Scott D’Amore Recounts Timeline of His TNA Exit, Attempt To Buy the Company

Scott D’Amore shockingly exited TNA in early 2024, and he recently recounted the timeline of his exit and attempt to buy the company. D’Amore was the president of TNA back in 2024 as the company was just in the process of transitioning back from TNA from their Impact Wrestling name. Shortly after TNA Hard to Kill, it was announced by Anthem that they had terminated D’Amore’s contract. D’Amore would later go on to make an unsuccessful bid to try and purchase the company from Anthem.

D’Amore is now the founder of the revived Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling, and he appeared on The Ariel Helwani Show where he was asked about, among other things, his TNA exit. He said that he knew he was leaving before Hard to Kill and recounted his exit and more. You can see highlights below:

On If He Ever Thought He Was Done With Wrestling:

“I don’t know. I mean there certainly there was times that I probably said it; I don’t know if I ever felt it. To me it was — you know, and I got the call a few days before Hard to Kill where we were, you know, TNA was coming back. We had done the announcement, done the build. I only got the call because I’d literally told [Anthem head] Len Asper, like I’d been trying to talk to him. And he would say, ‘Hey, let’s talk after Vegas.’ And I text him and said, ‘I’m not getting on this plane to Vegas tonight if you and I don’t have a conversation.’

“So, we had that conversation and I was like, ‘Okay, I’ll go do these shows, like go do my thing.’ So, I was so much in a zone for that. We did those shows in Vegas, which I’m so proud of. That pay-per-view, that Hard to Kill pay-per-view, [I] thought was amazing. The next night, we did the first two television episodes of TNA. And that had that Will Ospreay [vs] Josh Alexander match. Which I thought was such a huge match for TNA and wrestling in general. And then we had Okada, which a big thing to me was finally putting to rest this uh you know Okada/TNA thing, which I was never a part of, but had lingered.”

On His Promo At the TV Taping After Hard to Kill:

“So we did all that. I cut that promo in the ring, go back and watch it that night of the TV. We were short on time; we had to fill to fill out the TV episode so we could get it aired. So, you know, Tommy Dreamer came to me and said, ‘You got to go to the ring and cut a promo.’ And I’m literally — they’re putting my jacket on me as I’m walking through go position. So I go out there, I cut that promo, tears in my eyes talking about what wrestling meant to me. It was part me talking about TNA was back, part me in some ways kind of like grieving my own.

“I knew at that point going into Hard to Kill that I was done. I had said I’d do the Vegas stuff, and then the following week we had some shows in Orlando. So I think strategically, they knew this is a good time in the sense, ‘We’ll get six weeks of TV in the span of 8 days or even less, and we can then use that runway to get ready,’ which is fine.”

On His Move to Buy TNA:

So I did that. Then we went right into making the Orlando shows. Did those Orlando shows, and within 20 minutes of the show ending, that’s when I decided I was going to make a run at buying TNA. So my first thought was, ‘I’m going to go home, I just want to sulk and be in a dark room.’ And then I was like, ‘F this.’ I started sending text messages before the show was over, looking for people that might want to support and invest in in an acquisition of TNA.

“So then I worked on that for a few weeks. And I remember, I sent the offer to Len Asper from the balcony of the Jericho Cruise. Just as we were getting ready, I was like, ‘I got to get this out. Because once we get out to sea, I don’t know if it’ll get out.’ So I sent it then. Ultimately, turned down obviously as people know. And then I finally went home to sulk, and realized how all-consuming TNA Wrestling, Impact Wrestling, Anthem Sports had been for seven years of my life, and kind of went, ‘Oh, I gotta figure out what I’m going to do.'”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit The Ariel Helwani Show with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.