In 2011, Tony Nese made his debut for TNA/IMPACT Wrestling in the X Division Showcase tournament.
Nese was eliminated in the first round of the tournament, losing a triple threat match to Jack Evans. The X Division showcase tournament was supposed to be the start of big things for the division and Nese, but plans changed in a big way.
"The first set of tapings when we signed our contracts, Vince Russo was there and he pulled us aside and was like, 'We're re-starting the whole X-Division.' He was super excited and got us super excited. He pulled us aside individually and wanted to think of ideas and characters. We were all hyped," Nese explained in an interview with Wrestling Perspective.
Nese continued, discussing when things went wrong
"Later that week, he left the company. Then it becomes, 'there are five minutes available for the X-Division.' It was going to be the whole first half of the show, then all of a sudden it's 'No, we're picking two guys we want to push.' The problem with that was, the contracts were not exciting. You're not working, you're not making money. This is when every company was doing iPPVs and TNA had 'no DVDs and no iPPVs,' so any show running that, you couldn't work. I wasn't working for them and not allowed to work the Indies. I got offered to wrestle the Great Muta, but it was iPPV. I reached out to TNA and I said, 'I should do this match. It'll help me. You haven't used me in months.' After countless emails of ideas and promos (that went unanswered), they answered that email immediately and said I couldn't do it. It turned into phone conversations and I asked if they had plans. 'There's not a lot of spots for X-Division guys but we have the X-Division pay-per-view that we'd love to use you on.' So, one booking a year. I asked for my release. It was probably their second-fastest email," he said.
Nese did return for TNA One Night Only: X-Travaganza in 2013, teaming with Rashad Cameron in a loss to Doug Williams and Kid Kash.
Nese is currently a free agent after being released by WWE on June 25. You can find his comments regarding his release and future by clicking here.
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