his deal with TNA came about: “I think they found my number from the inside of a bathroom stall. And it said, ‘call for a good match’…it came together pretty quick. I wouldn’t call it “last minute”, but a lot had to be worked out. But it was something that I wanted to do and I like wrestling Bobby and working with him and I liked the idea of this new opportunity.”

On Lashley’s progression from pro wrestler to legit Bellator fighter: “It has always been great to see him go out and succeed and I’ve been in his corner for a good number of those, and at the very least giving him advice from a distance. But he’s really put together a decent string of wins for himself. I think that he’s really poised, posed, to possibly threaten for a title bout.”

On is first match with Lashley: “God, it was in IGF and it was pretty hard-hitting. We went out for a good amount of time and it was the first and only time I did a dropkick off the top rope, so it was a good time. And we got in there and we mixed it up. You know, what’s nice about people like Bobby is that I can get in there and we can do a lot of stuff without having to do it ahead of time. We don’t have to call it. We just put hands on each other and get moving and we wrestled.”

On if he had spoken with TNA at all in the past about coming onboard: “No, this is really the first introduction really talking to these guys. Fortunately, it went well.”

On if he was familiar with any of the other wrestlers that were there: “When I got there, yeah. But leading into it, I didn’t have a whole lot of knowledge.”

On what fans can look forward to in his match: “Well, hopefully, something they enjoy. I think the biggest thing is that we try to keep a decently high pace, we hit hard, and I’d like to think that when you watch it, you’re watching wrestling, not so much choreography.”

On if he knows whether he’ll appear at the March TNA tapings: “I don’t at the moment, but that could change.”