Johnny Impact Thought Things Would Go Better When He Left WWE, Praises Prince Puma

– Johnny Impact/Mundo spoke with Sports Illustrated for a new interview about his feud with Prince Puma, leaving WWE and more. Highlights are below:

On his feud with Puma: “Sometimes I take a few steps back and I watch some of the matches that we’ve had, and when I’m watching what I’m doing in the ring with him, it almost seems like an out-of-body experience. Like, ‘Whoa, that was me. I did that.'”

On Puma: “Prince Puma is one of the most talented people in the history of the business. He can do anything. He’s so ridiculously talented. When you’re in the ring with someone like him, that means that anything is possible. I mean, I could pretty much do anything I want to, so you’re dealing with two ridiculously talented performers who are gunning to steal the show, who both have a chip on their shoulder, who both have something to prove.”

On Puma’s athleticism: “He is just so strong, agile and quick that it’s impressive and sometimes scary to be in the ring with somebody that talented. On the other side of it, I love it because sometimes I’m in the ring with people that don’t challenge me in all those aspects — creatively, with their quickness, with their agility, with the way they think about things. So when I’m in the ring with somebody like Puma, it really forces me to level up and rise to the top of my game. It’s sometimes just face-melting, the kind of stuff that he can do.”

On leaving WWE and getting Boone The Bounty Hunter made: “I thought things were gonna go much better, much faster [when I left WWE]. I worked on Boone for five years. I tried to find money for it. I couldn’t. I ended up selling my house to finance it personally. Lucha didn’t start until 2014. Impact, I just started with. I feel like I’ve been busting my ass since I left WWE to create opportunities. There are some things I did that I’m proud of that didn’t take off. I’ve tried to keep in mind throughout this whole journey, instead of taking the path of least resistance, take the path that I’m most passionate about. That’s been my guiding force.”

On his time in the industry: “The longer I’m in the business, the more I think about legacy. The trail of memories, emotions that I put out there to affect people. To make people feel things the same way when I grew up when I was watching WrestleMania, when I was watching Shawn Michaels, Macho Man, or even [Hulk] Hogan. In movies too, when I was growing up – ‘Rocky,’ ‘Bloodsport,’ Jackie Chan movies, all those things affected me. And the longer I’ve been in the business, the more I’ve started to think about it in those terms. It’s really important to have matches that you’re proud of. To be at Lucha Underground at Day 1 when the ‘Temple’ was half empty because no one really heard of Lucha Underground, to … [just] wait until you see the place on Wednesday. It’s fun to see Season 1, Episode 1 vs. Puma, and then see how far we’ve come, to what’s gonna happen at Ultima Lucha.”