WWE: Current NWA Champion was meant to debut after WrestleMania 36

A current NWA champion revealed recently that he almost debuted with the WWE earlier this year.

James Storm, currently one half of the NWA tag team Champions with former WWE superstar Eli Drake sat down recently with Ryan Satin from Pro Wrestling Sheet.

In the interview, the former Impact Wrestling star states that WWE initially reached out during Royal Rumble weekend via an email that he missed because he was working an NWA taping at the time.

Storm said,

"“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?”"

He also speaks about how former NWA VP Dave Lagana and current owner of the promotion Billy Corrigan were amenable to letting Storm out of the remainder of his contract. With plans to have Drake and himself drop the tag titles at an NWA show over WrestleMania weekend ahead of his debut.

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

COVID-19 put James Storm’s WWE debut on hold

Unfortunately for wrestling fans everywhere, COVID-19 had other plans. James was notified ahead of his debut that the plans had unfortunately been put on hold, a statement that has been the company line up until mid-July. Storms last contact with the company.

This is not Storm’s first near-miss with the company, he was offered a contract in 2015 after wrestling two matches for the then developmental territory NXT. Storm elected at that time to re-sign with Impact Wrestling, where he is a former X Division, World Heavyweight, and Tag Team Champion. The later being earned with current RAW superstar Robert Roode.

It is undeniable that the signing of James Storm would have done immense help to whichever brand he was assigned. Especially if he was allowed to reunite with his former tag partner Robert Roode and begin chasing tag team gold across any of the three brands.

Unfortunately, the world had other plans. But Storm is not allowing himself to be down about the way things shook out for him.