Rhino Confirms Multi-Year Deal With IMPACT, Says He Didn’t Want To Sit And Collect WWE Paycheck

Rhino discusses why he turned down a deal with WWE.

Last Friday on IMPACT, Rhino (formerly Rhyno in WWE) officially returned to IMPACT Wrestling when he took out Michael Elgin with a Gore. Rhino’s contract with WWE expired on July 18 and he decided not to sign an extension.

In an interview with Sporting News, Rhino revealed why he turned down WWE’s offer.

“Basically, I was talking with Mark Carrano (WWE Senior Director of Talent Relations), and Vince (McMahon) threw out a number. It was double my downside. It was more money than I would have made in wrestling altogether. I love being on the road whether it’s working with independent promotions or with Impact, AEW, or WWE,” said Rhino. “My window of being on the road is closing. I realize that. My thing is I enjoy being in the locker rooms and helping people out. My goal is to find the next John Cena, the next Steve Austin or the next RVD. I can’t do that if I’m sitting at home. I’m more beneficial to being on the road.”

Rhino continued, “One of the things I talked to Mark Carrano about is putting in the car with guys that are coming up from NXT or currently in NXT. I don’t need to be on TV. Put me on the live events. I can show up at TV’s and do whatever. A lot of the men and women who get to Raw or SmackDown are very talented in the ring. I told Carrano, ‘You and I both know it takes a lot of money to get a talent to Raw or Smackdown. And then you’re investing more money in TV time to get them over. And if they mistake in this day of age, they are in trouble due to the social media and are likely to be fired. I can get the talents in the car for a few weeks and teach them the ways of the road and do something like that.'”

Rhino revealed that if he wasn’t going to be on the road, he would make sure he had enough money to be happy while sitting at home.

“But I thought I wouldn’t be on the road and be able to do that because there are so many people under contract. So that’s one of the reasons I turned it down. I figured I would throw a stupid number out there and if they bite then if I sit at home, I’ll have to learn how to be happy. But I realized money doesn’t always make you happy. I’m glad they turned down my counter,” stated Rhino. “They made a counter and wondered if we could meet in the middle. I was like, ‘No, I don’t think we’re going to meet.’ I realized there that I just didn’t want to collect a paycheck and told them we’d just part ways respectfully. There was no heat or anything. At the end of the day, I would have been miserable, and there isn’t an amount of money to make you happy when you can’t do something you love.”

Rhino is scheduled to be part of IMPACT’s trio of events this weekend. You can find more information on those events by clicking here.