David Sahadi Opens Up About Being Fired From TNA In 2024, Felt Relieved Because He Didn’t Like It There After Scott D’Amore Was Fired

Sahadi opens up about his exit from TNA.

In 2024, there was a regime change within TNA Wrestling after Scott D’Amore was fired from his role as President. Anthony Cicione was appointed as the new President following D’Amore’s termination. Present day, Cicione is no longer TNA President, and that role is now Carlos Silva’s.

Following D’Amore’s exit in 2024, there were multiple departures that followed, and one of those names was David Sahadi. On his Beyond The Lens show, Sahadi opened up about the firing and remembers Anthony Cicione informing him of the news.

The day prior, Cicione and Sahadi were on a conference call, and Cicione was embracing ideas that Sahadi had for TV production. As Sahadi was recounting his being let go, he mentioned that TNA almost went out of business in 2024 and said he’d circle back to that, but never did. He added that there was a sense of relief because he did not like it there after D’Amore was fired.

“That moment when I got that phone call (that I was being let go from TNA Wrestling), there were three things running through my mind. First was shock and disbelief. Two, I was pissed, and three, I was relieved, and that’s kind of a contradiction but I’ll explain each one. I was shocked because Anthony Cicione had just been there for three months, didn’t know much about me but I was on a conference call. We have a weekly production conference call, and I pitched some really great ideas and Anthony said, ‘Great. Great ideas, David. I like that. Let’s try that for the next TV taping,’ and then, less than 24 hours later, he’s calling me to fire me. So that shocked me. I was pissed because I felt I deserve more than a 15-second phone call from the now-President of TNA, a company which I’d worked for for 20 years, a company that I joined in 2024 when they were almost out of business. We can get into that later too if you want to, and then, you know, it’s like, I help keep them afloat. I helped get them a deal on Spike TV, and here is how it ends? With this guy that barely knows me, giving me a 15-second phone call after 20 years of service and loyalty to TNA, and helping that company and getting paid handsomely first but taking multiple pay cuts over the years to stay there, and I just felt disrespected, and then, I also felt relieved because I didn’t like working there when Scott (D’Amore) was fired, and Scott brought TNA back at Hard To Kill. It was his idea to bring that back.”

He further opened up about when he learned he was being let go from TNA. The H.R. representative did not know Sahadi had a contract. Sahadi said former TNA President Anthony Cicione apparently did not know that either because he fired him quickly.

The H.R. rep appreciated Sahadi being calm and respectful, and added that the others she had to call were angry and nasty towards her. She went out of her way to find the contract that Sahadi signed under the D’Amore regime, and D’Amore was contacted to confirm details of Sahadi’s contract. That was done to ensure that Sahadi could get exactly what he was promised for signing with the company.

“And here’s how the rest of that day went: I’m transferred to Human Resources and nobody picks up. It goes to voicemail. So I say, no, let me digest this and call back and I call back. This lady, I forget her name momentarily. Julie? Linda? It doesn’t matter. Let’s just say Julie. I call back in a day and she goes, ‘Hi, David.’ I said, ‘Hi. Hello, Julie.’ She goes, ‘I’ve heard nothing but great things about you, especially as a character and as a person, and I really hate that our first phone conversation is on a day like this’ and I said, ‘Julie, let me make it easy on you. I lost a father a year ago. A man who is so close to my heart. I can never get him back. Tonight, I just lost a job. I can get another job tomorrow. So, it‘s not life or death. Don’t worry. It’s okay. You’re just a messenger.’ She’s like, ‘David, wow. You’re handling it so well’ and I said, ‘Well, why wouldn’t I?’ And she said, ‘Well, the others were really angry and yelling and screaming at me.’ I said, ‘Oh, there were others? It’s not just me?’ And she goes, ‘Yeah, there’s about two dozen phone calls that I had to make today. Everybody was angry and surprised and just saying the nastiest things to me’ and I said, ‘Shame on them, Julie. You’re just a messenger. You’re not the decision maker on this.’ I said, ‘Shame on them for doing that,’ and she goes, ‘Oh my God, I am so glad that you’re the last person I had to call today because your positivity and the way you’re handling this just completely erases all the negativity that has been drenched in me throughout the entire day,’ and she goes, ‘Let me go over your severance package before I email it to you’ and I say, ‘Before you email that to me, you know I have a contract, do you not?’ And she goes, ‘You have a contract with TNA?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ She goes, ‘I didn’t know that. Does Anthony know that?’ And I said, ‘Well, apparently not because he fired me in only 15 seconds,’ and she goes, ‘What’s your contract saying?’ I said, ‘Basically, it says that if I do get fired, through no fault of my own, like I’m not working for another company, then I get six months of pay, plus my $25,000 bonus which was due back in April for not getting fired up until then.’ So, it’s like, they owed me a lot of money, and she says, ‘You have a copy of the contract?’ And I said, ‘No. But I signed it. I gave it to Scott D’Amore in person. Scott D’Amore has it, but you guys also fired Scott D’Amore a few months ago too’ and I’m not being snarky. I’m just being very light-hearted here so, ‘Either Scott has a copy of that or it’s in Scott’s files if they still exist there but no, I do not have a physical copy of that. I can tell you the parameters. They’re exactly what Eric Tompkins’ contract is or was in 2019, when Scott got us both to join and both took care of us because everybody had left to go to AEW. Kevin Sullivan and his entire team went to go work for AEW for post-production. So it’s that contract. It’s Eric’s. Just changed the names on it. It’s that’ and she said, ‘You’ve been so nice. I’m not gonna send you a severance package. Let me try to find that contract,’ and to her credit, she spent three weeks trying to find that contract and it got pushed up to somebody higher than her and they called Scott D’Amore to ask and Scott said, ‘It’s true.’ So we worked out a very friendly package but, again, Anthony Cicione, I don’t wanna say anything bad about him, but, to give me just 15 seconds of his time after I gave that company 20 years… that was extremely disrespectful. That’s all.”

Sahadi wrapped up with Major League Wrestling in August 2025, and he spoke candidly about his exit. His comments can be found at this link.

If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Beyond The Lens with an H/T to Fightful for the transcriptions.