James Storm Reportedly On Way Out Of Impact, Is WWE Deal Next?

TheSportster

By Lorenzo Tanos

Published Nov 3, 2017

James Storm has been with TNA/Impact Wrestling for 15 years, but is considering other options with his contract expiring soon.

James Storm's contract with Impact is set to expire, and he may be WWE bound. WWE may have failed to ink James Storm to a long-term deal with the company after his blink-and-you-miss-it NXT run in late 2015. But the company just might have another chance at signing the TNA Original to a contract. With his contract due to expire in just a few months, rumors suggest that Storm may already have one foot out the door of Impact Wrestling.

As noted by Wrestling News, Storm’s Impact Wrestling contract is due to expire in January of 2018. With Impact preparing to tape television episodes for the rest of 2017 next week, that may be all she wrote for Storm’s 15-year run with WWE’s top North American rival. That run came with hardly any interruptions, save for the one time he showed up for an NXT taping in October 2015. Speculation was high that Storm would defect to WWE through their developmental route following that brief stint, but he was back with Impact in January 2016, citing family issues as his reason for returning to the company.

While Storm signed a two-year deal with Impact after that brief period of free agency, 2016 saw a number of TNA main eventers sign deals with the WWE, beginning with AJ Styles at that year's Royal Rumble. Storm’s old Beer Money teammate Bobby Roode joined NXT a few months later, and Eric Young was also in developmental by October. Meanwhile, Storm continued being a staple of Impact programming. He briefly reformed Beer Money with Roode before the latter joined WWE while Storm turned heel and joined the Death Crew Council, and unsuccessfully chased the Impact World Heavyweight Championship for a good part of 2017.

It’s still not sure whether Storm will become part of the mass exodus from Impact Wrestling that’s resulted in dozens of the company’s wrestlers and other performers leaving just this year alone. But he did take to social media earlier today, tweeting about how disappointed he was that one of his best friends in the locker room, veteran referee Brian Hebner, was leaving Impact.

In recent days, Impact’s roster kept on shrinking as Rockstar Spud, Marshe Rockett, and MJ Jenkins also departed the troubled promotion, just days after it was reported that Taryn Terrell was no longer with the company. There doesn’t seem to be an end to the ongoing churn within Impact Wrestling, and if James Storm decides to leave, it shouldn’t come to the surprise to anyone. What we do know, however, is that Triple H left the door open for Storm to sign with the WWE once his Impact deal expires, as Storm himself had confirmed to The Sporting News in a recent interview.