The first Impact Wrestling news of this week (other than the Scott Steiner thing) was actually WWE news: a report that Decay’s Crazzy Steve has signed with WWE, and now we’re already getting a second nugget of a former Impact/TNA so-and-so that may be heading to Stamford (or, more accurately, Orlando).
According to Wrestling Inc., Gunner (real name Chad Lail), who was with TNA from 2010 until 2015, is scheduled to take a WWE physical soon, and will head to NXT if he passes that physical and signs a contract. Perhaps not coincidentally, in a new interview with Chris Van Vliet, Gunner said signing with WWE is “a dream” of his, and that NXT or WWE is his “ultimate goal.”
Gunner, part of a long, proud Impact Wrestling tradition of Long-Haired Guys With Full Beards, got his wrestling name due to his past as a machine gunner for the United States Marine Corps. He started off as part of a security team with “Murphy” in Impact in 2010, and eventually joined the Immortal stable (and was its longest-tenured member other than Eric Bischoff) before it dissolved. He is a former TNA Television Champion, and held the TNA Tag Team Championship with James Storm.
If you’re not familiar with Gunner (and most pro wrestling fans aren’t), here’s a pretty cool video package that Impact put together for him in 2014:
And from that same year, here he is telling his dad how much he loves him, and getting interrupted by another Man With Beard, James Storm, in one of the oldest and most bulletproof wrestling angles you can get:
