James Storm Says That Coronavirus Pandemic Ruined Plans For Him To Debut With WWE After WrestleMania

Former IMPACT Wrestling World Heavyweight Champion and current NWA World Tag Team Champion James Storm says that plans were in place for him to debut with WWE following this year’s WrestleMania 36 PPV.

One half of the current NWA World Tag Team Champions James Storm recently sat down and spoke with Ryan Satin from Pro Wrestling Sheet, and revealed that he was set to make his WWE debut earlier this year after WrestleMania, but due to the coronavirus pandemic plans changed. Storm said that WWE first approached him about coming into the company over Royal Rumble weekend back in January. However, he was working an NWA event and didn’t see the email until he was already on his way home.

Storm said:

“I get home and I see I got an email from Canyon Ceman saying, ‘Hey, we’re interested. Paul Heyman wants me to reach out and bring you to Raw. I was like, ‘Wait … I think Bobby is going to Raw. Hmmm. This could be interesting.’ Ya know?”

Storm had previously made appearances for WWE’s NXT brand back in October of 2015 when he appeared on two televised matches that aired on NXT’s weekly TV show. But instead of signing a deal with WWE at the time, he chose to re-sign with TNA for what was said to be a significantly larger amount of money.

Storm then goes on to explain that Billy Corgan and Dave Lagana had let him out of his NWA contract early, and did not exercise a rollover clause in his deal, saying that they wanted to finally help him get to WWE.

“I told them I would work the weekend of WrestleMania shows with Eli [Drake] to drop the NWA belts to whoever they wanted to drop it to. Just go out on good terms. Good business, ya know? Then that show got cancelled for the NWA, and then it kept snowballing.”

Storm went on to say that in the following months, he had prepared for WWE’s mandatory physical that is required before signing with the company by paying out of pocket for his own exams each month, “just to make sure he’d pass.” He also added that he even bought new ring gear for his impending WWE debut.

“We agreed on all the terms.. It was signed.”

But, when the time came for Storms debut, he was told by WWE that they would have to put things on hold due to the worldwide coronavirus pandemic. This carried on all the way through July, which was the last time that Storm said he spoke to anyone within WWE.

“You just take it and keep rolling. It’s not their fault. It’s just how everything is right now.”

You can listen to James Storm’s comments on his planned WWE debut earlier this year below.

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