On the stigma of salacious behavior associated with pro wrestling and being on the road with and without your wife:
JM: I think that any job or career that involves traveling or anything like that you can find a lifestyle the suits what you are looking to do. There are these people who go to these conferences that get out of their house once a year and they go crazy. We go on the road every week and you get to choose the life you want to lead. Me personally I like to have a nice dinner and go back to the hotel and if my wife is with me great, if not I just call her and say goodnight and that’s my night. But in any city, in any town, in anywhere in the world you can find what you are looking for and if what you are looking for chooses to be scandalous then so be it, but it doesn’t have to be the wrestling business it could be any business. That happens. When I started in wrestling I was 19 so for a good seven years I had a great time. I did all those fun things. Now I’m 37 and I am supposed to come home and be with my wife and talk to my wife. It’s just one of those deals where you have to pick the personal life that you want to live.
On what changes have been better or worse during Impact’s many transition periods:
JM: I’ve seen everything from Dixie Carter to John Gaburick running creative to not running create to running creative. Sonjay Dutt on creative, Scott D’Amore, now Don Callis and Scott, Matt Conway, Dave Lagana. When I started it was John Gaburick and Dixie Carter. I don’t discredit anything they did. They were in a situation when I got there the deal with Spike has ended and funds were not coming in like they used to. They made the best of the world that they were living in. Scott, Don, and Sonjay are doing a great job. I think the momentum of the company is building in a great direction. If you look across the board and look at everyone who is still here or who have come back everyone wants Impact to succeed. If everyone keeps their ego in check and does the right thing and makes sure nothing falls between the cracks, we should be in a great situation.
On what is next for him as Impact Grand Champion:
JM: Well, I guess we will see. Time will tell what will happen with me and the Impact Grand Championship. For me, I want to in the next few years be able to say that they’re coming after the RJ City’s of the world, the Stone Rockwell, the Eddie Edwards, the guys that now we made into these bigger stars. That’s what we have to do to succeed. The talent has to be first and foremost. They have to be the ones that we are talking about and thinking about. They have to be the ones we have to, and I hate to use this term, “get over” but they are the ones who have to be first and foremost in everybody’s mind.
