Former WWE Cruiserweight Champion Rich Swann Signs With Impact Wrestling
Former WWE Superstar Rich Swann, who briefly held the Cruiserweight Championship as one of the higher-profile products of the company’s Cruiserweight Classic tournament, will soon be making his Impact Wrestling debut, months after he was released from WWE amid a shroud of controversy.
According to a report from WrestingNews.co, the announcement was made via Impact Wrestling’s Twitter account, which confirmed that Swann will be appearing at the company’s June 1 and June 2 television tapings at St. Clair College in Windsor, Ontario. Terms of his agreement with Impact weren’t made clear, but his signing with the company marks the continuation of a wrestling comeback that followed a short-lived retirement earlier this year.
As recalled by Still Real to Us, Rich Swann took an “interesting” road to Impact Wrestling, which started when WWE suspended him indefinitely following an arrest in December 2017. According to USA Today, Swann was arrested and charged with domestic battery and false imprisonment after an argument he had with his wife, fellow wrestler Vannarah Riggs, allegedly turned physical. Riggs, who wrestles for independent promotions under the name Su Yung, claimed that she jumped out of Swann’s car during the argument, only for Swann to exit the vehicle and place her in a headlock.
Making his IMPACT debut at our June 1st and 2nd tapings at @StClairCollege in Windsor, ON – @GottaGetSwann!
TICKETS: https://t.co/4lMCWbwjLp pic.twitter.com/cWbkEKeDHM
— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) May 15, 2018
While the charges against Swann were eventually dropped, with WWE reinstating him shortly after, the company announced in a statement in February that it had “mutually agreed to part ways” with the former Cruiserweight Champion. As Swann found it hard to get independent bookings due to the alleged story behind his arrest, he chose to retire from pro wrestling in March, at the young age of 27. One month later, he ended his brief retirement with an appearance at a Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW) show, according to Sportskeeda.
With Rich Swann now joining Impact Wrestling, he becomes the latest in a series of former WWE Superstars who have signed with the company’s top North American rival in hopes of a second chance at high-profile success in the world of pro wrestling. While he hasn’t actually signed with the company, the Inquisitr recently reported that James Ellsworth made his Impact Wrestling debut last Friday at the Cali Combat event, which was produced in partnership with Big Time Wrestling, a Northern Californian indy promotion. Furthermore, a number of WWE releases from recent years, including EC3 (formerly Derrick Bateman in his first WWE run), Drew McIntyre, and Matt Sydal (aka Evan Bourne in WWE), eventually surfaced on Impact programming, though EC3 and McIntyre have since returned to the WWE via its developmental promotion, NXT.
