Former TNA star Devon was recently interviewed by Monday Night Mayhem. Here are some highlights of what he said about:
His first TNA departure & his eventual return: Actually no, some people thought it was a work. They thought we were working them. We actually were not. my contract expired August 29th. That year, last year to be exact. I actually walked away. My opinion and the opinion of many others was that the offer they made me was extremely insulting and I was not going to stand for it. The Thursday before Bound For Glory, I got a phone call with a different offer. It was one that I was definitely OK with. They wanted to talk immediately after the television show. All of that went down literally within hours. About 72 hours from Bound For Glory.
Only about 5 people knew. DOC and Knux literally didn’t know. I came in about halfway through the pay per view. They only knew when we were ready to go out and do the run in.
What led to his departure: They wanted me to sign for 3 [years] and I just said ‘nope’ because I felt that the relationship between TNA and I was heading south and they looked at things a lot different than I did. I didn’t see the direction of the company going in the way I thought it was going to go so I said, Let’s just do one year.
I was a little annoyed at certain things that happened during the split with Bubba. They had me sitting at home while they built his singles career. I had to fight for a lot of things. I never really got my just due. There are those that say well, I had the television title but look now. When you go on the air and say I’m going to defend the television title every week on Impact and you do it for the first couple of months and then all of a sudden you don’t do it any more.
It’s not my fault and it’s not the General Manager, Hulk Hogan’s fault because he’s not calling the shots. It’s the guys behind the scenes. We had to take a back seat because of the Bound For Glory qualifiers.
More on his departure: Once again, same thing, we started this year good and then they just started ripping things from underneath me and a lot of other guys. I made my opinions known. I love Bubba to death. I’m happy for all his success and all but I think TNA didn’t do the right thing by me during the split. There were a whole lot of empty promises that were made that they never came through on.
– TNA Referee Brian Hebner revealed the following photo from inside of the Soundstage 19 in Universal Studios, site of tonight’s live “Turning Point” edition of Impact Wrestling:
* MAJOR Heat on RYBACK For Doing Goldberg’s Moves During His Matches Without Permission