Moose And Jordynne Grace: IMPACT Wrestling Is The Place To Go If You Want Creative Freedom
Moose and Jordynne Grace enjoy having creative freedom in IMPACT Wrestling.
Moose and Jordynne Grace enjoy having creative freedom in IMPACT Wrestling.
Grace, the reigning IMPACT Knockouts World Champion, and Moose, a former IMPACT World Champion, have become two of the promotion’s top stars. They have stayed loyal to the company despite opportunities to go elsewhere, and they agreed about one of the key factors in this decision.
In an interview with Kevin Kellam of Sportskeeda Wrestling, both stars agreed that IMPACT is the place to go if you want freedom. Moose noted that other companies might pay more, but IMPACT offers happiness because it lets the performers have input about their characters.
“That’s one thing IMPACT gives you. We not pay as much as all these companies other companies pay, but a lot of times, money is not everything. Happiness is very important. This comes from a guy who’s had, same as Jordynne, opportunities to work elsewhere. It’s not like we haven’t been given those opportunities to go to WWE or to go to AEW. But at some point, you have think, well what comes first? Are you chasing after the money, or do you like the happiness you get at the company you’re with? Having creative freedom and having to give your input on what your character would do in certain situations is big, and that’s something you don’t get elsewhere. But at IMPACT, Scott [D’Amore] cherishes hitting up Jordynne, ‘Hey, Jordynne, would your character do this? What do you think about doing this?’ Or ‘Hey, Moose, what do think about doing this? We could do this, would you wanna do this?’ I like that freedom. I like being asked what my opinion is, and that’s one thing I cherish,” Moose said.
When asked to provide an example of this freedom, Moose cited his feud with Josh Alexander and noted that there were plenty of times he was asked whether his character would do something. He stated that if he didn’t agree with it, he could pitch an alternative approach.
“Plenty of times, just in the feud with me and Josh, there was times where, planning a segment or planning a match, they would ask me, ‘Hey, do you think your character would do this? What do you think your character would do here in this situation?’ I would tell them, ‘I definitely wouldn’t do that, so I don’t comfortable doing that, I’d rather do it this way. Scott would go, ‘Okay, let’s go with your way because you know your character the best. So if Moose says Moose wouldn’t do that, then let’s not make Moose do that,” he said.
Grace shared her thoughts by referencing how she convinced Scott D’Amore to let the Knockouts to the Ultimate X match by showing him that she and Tasha Steelz could climb up on the structure.
“Another great example I think is that when we pitched the Knockouts Ultimate X, and finally got it to happen, I think it was awesome that Scott was out there next to the ring when the Ultimate X was set up, and me and Tasha were just like, ‘Yeah, when is this match gonna happen?’ We were half-joking, but he was like, ‘Oh, well, when you can find girls that can climb and get on the rope,’ and I was like, ‘We’ll do it right now.’ He was like, ‘Alright, do it.’ We went up there and did it, and he was like, you could see the wheels started to turn there,” Grace said.
Moose continued by emphasizing that he’s heard stories about how other companies are strict with the way they manage the talent’s promos and overall creative, whereas IMPACT is much more collaborative.
“I think that’s one thing I love about IMPACT because I’ve heard stories about other places where you get a script and this is what you’re gonna say, and this is how you’re gonna say it, and this is what you’re gonna do, and this is how you’re gonna do it. It’s not like that at IMPACT, at least not for us because we’re higher-up on the card. At IMPACT, if you say you don’t wanna do something and you’d rather do it a different way, there’s no heat because they know you know your character the best. So I think for me, that’s the best part about me staying in IMPACT,” he said.
IMPACT is currently gearing up for the Emergence event on August 12. There, Grace will defend her title against Mia Yim. More information is available here.
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