Ken Shamrock recently spoke with Wrestlezone’s Bill Pritchard ahead of this week’s IMPACT Wrestling TV tapings in New York City. Shamrock competed in a match against Joey Ryan that aired on this week’s episode of IMPACT, and is scheduled to challenge Sami Callihan for the IMPACT World Championship at tonight’s television tapings in New York City.
Shamrock, a former (NWA) TNA World Champion himself, talked about what the title’s lineage means to him and why he chose to come back to IMPACT after a sabbatical from professional wrestling.
“TNA, being able to have that belt and be a part of that lineage… I don’t know if there’s any other belt other than the John L Sullivan belt, when it comes to bare-knuckle fighting that has as much history as the [NWA] TNA belt does. For me to be a part of that is awesome.” Shamrock said. “And then, you think about the atmosphere here at IMPACT. For me, watching all the organizations, the reason why I wanted to come back to IMPACT was that they had the talent that was more impressive. They’re more into doing wrestling and high-risk moves. Being able to put on great matches from top to bottom on the card. I felt that this was the best place to go because this place had the best opportunity to grow faster than any other company.
Shamrock has already had two high profile opponents in Moose and Joey Ryan, but says he didn’t come back to face one person specifically besides Moose, who picked a fight with him. He said he might lose a few battles along the way, but he’s prepared for the long haul and his ultimate goal is to win the IMPACT World Championship.
“There wasn’t any one person other than Moose. That came up in some conversations, some trash talking, so that was one I wanted to go in and get. I treat IMPACT and the opportunity I have like a war. I want to win this war and there are going to be multiple battles for me to win this war. I went in against Moose because I had that opportunity we talked about, and I lost that battle,” Shamrock said. “But I also know because of my career and how I’ve been able to achieve success that there are some battles I’m going to lose. I’ve got to learn from those battles and get better. That way, there are going to be 100 battles and I might lose 10% of those, but the ultimate goal is to win the war and get the belt around my waist.”
