Steve Maclin Reveals When Impact Wrestling Contacted Him About A Deal

In an interview with Tommy Dreamer’s House of Hardcore podcast (via Fightful), Steve Maclin spoke about when Impact Wrestling contacted him about a possible deal, noting that it happened immediately after his no-compete clause from WWE expired. Maclin was released from WWE on February 4, which meant the clause expired on May 5. Impact began airing vignettes promoting his debut on June 3.

He said: “D’Lo [Brown] kept in contact with me and was like ‘when is your [90 days up]?’ It was May 5. He called me on May 4 and was like, ‘We want to offer you a contract.’ Technically, I didn’t sign it until after (the 90 days expired). It was a great process and I even got an email from D’Lo to say, ‘Welcome home.’ It was a refreshing feeling and it felt more accepting. I was always treated well, but [WWE] is so corporate and you’re in a pecking order. All I wanted to do it work. This past taping, I was putting more pressure on myself because I was thinking I was doing too much or doing too little. I want to do my best no matter what. Even working some Indies was cool because I haven’t worked in front of a crowd in two years so I was choked up and fired up all at the same time, and I was supposed to be a heel.“