Impact Wrestling (TNA) News: Damien Sandow parts ways with Impact Wrestling

What’s the story?

In an interview conducted over WrestleMania weekend, inaugural Impact Wrestling Grand Champion Aron Rex (WWE’s Damien Sandow) has confirmed that he is no longer with the company.

Rex, real name Aaron Haddad, went one step further and dropped a major hint that he may be retiring from wrestling altogether. Rex’s Impact Wrestling tenure lasted just seven months.

In case you didn’t know

Aron Rex is best known for his six-year tenure in the WWE as Damien Sandow, where he was a heel by the numbers who grew into a cult figure.

Sandow can lay claim to being one of the few people in history to get more over despite being saddled with impersonation and losing streak gimmicks, most notably his tag team run with The Miz when he was billed as Damien Mizdow.

Sandow was released by the WWE in May 2016 and turned up in TNA three months later, but despite becoming the company’s first Grand Champion, a number of uninspired performances from the man turned many against him.

Aron Rex recently debuted a new gimmick and was a part of the company’s January tapings, but as of now, he has left the promotion.

The heart of the matter

The interview in question was conducted by Title Match Wrestling at WrestleCon, with Rex stating that he was no longer with Impact Wrestling.

Rex went on to say that he wasn’t sure whether he was done in professional wrestling, but added that ’ending on this note is not a bad thing’. Rex also said that he would rather be remembered for the good things that he achieved inside the squared circle as opposed to the bad.

Rex is yet to make a formal announcement regarding his wrestling future, but all references to Impact Wrestling have been removed from his social media.

It is possible that no announcement will be made, but if Rex was to retire from the ring completely, it would be strange to go out in such silence. Even so, the former Money in the Bank briefcase holder has no scheduled bookings through the rest of the year yet.

What’s next?

Rex’s departure is another stage in the rebuilding of Impact Wrestling, and it will be interesting to see where this leaves Rockstar Spud going forward. The two had recently introduced a new Liberace-esque gimmick, but with Rex gone, Spud is left to go at it alone once more.

As for Rex, his fans will be desperately hoping for the announcement of further bookings, but they may well be left disappointed.

Author’s take

Whilst Aron Rex’s tenure in Impact Wrestling has been a disappointment, it is important to take the desires of the man himself into consideration and think of the good things from his career.

For a short while, Damien Sandow threatened to break out and become a major top level heel, but the neurotic booking of WWE at the time meant that he was never able to get to the next level.

If nothing else, he leaves us with memories of some of the finest promos of the modern era.

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