Konnan Says Impact Needs a New TV Home, Comments on All Elite Wrestling Rumors

– Konnan spoke with Wrestling Inc for a new interview discussing Impact’s TV deal, the All Elite Wrestling rumors and more. Highlights are below:

On his planned comeback tour: “Well, I had already told everybody that I was going to do a comeback next year. I’ll probably be in good, good shape by the summer of next year. I still haven’t gotten into weight-training. Now I’m just working on my conditioning, so I was going to do a comeback tour next year anyways. And isn’t so much… there is an itch, but it was also more like I feel like I just want to say, ‘goodbye’ to the fans as a [pro] wrestler, as an active wrestler. I just want to be able to say, ‘goodbye’ on my terms because 10 years ago, I had to have hip surgery. I had a hip replacement and when they went in to do my hip replacement, my kidneys were damaged, so I had to get a kidney replacement, a kidney transplant, and a hip replacement. And, bro, I was in really bad health and I hadn’t wrestled in 10 years. So all-of-a-sudden, I retired because I was hurt or disabled and everybody’s like, ‘Well, what happened?’ So I just want to kind of like go out on my own [terms] and be able to say, ‘goodbye’ to everybody one last time.”

On the LAX vs. The OGz Concrete Jungle match: “Well, when I was watching it on the monitor, I kept thinking, ‘Oh s**t, I hope nobody gets hurt in the ring and falls through a hole or something like that, some s**t like that.’ I wasn’t thinking much about the fans because I didn’t think the boards would fly into the crowd, but I kept thinking to myself, ‘Wow, this looks dangerous because it is right now and that adds an extra element, so if nobody gets hurt, this is really going to come across good.’ And originally, I had told Sonjay Dutt that I was going to do my old rolling clothesline, which I knew would have gotten a humongous pop, but once I got out there, and I had seen how the boards were going, and how hard it actually was, I said, ‘f**k that.’ It worked in our favor – a lot of things could’ve gone wrong.”

On the difficulty in making new gimmick matches. “It’s like horror movies, how many different ways can you scare people anymore? Everything has kind of been seen. So much has already been seen and done that it’s very hard to come up with new stuff. Not that it can’t be done, but it’s hard, so you’re always kind of doing a variation of a theme. It’s very hard to come up with something new, that’s original. I give [Impact] props for that [Concrete Jungle match concept].”

On Impact needing a better home: “Well, I think that Impact has a great product right now. Not because I work there because if you’ve ever heard some of my past interviews, I’m not afraid to bury s**t even if I’m still in the company if it isn’t any good. There’s great talent. There [are] great storylines. That cannot be argued. I think we need a couple of people on the show that move the needle, but bigger than that, way bigger than that, we need to be on a better network. And I think once Impact gets on a better network, the sky’s the limit. It really is because you’re giving people some really good TV.”

On the rumors of All Elite Wrestling: “As far as All In, like they say in English, ‘Where there’s smoke there’s fire’ and like they say in Spanish, ‘Where there’s water, there’s probably a river nearby.’ The bottom line is there are too many things that are happening that point to something happening because I don’t think they would’ve gone out there and trademarked, what was it, ALL OUT, right? So [Tony Kahn] [has] got the money. He [has] the stars to do it with because, let’s face it – we’ve already seen what they did with ALL IN, so imagine these guys, [Kenny] Omega, all these guys involved, you know who they are, with TV, I mean, I think something’s going to happen.”