Impact Wrestling’s Josh Mathews recently spoke with Brian Fritz for Sporting News while promoting Bound For Glory next week; you can read a few excerpts below:
Josh Mathews comments on the benefits of taking Impact Wrestling to a new market like Ottawa:
“It’s just an opportunity to get the brand and the shows out there. Being in Orlando, being in the Impact Zone is great, but when we’re there so much and we film so much content there, it feels nice to get out. When we were in India (earlier this year), that felt amazing. When we did ‘Bound for Glory’ in Charlotte a couple years ago, that was pretty cool.
“(Orlando) is nice but it also breeds contempt. I just feel like it’s nice to get out of the Impact Zone for a little while.”
Mathews comments on transitioning from his role as a play-by-play commentator to color commentator:
“It’s been, I don’t want to say difficult but it’s certainly been a transition that I’ve had to work at probably harder than I’ve had to work at anything in my career in a while now on-air because you’re giving up the reigns to the show and becoming that sort of hybrid play-by-play, color commentator.
I think I can shed some light on certain things that are happening in the ring from an athletic standpoint. I think my tenure in the business alone helps with the credibility part.”
Mathews comments on the confusion surrounding the company’s rebrand as GFW, but going by Impact Wrestling after Jeff Jarrett’s absence, and getting rid of the TNA name:
“As it relates to ‘Bound for Glory’ and the TV’s that we’ll be taping in Ottawa, we’re bringing Impact. The brand Impact will be coming to Ottawa for ‘Bound for Glory’ and the brand Impact will be taping its television shows in Canada. What happens after that, I don’t know.
I thought we did a great job of getting rid of TNA. Anyone that’s listened to me closely call commentary, I never said TNA from the day I started here. It’s not something that as a 36-year-old man, I don’t want to go into a networking party and have somebody say where do you work and I tell them TNA. It’s stupid and it’s crass.”
