Steve Maclin Details TNA Departure: 'I Was Just Spinning The Wheels'

For five years, Steve Maclin was among the cornerstones of TNA, winning the TNA International Championship twice and even holding the TNA World Heavyweight Championship, then the Impact World Championship, briefly in 2023. But for all his success, it got to the point that Maclin was finding little enjoyment in what he was doing by the end. In an interview with TSN, Maclin explained that a lot of his frustrations had to do with him and TNA's creative team not being on the same page, to the point Maclin felt as though he was going nowhere.

"I kind of felt towards the end of my fifth year I was just spinning the wheels where I was throwing ideas to creative and they were taking them and then nothing would come of it," Maclin said. "Even when I became International Champion, it was like 'All right, cool, where are we going to? Am I going to Mexico, Japan? How are we going to make this title mean something?' 

"And every pitch that I threw just never came to fruition like I imagined. It just felt like I was always fighting an uphill battle where I just folded every time, like 'Okay, cool, whatever you guys want, then.' For me, that's not something I like to do, especially when I try to put every bit of me into a story to better the product, to better the company and to better the person I'm in the ring with."

Maclin would later incorporate his frustrations into the storyline between himself and then TNA World Champion Mike Santana, which involved Maclin taking shots at TNA President Carlos Silva. In the end, it wasn't enough to satisfy Maclin, who requested and received his release in early June. He has since competed on the independent circuit, though he has expressed interest in joining AEW/Ring of Honor, where his wife Deonna Purrazzo is the current ROH Women's Pure Champion.