Madman Fulton Says He Can Do Things In Impact He Couldn’t In NXT

In an interview with Fightful, Madman Fulton says that he can do things in Impact Wrestling that he wasn’t able to do when he was on NXT. Here are highlights:

On his friendship with Sami Callihan: “I’ve been friends with Sami forever, like for a long, long time. We have roots all the way back into NXT and stuff like that. I’d known Dave and Jake [Crist] when I first started out, my first year in the business, their car broke down. I had to go pick them up and drive them to a show in Pontiac, Michigan on a whim. But, then I met Sami—I’d met him a few times, but we became friends down in NXT. After I’d parted ways with that and I was kinda lost in wrestling, he gave me an opportunity. He said, “Move back up to Ohio. Come work out with me, come work out with Dave and Jake, and it’ll all pay off for you in the end.” I took that leap of faith, man. This business is something you just have to jump into the deep end and just sink or swim, man. Those guys really helped propel me forward, gave me a lot in professional wrestling. I have all three of them to thank for all my success right now.”

On why he trusted Sami: “I think a lot of it came from being friends with him. I believe what he says because we’ve been friends for seven / eight years or so. He knows how hard I work and how much I want it. He’s not the kind of guy that just hands things over to you. He makes you work for it. All he can do is show you a path. It’s your job to follow down that. I think with the help of Dave and Jake really pushing me forward, helping me train at Rockstar and kinda getting me back into a more modern style, into something that’s going to propel me forward from where I was in NXT.”

On sticking with wrestling after his NXT departure: I love professional wrestling. I love everything about it. I love the travel, being in the ring, crowds—every part of it. It’s absolutely amazing. For me it’s always like trying to put together a puzzle and when you’re kinda lost, when you’re in a bad area of your career like where I was, to have these guys dump out a whole new bucket of pieces right in front of you there’s nothing to do except put the corners down, and start on your edges. You gotta just keep trying to fit everything together. So, I like that aspect of it. I like trying to figure out how to put together the puzzle and see how do I advance myself and advance my career like that. I started wrestling when I was 20. So, I’m coming up on my ten year anniversary in October. I was still wrestling in college, so I didn’t graduate until 2012 and then I started in NXT right after that.”

On being with Impact Wrestling: “I think every time you step out you have an opportunity to prove yourself and you’re expected to. For me, one of the things about coming to IMPACT! was taking a path that I couldn’t achieve in NXT, taking something that I felt was, in my heart, me falling short and not letting it happen again. Every opportunity I’m given here I go out and give it everything I have. I feel like I’ve been making a pretty good name for myself here at IMPACT! Wrestling and the more and more I get an opportunity to carry a ball, the more and more I’m going just keep running with it until someone decides to stop me.”