AEW's Matt Hardy Reacts To TNA Wrestling Firing Scott D'Amore

Anthem Sports fired Scott D'Amore as the President of TNA Wrestling last week, with Anthony Cicione taking his place. One man who knows TNA very well is AEW star Matt Hardy, who opened up about how he felt about D'Amore's firing on his "The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy" podcast. 

"I was shocked," Hardy said. "It definitely caught me by surprise," noting that TNA/Impact Wrestling went through a lot of turmoil between the time he and his brother left the company in 2017, the return of Jeff Jarrett, and the eventual promotion of D'Amore to Head of Creative. However, Hardy praised D'Amore's ability to make a difference when the company needed it the most. 

 "More than anyone, Scott D'Amore was the guy who stepped the f**k up, took charge, and he made TNA into something that was a credible product again. He had people interested in it, and there was great intrigue when TNA returned; they had a great event that night. There was a lot of buzz around TNA..."

While the official reasons for D'Amore's dismal remain unclear, Dave Meltzer said that it's because he had been pressing Anthem Sports to raise TNA's budget in order to become a more accessible product with bigger stars. However, Anthem decided to cut TNA's budget instead, ultimately leading to D'Amore leaving the company and being replaced by Cicione at the helm.

Please credit "The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy" when using quotes from this article, and give a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.