Recently released TNA star Jay Bradley spoke to Steve Muehlhausen of Between the Ropes this week. Bradley was a successful member of the TNA Gut Check challenge on Impact Wrestling, and was a participant in the 2013 Bound for Glory Series. He was released from his contract on January 13th.
One toping Bradley touched on was Hulk Hogan's involvement with TNA Wrestling:
I was kind of indifferent. A name like Hulk Hogan kinda opens doors for you. Everyone in the world knows that iconic image. You go to do business with an advertiser … you immediately associate Hulk Hogan with pro wrestling, so maybe that opens some doors. But it is business, and you can tell there's been so many changes with the company in the past 12 months or so. Was I surprised to see him go? Not really. I assume he's a high ticket item to have on the payroll. But I was pretty indifferent, because it didn't really effect me in one way or the other.
He did keep to himself, but a lot of times he would catch my match or my promos, and give me a little direction on what he liked, or what he felt I could improve. He wasn't unapproachable or anything like that. If he was around you could go up and talk to him.
Jay Bradley also mentioned AJ Styles, who he recently toured Japan with:
AJ's gonna do what's best for AJ Styles. He's been there since the beginning of the company. But last I talked to him – he was in Japan with me for a couple days – and he was like "man, I really don't know what's going on." That kinda murkiness that I was experiencing, he seemed to be experiencing. Here's AJ Styles, the guy who's been making a good living from TNA, guy that was one of the faces of TNA, and he's going "man, some of this stuff is just a little crazy; some of these changes." … We're all in it for ourselves in this business. We're all independent contractors, we're all independent business men. AJ is going to do what is best for AJ. Apparently he wants to experience life outside of TNA, and good for him. He's earned that. He's done everything I think he can in TNA, and he'll be in demand on the international scene and in the indies too.
Finally, the former Gut Check star defended TNA President Dixie Carter and spoke on competition with the WWE:
You're not going to beat Vince in the pro wrestling game on his level. Vince has got a 30-year head start on anybody in this game right now. He started from his dad's business which had been around forever, learned it from his dad, and bought out the other territories, surrounding himself with some of the best business and wrestling minds available. You're not going to compete with him on ANY level. You're not going to go into an arena with 10-15,000 people and pack it every day.
[Dixie Carter] was always very personable to me. Always easy to talk to. She would come up to you throughout the day and say "hey, how are you?" She seemed very knowledgeable about the product … Very complimentary and gracious. But as far as anything other than that, I really didn't deal with Dixie much. Unfortunately I think she's become the IWC's scapegoat for everything that goes wrong. But as far as internet wrestling fans – or die hard fans in general – they're some of the most passionate fans ou there. If you do something positive they'll give you an inch of praise. If you do something negative they'll give you a mile of hate. I do feel she gets a bad rap.
