In a new interview, James Storm said he was supposed to debut for WWE following WrestleMania, but plans were put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Storm told Pro Wrestling Sheet’s Ryan Satin that he was first approached by the company in January during Royal Rumble weekend. While Storm was a part of the NWA at the time, Dave Lagana and Billy Corgan allowed Storm to be let out of his NWA contract early, not exercising a rollover clause in his deal.

“I told them I would work the weekend of WrestleMania shows with Eli [Drake] to drop the NWA belts to whoever they wanted to drop it to,” Storm told Satin. “Just go out on good terms. Good business, ya know? Then that show got cancelled for the NWA, and then it kept snowballing.”

During the months following WrestleMania, Storm prepared for WWE’s pre-signing physical and bought new gear. He also told Satin that the deal had been done, and he had signed. But eventually, he was told that things were being put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Storm competed on NXT briefly in 2015, wrestling two matches. However, he opted to sign with Impact Wrestling. He continued to wrestle for Impact until leaving in 2018.