Petey Williams, a longtime TNA star and now Impact Wrestling producer, revealed on the Wrestling Perspective Podcast this week that former Impact World Champion Austin Aries has fulfilled all of his contractual obligations with the company.
If you missed it, Aries made headlines when he no sold the finish to Sunday’s Bound for Glory PPV after he was pinned by Johnny Impact to lose the championship. Aries immediately stood up, flipped off Impact executives and walked to the back.
It would now appear, according to Williams, his current contract agreement is done.
Excerpt courtesy of Wrestlezone.
“I was screaming at the headset, ‘Don’t shoot that!’ The bottom line is, with my history with Austin Aries, I’ve always liked him as a talent and as a person. Do I like to have him around? I have, yeah. He always has been here. He’s a great worker, but the problem is that he’s no longer under contract. He’s not here now. We’ve got to move forward. We’ve got to write some new stuff. Hopefully this just blows over. I understand it’s a hot topic now but our focus isn’t what happened last night.”
A report by Pro Wrestling Sheet stated that Impact executives were not aware Aries was planning to no sell the finish like that and walk out the way he did.
It should be noted the company staged a confrontation between Aries and Impact on Saturday at the Hall of Fame ceremony, so it is clear they are trying to blur the lines.
Aries was not at the Impact TV tapings on Monday night in New York City.