James Storm Comments on WWE Debut Delayed Due to Pandemic: “It Was Signed”

A Storm, for once, was derailed from hitting Florida this year.

Long-time wrestling veteran James Storm — most recently of Impact Wrestling and NWA — was supposed to debut in WWE this year post Wrestlemania, but the COVID-19 pandemic delayed such plans, according to an interview published Monday by Pro Wrestling Sheet.

You may remember Storm from his days as an Impact Tag Team Champion in Beer Money, Inc., when he was “Cowboy” James Storm with current WWE Superstar Robert Roode. They held the tag team titles five teams after forming in 2008 and even wrestled together all the way until 2016 when Roode left Impact. Storm also became a TNA World Champion in his career.

Storm also wrestled some for WWE’s NXT brand in 2015, but it was only for two matches as he chose instead at the time to return to Impact.

Storm said he was initially approached by WWE in January after Royal Rumble, but missed the chance to respond to the email as he was working an NWA show at the time. The conversations continued though as he prepared for WWE’s mandatory pre-signing physical, which he even paid out of pocket. He also managed to procure new ring gear.

“I get home and I see I got an email from Canyon Ceman saying, ‘Hey, we’re interested. Paul Heyman wants me to reach out and bring you to Raw. I was like, ‘Wait … I think Bobby is going to Raw. Hmmm. This could be interesting.’ Ya know?”

“We agreed on all the terms. It was signed.”

As they say, the t’s were crossed and the i’s were dotted on the contract, even.

“I told them (NWA) I would work the weekend of WrestleMania shows with Eli [Drake] to drop the NWA belts to whoever they wanted to drop it to. Just go out on good terms. Good business, ya know? Then that show got cancelled for the NWA, and then it kept snowballing.”

But, in July, James Storm was told by WWE that all plans were on hold indefinitely due to pandemic concerns. This came after even Impact had allowed for provisions to let Roode out of his contract with them at the time.

Even with this unfortunate twist of fate, Storm was in good spirits about his wrestling future, understanding that “this is just how everything is right now.”

Although he was understandably not given a timeline, Storm was even hopeful for a Beer Money, Inc., reunion down the line in WWE, which might inject some needed activity into WWE’s tag team scene.

Five years ago, Storm wrestled in NXT. Here’s a clip of that.