At IMPACT Slammiversary, IMPACT teased the arrival of the "Drama King," hinting that the former Aiden English would be coming to the promotion.
English, now going by Matthew Rehwoldt, made his debut at IMPACT Homecoming, teaming with Deonna Purrazzo.
Speaking to Lucha Libre Online, Rehwoldt explained how he came to IMPACT Wrestling.
"I spent a lot time figuring things out and seeing where I want to go, reaching out to different avenues and exploring different avenues. I've been doing podcasting, twitch streaming, and all kinds of stuff. I reached out to a couple of friends of mine in IMPACT Wrestling, notably people like Sami Callihan and Eric Young, who are two good friends of mine and always were guys who spoke highly of me and we have great relationships. They put in a good word and a lot of back and forth. Eventually, this Homecoming tournament came up and the idea started brewing. 'Well, there's the Virtuosa, Deonna Purrazzo,' who is a proper and credible athlete, walking on air sort of thing where that's what the Drama King does in his own way. The timing and marriage of style and time worked out really well. I loved it because Homecoming, outside of Slammiversary, was the first set of tapings with a live audience. It was such a fortuitous time to be brought in and I couldn't have walked into a better locker room and vibe and atmosphere. Since then, it's just been kicking off," he said.
Rehwoldt and Purrazzo were victorious in the Homecoming tournament being crowned the King & Queen of IMPACT.
Later in the interview, Rehwoldt revealed the travel issues he had on his first day with IMPACT.
"My first day, I had been doing an independent show the night before. I needed to fly in that morning to get there for tapings. I woke up that morning to a canceled flight, which is the worst thing. It's six in the morning, I'm scrambling to find new flights," he recalled. "It's my first day and the worst way (to start). We get travel worked out, the IMPACT travel department is top-notch, they were so helpful. Due to circumstances, I get there three, four, five hours late and miss a chunk of the tapings. To show you the place IMPACT is, the first thing I hear is, 'Are you okay? Thank you for going through all that to get here.' They were thanking me. They were like, 'We get it. We're so happy to have you.' Immediately, there was a warm embrace and atmosphere like, this is the kind of environment it should be."
Rehwoldt remains aligned with Purrazzo on IMPACT television.
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