WWE SmackDown Superstar and New Day member Xavier Woods spoke with Mark Andrews on his My Love Letter To Wrestling podcast on a number of topics such as how he got signed to TNA/IMPACT Wrestling while he was still in college and how he was offered a deal to compete at Bound For Glory because of AJ Styles and the recommendation AJ gave the higher-ups in TNA.

Xavier Woods said:

“I was still in college when I got signed (to TNA/IMPACT Wrestling) so, my goal was to get signed before I graduated. That was what I was dead set on so I was wrestling all throughout college trying to get looked at and I got to do some stuff with TNA. Bound For Glory was like their WrestleMania and sight unseen, they just went off of A.J. (Styles) because I had trained with A.J. a little bit a couple months prior and they needed a guy to tag with Truth so A.J. was like, ‘Yeah, I got a guy’ and they let me come in, like I said, without even seeing any matches. They just trusted A.J. and I was on their opening match for Bound For Glory. No contract, no anything and so I did well enough and they offered me a deal and this was one of the hardest phone calls I ever had to make.”

Xavier Woods also spoke about how he had a conversation with Jeff Jarrett on wanting to gradute first before signing a full-time contract with TNA Wrestling and how Jarrett agreed to put him on a quarter schedule first, then moving him to a full quarter schedule after he graduates.

Xavier Woods said:

“So it was to Jeff Jarrett and I was like, ‘Well, I wanna sign this so bad. This is what I want more than anything in the world but I have six months left in school and I have to graduate. That’s not a question, and if that takes it off the table, I completely understand but I have to graduate.’ He was like, ‘Oh, that’s fine. Could you do like a quarter schedule? And then we’ll just put you a full quarter when you graduate.’ I was like, ‘Uh, yeah, sure.’ He’s like, ‘Alright, cool’ and then I was in TNA while I was still in college so, I remember we were in the dorms or in our apartments and my debut was coming on and we’re watching and we’re freaking out and we’re just… all my friends in college and we’re like, ‘Yeah!’ It was crazy.”

You can check out Xavier Woods’ full comments at this link. H/T to PostWrestling.com for transcribing the above quotes.