Originally published on ProWrestlingSheet.

Former Impact Wrestling star James Storm says he was set to debut in WWE this year after WrestleMania, but the whole thing came to a halt due to the pandemic.

Speaking with Editor-in-Chief Ryan Satin in a soon-to-be-released interview, Storm revealed he was first approached by the company during the weekend of the Royal Rumble in January. Unfortunately, he missed the email while working an NWA show and didn't see it until returning home.

"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," Storm said. "I was like, 'Wait ... I think Bobby is going to Raw. Hmmm. This could be interesting.' Ya know?"

Back in October of 2015, Storm wrestled two matches in NXT that aired on the weekly shows. Instead of signing with WWE though, he opted to re-sign with TNA for significantly more money.

The current NWA World Tag Team champion explains that this time around Billy Corgan and Dave Lagana let him out of his NWA contract early by not exercising a rollover clause in his deal, saying they wanted to help him finally get to WWE all along. "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. Just go out on good terms. Good business, ya know? Then that show got cancelled for the NWA, and then it kept snowballing."

In the months that followed, James says he prepared for WWE's mandatory pre-signing physical by paying out of pocket for his own each month -- just to make sure he'd pass. He also bought new gear.

"We agreed on all the terms," he added. "It was signed." 

Unfortunately, as the time approached, he was told they'd have to put things on hold because of the virus. That continued all the way up until July when he last spoke with people in WWE.

Storm isn't letting the situation get him too down though, as he remains hopeful another opportunity could come along down the line (possibly involving his old tag team partner Bobby Roode). "You just take it and keep rolling," he said. "It's not their fault. It's just how everything is right now." 

Watch this portion of the interview below.