Konnan On New Impact Wrestling Creative Team, Impact Needing To Make It Up To Their Fans
Wrestling Inc. President Raj Giri was recently on a media conference call with Impact Wrestling superstar Konnan. Giri asked Konnan about his interactions with the new Impact creative team.
As one of the longest-tenured wrestlers on the Impact roster, Konnan has been present for much of the backstage overhauls Impact has underwent throughout its history. Konnan pointed out how much fans have criticized the company recently and he said their frustration is warranted because they expect better out of Impact.
"It's easy to criticize people, wrestling fans are hypercritical, hypersensitive, so much so that I remember when i was in Lucha Underground I was talking to the executive producer Eric van Wagenen and he had done Celebrity Apprentice and Survivor," Konnan said. "Obviously, these are shows that garner millions and millions more viewers than Impact does, and he said that he got more letters from Lucha Underground fans than he ever did from those two shows combined. So the fans are very hypercritical, and they have every reason to be because they haven't been given the product that they want."
Konnan believes Impact fell into the unfortunate cycle of not listening to their fans. But he has confidence that the new creative team has what it takes to turn the company around. He said his interactions with them so far have been positive so he believes they will be able to steer the ship on the right path.
"I think companies sometimes think they know what's best for their audience instead of listening to them. TNA has a big stain that they has to eradicate," Konnan said "I've talked to Scott D'Amore at length, I've talked to the whole creative team and to Ed Nordholm, and they know it's gonna be an uphill climb. But from what they've told me, and I don't need to put anybody over because that's not my style, I think they're going in the right direction."
There have been a number of top superstars leaving Impact recently due to budget cuts. Konnan said it's up to the company to remain vigilant in finding new talent to replace those superstars. He believes there's an abundance of talented wrestlers on the independent circuit, so it's up to Impact to find them.
"Obviously there's budget cuts, so there's some higher paid wrestlers that will no longer be with us so now they have to be resourceful enough to find the talent that's out there, cultivate it and make them stars," he said. "I've never seen so much talent as there is right now in the indies, so the talent is out there, they just have to identify it and cultivate it."