Former TNA President Scott D'Amore was let go from the company back in 2024, and after a brief break away from the professional wrestling scene, came back strong with his relaunch of Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling. D'Amore sat down on "The Ariel Helwani Show" to talk about his career, which has spanned over three decades, beginning as an in-ring performer, and he addressed his departure from TNA.He said that the head of Anthem Sports, the owner of TNA, Leonard Asper, wanted to speak with him before his final stretch of shows, which began at Hard to Kill in Las Vegas, which is when he knew he was done. He went through with the pay-per-view and following shows, and explained how proud of them he was."That Hard to Kill pay-per-view, thought that was amazing," he said. "The next night, we did the first two television episodes of TNA, and that had that Will Ospreay, Josh Alexander match, which I thought was such a huge match for TNA and wrestling in general. Then we had [Kazuchika] Okada, which was a big thing to me was finally putting to rest this Okada-TNA thing, which I was never a part of, but had lingered."He spoke about the promo he cut on television celebrating TNA's return following Hard to Kill, and said Tommy Dreamer encouraged him to go out there. D'Amore explained the tears in his eyes as he spoke were part him talking about TNA and what professional wrestling meant to him, and part grieving the fact he was finishing up in TNA.
After working Hard to Kill in Vegas, D'Amore went on to work tapings in Orlando before his time in TNA was officially done. He said within 20 minutes of the final show in Florida ending, he had made the decision to make a run at purchasing the company."My first thought was, 'I'm going to go home. I just want to sulk and be in a dark room.' Then I was like, 'F this,'" D'Amore explained. "I started sending text messages before the show was over, looking for people that might want to support and invest in an acquisition of TNA. Then I worked on that for a few weeks and I remember I sent the offer to Len Asper from the balcony of the Jericho cruise... Ultimately, it turned out obviously, as people know, and then I finally went home to sulk and realized how all-consuming TNA Wrestling, Impact Wrestling, Anthem Sports had been for seven years of my life, and kind of went, 'Oh. I gotta figure out what I'm going to do.'"Anthem Sports announced on February 7, 2024 that D'Amore contract had been terminated, and by August 8 of that year, he announced the relaunch of MLPW. The promotion held its first event in October, and in July 2026, "MLPW Mayhem," the promotion's weekly TV series, premiered on Canada's TSN2, and also now streams on MyAEW, as well.If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "The Ariel Helwani Show" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
