James Storm was nearly WWE-bound, but the pandemic got in the way.
Storm had a very brief NXT run in 2015 before re-joining IMPACT and eventually making his way to NWA through the end of 2019. According to him, he was set to return to WWE in 2020, but initially missed their email during Royal Rumble weekend.
"I get home and I see I got an email from Canyon Ceman saying, ‘Hey, we’re interested. Paul Heyman wants me to reach out and bring you to Raw,” Storm said in an interview with Ryan Satin of Pro Wrestling Sheet. “I was like, ‘Wait … I think Bobby is going to Raw. Hmmm. This could be interesting.’ Ya know?”
Storm and WWE re-connected, which led to NWA letting him out of his contract early by not exercising his rollover clause.
“I told them I would work the weekend of WrestleMania shows with Eli [Drake] to drop the NWA belts to whoever they wanted to drop it to. Just go out on good terms. Good business, ya know? Then that show got cancelled for the NWA, and then it kept snowballing.”
Stormed said he and WWE agreed on terms and things were signed, but the pandemic put things on hold. He went on to say that he last spoke with WWE in July and is hopeful they can speak again.
Storm and Eli Drake remain the NWA Tag Team Champions. It is unknown when they will defend the titles.
