Alex Shelley On Scott D’Amore’s Firing: When You’re In This Industry Long Enough, You Get Used To It
Alex Shelley comments on Scott D’Amore departure from TNA Wrestling.
Many stars, both from the present and past, have publicly spoke out in support of D’Amore since he was unexpectedly fired from TNA Wrestling earlier this month. On February 7, multiple stars from the company signed and sent a letter to Anthem expressing their displeasure surrounding the firing.
While speaking on the latest episode of Busted Open Radio, Alex Shelley, who has worked alongside D’Amore for over a decade at this point, gave his thoughts on the situation. Shelley explained that as a veteran, he’s kind of used to the sudden changes in wrestling at this point in his career. Shelley also noted that he told younger talent to take credit for the hard work that they’ve put into TNA as a whole.
“I’m glad you’re getting to this early, because it’s kind of the elephant in the room to be honest with you. I’ve been at TNA for about 20 years, give or take. I stepped away for NJPW, I was under contract to Ring Of Honor. When we were told about Scott D’Amore leaving the company, I think probably because I’m at the point of being an elder statesman even though I’m only 40 — in TNA, a lot of people came to me and they were very upset and understandably so because this isn’t just a change in management, this isn’t just a new Booker being appointed and the old one leaving. This is people who’ve had more of a traumatic loss. What they lost was a paternal figure, they lost a coach, they lost a menor, they lost somebody that they’ve know since they were a teenager. The difference is that when you’re around this industry long enough, and I feel comfortable saying this, you get used to this or you’ve seen it before. I think this is probably the sixth or seventh time in pro wrestling I’ve seen the booker or whoever’s in charge upended and taken out of that position. It’s the third time I’ve seen it in terms of outside of wrestling, it happened to me when I was in the workforce in physical therapy too and I kind of look at it from that standpoint as well because we somebody who wasn’t just the booker, he was in charge of a lot of the administration work and the logistics as well, he’s gone. Scott wore both of those hats. I also had to express to people that often times, the worst case scenario looks like this. It looks like whoever’s in charge is out, somebody else is in, and with that come their crew and the people they trust, and I don’t ever hate on anybody for that. But often, you’d see half of the locker room cut off and you’d never see these guys again. That’s not what’s happening here. I tried to express to everybody in our locker room who came to me for perspective that Scott aimed the gun but you were the bullet. This is ours, this is hard work. Yeah, we trusted him and he was there for us in so many ways, but you got in the ring and wrestled. It was you, you did this, so try to remember that this is your legacy too. I think when they get that bit of information, they start to think on that like, ‘You know what, you’re right. This is something we created, of course we didn’t do it alone.’ As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized that nobody is successful by themselves, you just aren’t, right? Certainly not in pro wrestling. But at the same time, don’t diminish what you did and everybody in that locker room, at least for the past two years since I’ve been back, they were the ones that brought TNA back too. So, Scott’s gone, that happened. We move forward and we deal with this because looking back on it at this point does anybody any good.”
On Wednesday, February 21, TNA World Champion Moose commented on the firing himself. Fans can learn more about those comments here.
Shelley and Moose are set to clash over the TNA World Championship at TNA No Surrender. See the updated card for that show here.
If you use these quotes, please credit the original source and link back to Fightful with an h/t for the transcription.
