Johnny Swinger On Why He Returned To Impact, Similarities Between Impact And ECW
After nearly 15 years away from TNA/Impact, Johnny Swinger returned a few weeks ago and has a long-term deal with the company. He had spent most of his time away working the indies with also a brief stint in WWE from 2005 through 2006.
Swinger talked about the process of returning to Impact when he spoke to Wrestling Inc. on our WINCLY podcast.
"I have a really long history with Scott D'Amore. We go back about 25 years and he was the man behind my original break in wrestling with WCW. He was also behind me in TNA so he's always been a big Johnny Swinger proponent. I've always said that Scott knew how to use Johnny Swinger better than anybody," revealed Swinger.
"I've only seen one other person do this ? Paul Heyman being the other ? will actually get in my face and do a Johnny Swinger promo with the facial expressions and the voice. That's how I know I'm in good hands and they're gonna know what to do with me."
Swinger likely had offers from many different promotions but he talked about the advantages of Impact that lured him back.
"It's not just Scott as Don Callis also. I go back to day one with him as he was the booker in Winnipeg, Canada for my first match ever," said Swinger. "He was always a big fan of my talents and then we worked together in ECW and TNA. So we go way back and Tommy Dreamer is involved in the creative process and he was my boss and friend in ECW.
"So, if you stick around long enough, you get better, you've got good friends and all of the stars align."
Swinger brought up ECW and then further talked about the similarities between Impact Wrestling today and ECW.
"Very similar. Paul Heyman and Scott are very similar in a sense that [Scott] knows me, knows the roster and knows how to plug them into certain places like Paul did," stated Swinger. "The other things is that Paul took a lot of advice from the wrestlers and I see Scott and Don kinda doing the same thing. One man can't oversee everything and you've got to get input from the people are doing it?
"Impact reminds me of ECW where everyone is working together. They don't just want one thing to go good, they want all of the segments to go good. We want people to watch a show and not just turn it on to watch Swinger and then turn it off. We want them to watch the whole show?Everyone's in on the creative part of the show."
Swinger's time away from Impact has allowed him to gain a great amount of experience in wrestling different opponents and different styles. He was asked what fans can expect from him this time around.
"Kind of a new lease on life as 25 years is a long time," Swinger said before mentioning some of the legends he's been in the ring with. "So I've picked up some stuff from them that I'm gonna start putting on TV that people haven't seen in a long time. The older fans will go, 'Oh, I remember that move' while the younger ones will go, 'Oh, I've never seen that!'
"I'm just gonna make my matches look different and draw the people in. Whatever's going on before me, I wanna have something different and then the next match is gonna keep it going."
Swinger's full interview with Wrestling Inc aired as part of Wednesday's episode of our WINCLY podcast. It can be heard via the embedded audio player at the bottom of this post, or via the embedded video player at the top.
You can check out past episodes of the WINCLY here. Subscribe to Wrestling Inc. Audio on iTunes or Google Play. Listen to the show via Spotify here or through TuneIn here.