Michael Elgin On Whether He Considered Other Offers Beyond Impact, Talks Jon Moxley’s Arrival in NJPW

– Michael Elgin spoke with Wrestling Inc for a new interview discussing his arrival in Impact Wrestling, his goals in the company and more. Highlights are below:

On if he entertained any other offers: “The only other offer I was entertaining was a New Japan offer. I read over it but I don’t think I was willing to stay. I knew I was leaving. Not to go into names, but there were a few other offers I was looking at and because I was looking at them, I went back and watched ppvs, TVs, internet shows. I wanted to see where everything was going with those companies. Impact really stood out to me because the focal point is wrestling. All my life I wanted to be a pro wrestler. Nothing against sports entertainment, but I wanted to be a pro wrestler. Impact’s product focuses on pro wrestling and they focus on the championships being meaningful. To me, that’s pro wrestling.”

On NJPW’s management vs. Impact’s: “The only real difference is that there is not a strong language barrier [in Impact]. It was pretty open with New Japan to talk, but I don’t think they listened through the language barrier. They heard you but didn’t always take the ideas into play. That’s a big difference as to why I’m so happy at Impact. I feel with Impact it’s a real team effort, not that it wasn’t in New Japan, but it’s just a different team atmosphere. Everybody’s a leader and everybody’s capable of giving input.”

On if he was surprised to see Jon Moxley win the IWGP United States Title so soon: “No, not at all…New Japan has always been very like, ‘Oh, here are our new toys. Let’s play with them!’ So, once I heard Jon Moxley was going, I knew what was gonna happen. So, it wasn’t really a shock to wake up to that news.”

On what to expect from him at this weekend’s Impact tapings: “I’m going out there to have the best matches possible. I don’t know who I’m wrestling, but I’m going out there with a chip on my shoulder and want to have the best matches of the weekend. I know that everybody on our roster is hungry and wants to have the best matches. They know I’m coming in to have the best matches so they are gonna up their game too.”

On his goal in Impact: “I wanna make sure that Impact is at the forefront and I also wanna make sure that if you’re talking about a Cody Rhodes vs. Dustin Rhodes, well you’re talking about Michael Elgin vs. Rich Swann as well.”