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When news broke that Eric Young asked for and was granted his release from WWE following the return of Vince McMahon earlier this year, it felt like his relationship with The Fed was likely severed forever.
Sure, Young didn't appear on television for his promotion after being re-signed by his former NXT boss Paul “Triple H” Levesque in 2022, but clearly his run didn't live up to anyone's expectations, leading to some presumed hard feelings between the two sides.
… or maybe not. That's right, stopping by Haus of Wrestling for an interview, Young revealed that he is still friends with Levesque and was just “texting him a couple of days ago.”
“I still have a very good relationship with Hunter; I was just talking to him a couple of days ago,” Eric Young told Haus of Wrestling. “I loved it. The truth is, I never wanted to leave NXT. I knew that the main roster was the destination, and that's where you made money, and that was kind of the end goal for most people. But the truth was deep in my heart I never wanted to leave in the first place. So yeah, I absolutely loved NXT. The main roster was not the same experience. It was a very poor experience, probably my least favorite out of my 30-plus years in wrestling.”
Is it surprising to see Young and Levesque still on good terms? Maybe yes, maybe no, but considering the relationship the two men shared in NXT, it makes some sense that they would remain friends to this day.
Eric Young reveals why he left Impact for WWE and vice versa.
Speaking of Eric Young's most recent, most bizarre tenure in WWE, where he didn't wrestle a single match and was allowed to return to Impact Wrestling due to his misgivings about working for Vince McMahon, the 55-year-old former Impact Champion sat down with an interview with PWInsider’s Mike Johnson right after his return to the Impact Zone to explain it all, and you'd be believe, the former Sanity member has a story to tell.
“It was not, uh, a super difficult choice for me to be honest. I know it was a dream come true, going back, for sure. The contract was fantastic and all this other stuff and what I was poised to do on the TV show was excellent, but in the end, I would've had to answer to somebody that I'm just not willing to do. That's where we ended up now. Like I said earlier, I'm a believer in fate and everything happens for a reason, and I'm not mad about it. I'm not bitter about it, just like I wasn't last time. Obviously it was, it's a massive mistake on one person's part, but a huge gain for wrestling.
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“I'm still very good at this and, and it's something that I'm very passionate about. Something that I work myself to the bone trying to, to make the best possible outcome of each thing that I'm handed to do. So, I'm excited for the future, and I'm always working on other stuff. The reality is, wrestling, you can't do it forever. I've got tons of other interests outside of wrestling, but wrestling is my first love. It will always be one of my biggest passions in my life, and I think it's the perfect creative medium for anybody that loves sport and loves cinema, and those are the two things that I love most in the world.”
Asked if he regrets leaving Impact for WWE in the first place, Young responded no, noting that the opportunity wasn't bad per se, but when Mr. McMahon came back into power, his values just didn't align with the company any longer.
“No. Yeah, I don't. I can say that I don't really regret anything that I've done. I've said this in other interviews before, as I'm a very experiential person. Even Scott [D'Amore] would say, he would tell me…he told me himself I would be a fool to not go. That's just the reality of the business side of it. The truth is, is anybody close to me, my wife and, and a bunch of guys on the Impact roster that are some of my best friends in the world. I said it and I said it to Scott, I don't want to leave. Like there was part of me that was really, not wanting to, and I've never had that where I felt like this weird regret of leaving because I felt we were doing something very special.
“I think Impact Wrestling for people that love pro wrestling… it's a very special place to work. You could ask almost anybody that's on the roster and they're gonna tell you the same thing to varying degrees. But, to me it's the best minute for minute pro wrestling show in the world. That's biased because I work there, but I would've, I would've told you that at any point because it's written for pro wrestling fans by pro wrestlers, so it's for the minute for minute, the best one. ‘m proud to be part of it, but [do I have] regrets, no, but I didn't want to leave. That's, that's the truth. It just was, it was what it was business wise. It totally made sense to me. I can't do this forever and, uh, I'm hoping to not work when I'm 55.”
Had Eric Young known that Mr. McMahon would be out of power in WWE after the company was sold, would he have still requested his release? Maybe yes, maybe no, but considering the hero's welcome he's received since making his way back to the Impact Zone, it's clear he's found a home once more.
