In the first episode of the Behind The Lights show on IMPACT Wrestling’s official Twitch channel, former WWE superstar Santino Marella (Anthony Carelli) commented on the changes within the company under the new ownership regime.

“I tell you what, IMPACT Wrestling, this is such an interesting phenomenon, because they’ve had different incarnations – TNA, IMPACT Wrestling. Sometimes there’s somebody new at the helm and then people wonder, ‘How is this going to turn out?’. And sometimes, ‘Ah it’s kinda the same thing, they’re shuffling old guys, whatever, whatever’, and it hasn’t really connected in the past in terms of that renaissance. But this one here there’s a different feeling – again, Scott at the helm and Don – there’s real change.

It was getting a reputation in the past of being, ‘Oh they’re just recycling old WWE guys’, you know, hand-me-downs, and that was the reputation they had for a while. Now that’s not the case. Now they’re developing fresh, new talent that’s not… I mean if there’s someone there from WWE that’s fine, but the roster’s not comprised of leftovers anymore. The mentality, the direction they’re going in, it’s very good for the business because you need competition. There was a long time when there was no competition to WWE. Now there’s places to go.”

Behind The Lights – Episode 1 with Anthony Carelli and Iceman can be viewed on Twitch at this link.