Eric Young On Leaving WWE: I Would Have Had To Answer To Someone I Wasn’t Willing To

Eric Young comments on his return to IMPACT Wrestling.

Eric Young was “killed” on IMPACT Wrestling TV in December 2022 as a way to write him off television as he was set to return to WWE. While Young signed with WWE, he never debuted on television, and ended up returning to IMPACT at Slammiversary as the surprise partner of Scott D’Amore.

Speaking to Mike Johnson at PWInsider, Young detailed his IMPACT return and WWE departure.

“I had my eyes on it,” he said about returning at Slammiversary. “Scott and the office had our eyes on it, but nobody really knew. A lot of people were speculating with the videos and all that other stuff. I’m a believer in fate. I have it tattooed on the inside of my right arm and I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be.”

In May, Young tweeted a photo of himself in front of a laptop with the caption that it was “time to work.”

Asked about the photo, Young said, “The thing with me in front of the laptop was a side project that I’m working on. The thing with Anthem, truth be told, I’ve never not worked for Anthem since leaving IMPACT. I’ve been appearing sometimes four times a week on Game Plus Network for the last three years. I was still linked to them when I was under contract at the other place. I signed up for one thing and it turned into something completely different. Personally, professionally, and more importantly for me, morally, I just couldn’t work there anymore. If you’re a wrestling fan and you know what’s going on, it was not a super difficult choice for me, to be honest. It was a dream come true, going back, the contract was fantastic and all this other stuff, and what I was poised to do on the TV show was excellent, but in the end, I would have had to answer to somebody that I’m just not willing to do. That’s where we ended up now. I’m not mad or bitter about it, just like I wasn’t last time. Obviously, it’s a massive mistake on one person’s part, but a huge gain for IMPACT Wrestling. I’m still very good at this and it’s something I’m very passionate about and something that I work myself to the bone to make the best possible outcome of each thing I’m in.”

Fightful Select reported, “WWE sources that this request for release was right after the announcement of Endeavor’s deal with WWE, and this wasn’t a coincidence – Eric Young didn’t want to work with Vince McMahon after the Endeavor deal was announced and it was evident McMahon was back in the fold in an official capacity. WWE sources confirmed to Fightful that Young had cited moral, creative and personal reasons as why he didn’t want to work with Vince McMahon.”

Asked if he had any regrets about leaving IMPACT in the first place, Young replied, “No, I can say that I don’t really regret anything that I’ve done. I’m a very experiential person. At the time, even Scott would say, I would be a fool to not go. That’s just the reality of the business side of it. The truth is, anybody close to me, my wife and guys on the IMPACT roster who are some of my best friends in the world, I said it, and I said it to Scott, I don’t want to leave. There was part of me that was really not wanting to. I’ve never had that where I felt this weird regret of leaving. I felt we were doing something very special. I think IMPACT, for people that love pro wrestling, is a special place to work. You can ask anyone on the roster and they’d tell you the same thing to varying degrees. To me, it’s the best minute-to-minute pro wrestling show in the world. That’s biased because I work there, but I would have told you that at any point. It’s written for pro wrestling fans, by pro wrestlers. Regret, no, but I didn’t want to leave. Business-wise, it made sense for me. I can’t do this forever, and I’m hoping to now work when I’m 55. “

Young said that he is always working on other stuff, but that wrestling is his first love.

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