James Storm has explained why he never signed a contract with WWE, despite having an offer on the table.
The former Beer Money star is one of the few TNA originals who never made the jump. He made a couple of appearances for the NXT brand back in 2015, defeating names such as Danny Burch and Adam Rose in singles matches.
A number of other top TNA stars, including his former tag team partner Bobby Roode and AJ Styles, ended up joining the company around the same time, but the Cowboy opted to return to TNA instead. Now he has explained the reason why.
The former TNA World Champion had an interview with Chris Van Vliet where he went into details of his talks with the promotion back in the day. James Storm revealed that he was prepared to join the NXT roster full-time and even worked on his fitness on instructions from William Regal. Things started going south, however, when the company changed their initial offer:
\"They gave me a contract; I went home and I got a call from Regal. He goes, ‘Hey, we definitely want to sign you.’ I was like, Oh, great. So I was going to sign the contract and all that stuff, and then he asked me, ‘Can you tighten up a little bit? Lose a little weight?’
I was like, ‘Yeah.’ I busted my ass and I lost 20 pounds. I got in really good shape when I got back down there. Everybody’s like, ‘Oh, my God, you look totally different.’ Because I always tell people, you give a man motivation, he’ll work his ass off if. So I did it, and then when I got down there, the contract had changed. They added 25 more dates, but the money didn’t move.\
I\'m Going Home: James Storm
James Storm noted how TNA, at the same time, had offered him a deal to return to the promotion with more money than WWE was offering, and he made NXT officials aware of the same. The wrestling veteran revealed that his wife wanted to have another child at the time, and he ultimately decided to choose his family over the WWE deal:
\"Because my wife, she wanted to have another child at the time, but she had to take the shots and all this stuff, so I was basically kind of giving that up as well, because I was going to be on the road a lot.
We came to an agreement, and she was like, ‘Well, if they can just give you this, then you have my blessing to sign.’ Hunter is like, ‘I just can’t do it.’ I was just like, ‘All right, well, I’m sorry, my wife gave me permission not to sign, so I’m going home.’\
The 48-year-old later noted that he had one final conversation with Triple H about signing with the brand. The Game told him that Vince McMahon was a fan of characters, and with his experience, he\'d be called up to the main roster sooner than later.
The WWE Executive however, claimed that he did not have the authority to offer him the deal Storm was asking so he declined the proposal. James said it was one of the hardest phone calls of his life, but in hindsight, it was the right decision for him and his family.
