Austin Aries Says TNA “Dropped The Ball” With His World Title Reign

Austin Aries, who recently departed from TNA after several years with the company, was a guest on Busted Open Radio this week on SiriusXM. Aries, who was known for his athletic abilities within the ring and his eccentric personality, discussed multiple facets of his wrestling career in the interview.

However, the piece he really hammered home most was his TNA World Championship reign in 2012. And needless to say, while the overall sentiment was TNA had momentum when it put the title on him, he wasn’t happy with how it ended:

“I guess as frank as I can say it … somebody dropped the ball, and it wasn’t me. I was ready to run with it and somebody knocked it out of my hands from behind. I’m not sure where the decision was made, but I agree with your assessment and I think a lot of people agree with that assessment. You know, sometimes you have too many cooks in the kitchen, so to speak. At that time, that could have been the case of what was going on. You have different people fighting for different directions. All I wanted to do was to go on television every week and have the best… wrestling match of any company, anywhere.”

He noted he had invested himself into proving he could hold the title, but there were other plans:

“That’s really all I wanted … was the opportunity to succeed or fail on my own. But plans change. Jeff Hardy came in … no one is going to discount Jeff Hardy and what he brings to the industry with his name value, his name recognition … so it had nothing to do with Jeff personally, I just felt like I didn’t get the opportunity to really help the company to the best of my abilities.”

The rest of the interview can be heard here. Aries is set to return to Ring of Honor July 17.

Editor’s Note

It’s true. The Aries stuff was great. But clearly, it was not meant to be.

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