IMPACT President Ed Nordholm Clears Up Misconceptions About Kevin Sullivan’s Departure

Ed Nordholm discusses Kevin Sullivan’s departure.

On Sept. 23 it was reported by John Pollock at POST Wrestling that IMPACT Vice President of Production Kevin Sullivan handed in his notice and would be leaving the company for All Elite Wrestling. It was later reported by SE Scoops that Sullivan and Anthem failed to reach an agreement on a contract, leading to Sullivan going elsewhere for employment.

Speaking to PWInsider, IMPACT President Ed Nordholm cleared up reports regarding Sullivan’s departure.

“It is interesting that the reports I have seen characterize Kevin as an independent contractor that left because he had not received a contract offer; Kevin was a full-time, senior executive with Anthem with all of the fiduciary responsibilities that come with that,” said Nordholm. 

Prior to officially leaving for AEW, Sullivan produced videos from the promotion while still working with IMPACT Wrestling. This became a point of contention for IMPACT.

“When we learned that Kevin had participated in Double or Nothing, we addressed with him the inappropriateness of moonlighting for a competitive business while a senior executive with Anthem,” recalled Nordholm. “He assured us at the time that he would discontinue that work. When we learned that he was still providing these services to AEW we started organizing ourselves to replace him at an appropriate time. Dave Sahadi was brought back a couple of months ago to begin working with us at our television tapings. With his involvement in All Out it was apparent that he would leave – either as his own choice or ours – but he did not actually advise us of his decision until Sunday September 22nd. Anthem has/had no relationship with his company. Kevin Sullivan was an executive employed by Anthem Wrestling who attempted to recruit his department to join a competitor while a full time employee and executive with Impact Wrestling.

It was also reported that “several others in Sullivan’s department” had also given their notice and “a select few” were leaving with him. 

Nordholm confirmed the report, saying, “Kevin plus 4 employees left. All were employees of Anthem Wrestling.”

Sullivan left a goodbye message to IMPACT on social media on Sept. 27. You can view his message by clicking here.

Nordholm went on to announce that David Sahadi is now the Creative Director for Anthem Wrestling, Eric Tompkins has been promoted to Director of Television Production, and Jay Seeman (head of audio production for TNA/Impact between 2004 and 2016), Stu Marchetti (senior video editor with that was with TNA/Impact between 2007 and 2015), and Matt Caldwell (graphics editor) have joined the team. 

IMPACT Wrestling moves to AXS beginning on Oct. 29. AXS will begin airing IMPACT programming tonight, Oct. 1, with the re-air of IMPACT Homecoming.