Exclusive Interview: Johnny Impact discusses Austin Aries crossing a personal line and making history with his wife ahead of Bound for Glory

Anyone keeping up with Impact Wrestling will have noticed that there's a bit of a buzz in the air again, Slammiversary introduced the new Impact regime in a big way and their weekly Impact Wrestling episodes have been consistently exceptional ever since.

Maybe that's why Johnny Impact told me 'This year's Bound for Glory will be the best Bound for Glory out of all the Bound for Glorys'. And I've got to say, that's a bold statement to make but I admire his confidence.

Whilst it might be a bit early to call this Bound for Glory the best ever I can't lie when I say that I think I'm looking forward to this pay-per-view more than any other this year. That's why I was excited to chat to Johnny Impact about Impact Wrestling's biggest show at the end of it's 'revival', and he certainly thinks the company is heading in the right direction.

Impact: "[Impact Wrestling] are really good with their talent, and letting talent do what they do, sometimes the best way, in my opinion, to run a wrestling company is to introduce your talent and then get out of the talent's way, nobody knows how to be Johnny Impact better than Johnny Impact for example, I'd say the same for Pentagon, Fenix, [Brian] Cage, Sami Callihan, Eddie Edwards, Trevor Lee, the roster in general, Trevor Lee knows who Trevor Lee is, Austin Aries clearly knows who Austin Aries is, I guess."

I agreed, citing my interview with Eli Drake at Wrestling MediaCon in Manchester, England where Drake mentioned how much freedom he was given by Impact Wrestling to cut his own promos and how he cringes when someone writes a script for him.

Impact: "Yeah, Eli Drake, for example, is a good example of somebody that has really come into his own, he's not like a guy that you can tell him what to do to get over. He's been talking to himself in the mirror for years, he's got these unique promos that no-one can write for him, he's got to do his own thing."

There's certainly no denying that guys like Eli Drake and Sami Callihan have benefited from the creative freedom that Impact Wrestling as afforded them, but that amount of freedom doesn't come without its problems and controversies.

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Next: Johnny Impact reveals he really doesn't like Austin Aries following controversial tweets and talks making history with his wife Taya Valkyrie

Johnny Impact threatens to hurt Aries for real if he sees him outside of Bound for Glory

I mentioned Austin Aries' controversial tweets aimed towards Impact and his wife Taya Valkyrie in the build-up to their Bound for Glory Impact World Title match as an example of someone maybe having too much freedom, here's what Aries said (the tweet has since been deleted)

Ahh, the form of discrimination that's still super cool: Short Shaming.

If I joked race, retards, your gay look...if I fat shamed your husky wife, INSTANT OUTRAGE!!

But you can predictably cut on me over my height, genetics I don't control, and it's just FUNNY!

Impact: "The stuff that Austin Aries' little twitter fingers tweeted wasn't necessarily Impact storyline, no-one even knows what he's going to say, is it a bad thing? It's going to be a bad thing for him for sure.

I think he crossed a couple of lines, but the line that I'm concerned with is what he said about Taya. I'm not the Twitter police, I know it's 2018 and Austin offended a lot of other people with the verbiage of his tweet. But specifically, what he said about Taya isn't something you say about somebody's wife. You wouldn't say that to me in person, you wouldn't say that in front of her.

He did that on Twitter because... It's kind of a cowardly thing actually, there's no way in hell he would say that while we were standing there because he knows what would happen. It's kind of weird because, at Bound for Glory, I'm going to ... I'll be business. I mean Austin Aries and I aren't friends and we're never going to be friends. If I see him before or after, outside of Impact, it's a different story but at Bound for Glory he better keep to himself that day, he better not piss me off any more than he already has. "

Austin Aries may be an alleged coward according to Johnny Impact, but he's at the very least, a smart coward as he's managed to align himself with two of the biggest and most dangerous wrestlers in Impact Wrestling in Moose and Killer Kross, Impact wasn't shy in giving his thoughts on them and whether their trio would be a factor in the match.

Impact: "I'd be naive to think that it wouldn't be. I mean aside from the fact that he gave his word that this would just be man vs. man, Impact Vs. Aries at Bound for Glory, if you look at his past history he's always taken every advantage that he could to win a title, to keep the title.

Him getting Killer Kross and Moose is a couple of things but I'll leave it at this, I think it's a really smart move on his part because if he thinks its me versus him, he's smart enough to know that he's going to have to wake up in the morning after Bound for Glory looking in the mirror and see just him standing there with no title. He doesn't want that which is why he's got the biggest, scariest backup in wrestling.

Johnny Impact seems fairly confident he'll be able to deal with Aries, Kross and Moose in the Bound for Glory Main event and that the wonderful image of Aries looking at himself forlornly in the mirror title-less will come to fruition. But who would he have as his backup to even the odds if he could choose? Things get a bit back and forth-y here so bear with!

Impact: "I guess there's three guys, Eddie Edwards, Kenny, PJ Black. Kenny is Eddies' Kendo Stick, I think that he calls it Kenny.

Me: "He does, it would be weird to see Eddie without Kenny at the moment."

Impact: "I know, I would love for Kenny to start having his own personality, follow Kenny for a day, see him at the Mariott breakfast buffet, follow Kenny to gym."

Me: "Kenny starts his own singles career.."

Impact: "This is the kind of stuff wrestlers think about when they haven't slept much!"

I don't want to lie to you folks, I think this was the moment me and Johnny Impact became best friends. I might have read too much into it, but it felt like we really connected beyond a superficial level (Johnny if you see this call me!)

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Next: Impact reveals his thoughts about intergender wrestling and the new direction of Impact Wrestling as a company

Johnny Mundo (Impact) with his wife Taya Valkyrie for Lucha Underground

Anyway, we move on to discussing Taya Valkyrie, with Impact Wrestling using her and Impact's title shots quite heavily in the marketing for Bound for Glory with it being the first time two newlyweds have competed for their respective titles on the same show.

Impact: "It's pretty cool! I would take it even a step further that this is the first time in wrestling history that newlyweds have both had the opportunity to win championships on the same night. In the business of wrestling, anything you can have a 'first time ever', that's a really big deal.

Taya has been training years for this, I know how excited Taya is and how hard she's been trying and I'm also looking forward to beating the crap out of Austin Aries so yeah, it's a pretty cool thing."

I then decided to stir the pot a little bit and ask Johnny Impact if it would be a sore spot between the couple if one of them were to win and one of them were to lose because that's the kind of hard-hitting interviewer that I am!

Impact: "Man, I hope not, I don't think so. I think we're both really supporting of each other. Although it is true that wrestlers are competitive and we are both wrestlers. I know if I didn't win I would be upset, if she doesn't win she's going to be upset, but it's hard to say until it happens."

It was at this point that I felt brave enough to even drop the slightest reference to Impact's WWE career by referencing he was once ECW World Champion, as well as a Lucha Underground Triple-Crown Champion and AAA Champion and asking him where potentially winning the Impact World Title would fit in.

Impact: "This is why I came to Impact, to win the Impact World Championship and it feels like I've been so close my entire time with Impact, and this is starting to feel like, not my last shot, but if I don't win it on Sunday, it might be quite a while before I get another shot at it. Winning the world title to me proves that I'm on top of my game, that everything I've been doing and training for is worth it.

Now, I don't know how many of you are familiar with Ryan Satin from Pro Wrestling Sheet and the furor surrounding him not knowing who Puma King was. Well, get ready folks because I'm about to drop myself right in it. Why? Well, I asked Johnny Impact if he'd ever want to wrestle Taya and what his thoughts on intergender wrestling were.

Impact: I don't know if you've heard but that's happened, it happened a few months ago...

Me: "Did that happen, I completely missed it"

Impact: "Yeah, we did the first ever husband vs wife match."

Me: "Who won that?"

Impact: "Well, she was upset that I hadn't been doing the dishes and she brought out all of my dirty dishes to prove that I hadn't been doing my dishes and the stipulation was 'loser does the dishes for a year'. I'm not going to say how but I've been doing the dishes.

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Next: Johnny Impact reveals his current contract status with Impact Wrestling and whether or not he thinks intergender wrestling is a good thing in general

Lucha Underground has taken storylines to a whole different level

But who even is Puma King? It doesn't matter because Impact went on to give his thoughts on intergender wrestling in general

Impact: "You know it's tough because I understand business-wise, culturally, why there are certain companies that can't do it. If, for example, the company has a deal and their show's airing in China and the country is not going to air any kind of intergender wrestling, from a business standpoint it makes sense then, not to have any kind of intergender wrestling in your company.

But, what do I think about it? If wrestlers are larger than life characters and we're warriors and you're seeing a lot of superheroes like, in the Marvel Universe or the DC Universe for example, Wonder Woman will beat the crap out of anyone, it doesn't matter if it's a girl or a guy. Under that type of lens, it makes a lot of sense that there would be intergender wrestling. It's nothing but two warriors battling to see who's best, and if you look at it and think about it like that, I think it makes a lot of sense.

If you ask women that have been training in pro wrestling for years, I bet you ten out of ten feel like there's nothing wrong with intergender wrestling and if you take all that stuff into consideration I think it makes sense."

Impact Wrestling has been adopting this approach recently with LAX Vs. OGz involving an actual child getting run over and Su Yung pretending to be an actual undead wrestler who banishes people to some sort of creepy realm via a coffin. Basically, Impact is adopting a more 'fictional' lens.

Impact: "It's tough because pro wrestling at its best is a reflection of society, but I've been a wrestling fan for so long that it's so far-fetched, I like far-fetched. I like the stuff that Lucha Underground does with mystical demons and warriors and people dying. If that is the direction that Impact is going I'd be all for it because I dig that stuff.

At this point, we all want to know if Impact has actually signed with Impact Wrestling right? I mean, it's not just enough to just change your surname. That's not a big enough commitment. I want to see a contract goddammit! (I also thought if he revealed he had a permanent deal with Impact that it might give away if he wins or night at Bound For Glory)

Impact: "One of the cool things about independent wrestling currently is the relaxed exclusivity that a lot of places have. So the 'are you signed with this company, are you signed with that company' means a lot less than it did a year ago or two years ago where, if you were signed with Impact or Lucha you could only work in that one place.

Now I have the ability to sign with, like four different companies and that's one of the things I think is really cool about wrestling right now!"

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And now it's that bit at the end of an interview where I have to say - WATCH BOUND FOR GLORY. WATCH IT. Ahem. Sorry. Bound for Glory is available on Fite TV in the UK, Sony ESPN and Sony ESPN HD in India.

Also, I didn't know if Boone: The Bounty Hunter was available on Netflix in the UK and I said I'd check. It isn't. So Netflix UK, sort that out immediately. But for anyone else who does have Boone: The Bounty Hunter on their Netflix. Watch it. It's fun! (You're welcome Johnny!)