Heath Slater Says He Would Legitimately Run For President As Part Of #Heath4Impact Gimmick

In a recent interview for Forbes, former WWE Superstar Heath Slater ('Heath') spoke with Alfred Konuwa about his current run in with Impact Wrestling. Slater debuted in Impact back at the Slammiversary pay-per-view in July. He recently said that there are a lot of current WWE Superstars who could join Impact once their contracts are up.

One of Slater's more successful stints in WWE involved a tag team run with Rhyno. Heath said that Rhyno was one of the people who helped convince him to sign with Impact after his non-compete clause ended.

"Rhyno had a pretty big influence on me going to IMPACT Wrestling," Heath explained. "He's one of my best friends inside of wrestling and outside of wrestling. He had a big part in talking me over there. He was like, 'come on, man, the grass is greener over here. Come with me. Come on in the wild and run with the Rhyno!"

Now with Impact, Heath has been running with a gimmick regarding him being a free agent. Heath has begun utilizing social media with the gimmick, encouraging fans to tweet '#Heath4IMPACT'. Heath says there has been a good combined effort between him and the company to push the gimmick.

"It was a good collaborative effort," Heath explained. "They actually came up with '#Heath4IMPACT', and then I just came up with, 'man, let me do some campaign ads. Let me just get up behind the green screen...' I was just throwing ideas and they were like, 'yeah, we love it!'"

Heath says he is enjoying the gimmick but wants to be careful not to delve into too much comedy, as he wants to be portrayed as a more serious character than he was in WWE.

"I've got to make sure I hold up my end too by promoting it, putting it out, and making sure these little ads are nice and good," Heath said. "Serious but funny, because everyone knows when I was with WWE, it was like I was the butt of all jokes, and I'm just like, 'come the hell on...' Now, it's like I'm not gonna be the dumb a-s anymore. I want to be the smart one."

Despite not wanting to get involved with too much comedy, Heath said he would be willing to register to run for President as part of the gimmick.

"Heck yeah! Of course I would [register to run for President]," Heath said. "I would 100% run for it, I really would. I would definitely do it, but you know how crazy the world is. They might be like, 'you know what? We're just gonna nominate this guy. We don't know nothin' about him, but he could do better than these other two, you know?"

Heath said that he wouldn't mind doing that, but also said once you get into too much comedy, that's all the audience will see you as. He wants to have a chance to elevate his character in his run with Impact, and in the effort, he has already competed in a match for the TNA World Heavyweight Title.

"As soon as you head in that direction ? don't get me wrong, I like being funny. I'm a funny guy in my regular life," Heath explained. "I'm a funny guy, I'm just a charismatic guy. It's just one of those things where I feel like I did it well up there where they're like, 'well that's him, that's his role and he's not moving anywhere else.' Now, even at IMPACT I'll do some spots and some guys will go, 'do this, do that," and I'm like, 'I'm not doing that crap no more; it ain't happening.'"

Heath said that while he is a funny guy, he can incorporate those elements while still being a serious character and is excited to have an opportunity to be himself.

"As soon as I do it, I know people are going to think of that guy, 'The' Heath Slater," Heath said. "But now, me just being Heath, the man who I am, I'm not going to do it. I want to be more of me and what I would do. I'm not going to play a character, I'm just going to go out there, and be me, and have fun doing it."