James Storm Almost Returned To WWE In 2020

In an interview with Fightful, James Storm revealed that Paul Heyman and Brian James attempted to bring him back to WWE in 2020. Storm was briefly in WWE, as part of the NXT brand, in 2015. He had two matches but decided not to sign with WWE in favor of going back to Impact. Here are highlights:

On almost going back to WWE: “It was Paul Heyman. He told Canyon Ceman to reach out to me and see what my thoughts were. It was basically I was going to help guys learn to wrestle on TV. He said, ‘Do you have a problem with that?’ I said, ‘No.’ When I go to the bank they don’t ask me if I win or lose. They just ask me, ‘How would you like this?’ But it was one of those things where Paul was like, ‘We need guys that know how to wrestle on TV that can get in the ring and still go and teach these guys. Because we can have our coaches in the ring all day in the ring and tell these guys, ‘Okay, you have to do this, this, this and this,’ but until they get in there and experience it with someone that’s been on TV for long periods of time, it’s hard to explain that to someone.’ He goes, ‘Plus we need guys that can do a promo and believe their own shit.’ It was one of those things where — that’s me. I’ve lived my life and usually what I say, I’ve done it.”

On showing up backstage for RAW: “They asked me to come down to a couple different RAWs. I did one in Atlanta where they snuck me in backstage. I was back there and I wasn’t supposed to be there and then Paige gets on her Instagram. I thought she was sending a video to her mom, who I was going to be working for in a couple of weeks over in England, I look and she’s on IG Live and is like, ‘Oh, I’ve got James Storm back here.’ I was like, ‘Oh, no. I’m James Storm, oh, no.’ Then it was all over the internet. ‘James Storm backstage at RAW.’ Road Dogg came right up to me, he goes, ‘You’re not supposed to be here.’ She was good enough, she was like, ‘Look, that’s my fault.’ I was like, ‘I just got fired before I got hired.’ Paul Heyman came walking by. Me and Kurt was sitting there and we were watching the monitors. Paul Heyman came by, he came up to me. He’s like, ‘Man, I’m a big fan of your work.’ I was like, ‘Man, I appreciate it.’”

On if he thinks he’ll go back: “No. Now that they’re just hiring thirty and under guys. But I look at it like they still need guys like me and my generation that can come in and still be able to go and be able teach these guys how to do promos and how to believe in their character and how to wrestle on TV. You can teach everybody how to do a wrestling move. But how to really know how to work and wrestle on TV and make people believe in you is a lost art, really.”