Scott D’Amore and Don Callis on the Importance of Impact Coming to AXS, Reaction Backstage

– Impact Wrestling executive vice presidents Scott D’Amore and Don Callis appeared on Talk is Jericho and discussed the significance of the Anthem/AXS TV deal. Anthem, of course, purchased AXS TV earlier this month and D’Amore and Callis talked about how important this is for Impact, giving them a stability that they haven’t previously had.

Highlights from the discussion, and the full podcast, are below:

D’Amore on the importance of the deal for Impact: “Yeah, I think this week is a groundbreaking week for Impact Wrestling. Because you look at the history of Impact Wrestling, for so many years, its predecessor TNA was on the rise. And then it spent years on the decline and always going to smaller and smaller platforms, reducing its audience size, reducing its footprint. And here’s now for the first time in many years, where from a linear broadcasting perspective we have made a huge jump forward. And not just with the broadcast deal, but with our parent company Anthem Sports & Entertainment purchasing the majority interest and controlling interest in AXS TV. So it’s a great day for, time for Impact Wrestling and wrestling fans in general.”

Callis on the reaction backstage: “I think one of the things that is very interesting to me was a comment made by a long-time employee here who’s been here since the beginning, 2002. And he said to me ‘Don,’ he said, ‘this company has never had this stability.’ Even with the very large rights fee that came with the Spike deal, he said, ‘I was there for that and we were always wondering when’s the shoe was going to drop. When is something going to happen? Because we’re totally dependent on this deal.’ He said, ‘We never had this kind of — not just the backing, not just the partners, but we own the network. We own the platform.’ And so that was from of guy who had that kind of perspective, and I think that, for me I was like, ‘Wow.’ Because I haven’t been around since ’04, so, I didn’t know. And that for me, that was very telling.”

D’Amore on the details of the deal: “We purchased the majority interest. And the cool part about this transaction is not only do we now own and control the network, but our partners in it are Mark Cuban, who I think wrestling fans and a lot of people know quite well, a billionaire on the highest level, and the AEG Group who owns and operates and manages as many venues as any company around the country. The synergy with us and our partners now is something we’re excited about moving forward with.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Talk is Jericho with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.