James Storm has commented on never signing with WWE.
James Storm is a true TNA Wrestling original. He spent most of his prime with TNA, winning the World Heavyweight Championship and World Tag Team Championship multiple times during his time with the promotion. Briefly, Storm appeared in WWE NXT in 2015. Ultimately, he did not sign with the promotion.
During a recent interview with Chris Van Vliet for Insight, Storm explained why he ultimately decided not to sign with WWE, the family issues he had to consider, and his recollections of his interactions with Triple H.
"Man, it was a lot. Mostly had to do with my family. Had a little bit to do with money, which is not like they didn't pay him a lot of money, so he's not coming," he said. "It wasn't like that at all. 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 even told him TNA had offered me another contract to come back because they heard about me wanting to sign with WWE.
"I said, 'Look, this is what TNA is offering me. I'm not trying to hold this over your head at all, because you don't have to match this at all," he continued. "I'm just saying this is what I'm willing to give up to come and work for this, but it has to be right.' 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.' Three days later, Canyon Ceman called me. He goes, 'Hey, man. Paul wants to know if he can call you.' I was like, 'What? Hunter?' He goes yeah. I go, 'He has my phone number. I just talked to him not too long ago.' He goes, 'Well, since you're not signed, we had to go through the proper channels, and I had to make sure, you're on a recorded line.' I was like, whatever, yeah, he can call me. So he called me and I talked and he's like, 'Look, you're not gonna be here long, because Vince loves characters and you know how to work, so you'll probably be shipped off real quick.' I was like, 'Well, can you give what I was asking?' And like I said, it was not much at all, and he's like, 'No, I just don't have the authority to do that.' I was like, 'I'm sorry, man. I'm gonna have to say no.'"
James Storm's tag team partner in TNA, Bobby Roode, would end up joining the promotion a year later and had a successful run on the WWE main roster and in NXT. He now works for WWE as a producer.
Fans can check out the full interview with Storm embedded below.
