For a time, it seemed all but inevitable that Gentleman Jervis Cottonbelly would be signing with IMPACT Wrestling. After a popular social media campaign brought him to the attention of IMPACT brass, Jervis wrestled his first match for the promotion at last year’s Unbreakable event. However, signing with the promotion wouldn’t come to pass.
Speaking with Spencer Love, Gentleman Jervis commented on his attempts to join IMPACT Wrestling, on whether he would join another major promotion, and some of his favourite IMPACT stars.
“Oh, I would be delighted to join them today,” Jervis commented to me when we spoke in mid-September. “You know, I’m a big fan of the Rascalz. I actually have been to their tree house once and I almost fell out. I actually, I just was with Taya Valkyrie last week. She is one of my favorite wrestlers and she’s a friend of mine. You know, I’ve got a lot of mutual contacts there. And believe it or not, I bugged Jimmy Jacobs this week. You know, I called him up and I asked for advice, and I just said, ‘hey, you know, here’s where I’m at. Talked to me,’ because he spent a lot of time in my earlier days helping me out and giving me advice.”
In late 2019, it looked as though Jervis had accomplished his goal. At the promotion’s Unbreakable event, Jervis made his IMPACT debut teaming with Ryan Taylor and Dick Meyer to take on Jordynne Grace, Petey Williams and Scott Steiner.
“I’ve probably sent at this point, probably eight or nine emails to Scott D’Amore at IMPACT and I did get booked in an Impact match at the end of August 2019. David Marquez actually helped set that up, because I’m a member of the United Wrestling Network and we did like a joint show. So I had a match there, and they even gave me my music and they put the video up for me, and I got a lot of positive feedback.”
Despite earning positive reviews for the match, nothing came of Jervis’ first appearance inside an IMPACT Wrestling ring. However, the World’s Sweetest Man remains undeterred.
“So, I thought maybe, maybe that would lead you to something more with Impact. And I sent some emails and some videos after the fact, but I didn’t hear anything back.”So, my goal with that is I’m going to keep pushing, I’m going to keep asking and maybe I won’t be public about it, because I think that if you do that at first and it gets a positive reaction, and you get on their radar, and then they can take a real look at you that’s great. But, if they’ve already taken a look at you, and then you try to make it a public thing again, I think that seems a little desperate and at times I’ve seemed a little desperate because I’ve been desperate. For work, you know, I want to work, I want to wrestle everywhere that I can. I want to wrestle all over the world. I want to show everybody that I’m not a joke. While I do tell jokes, and while I do make a joke of myself, sometimes, I actually have a lot of respect for professional wrestling, and I want to turn things around.”
Despite the seemingly natural fit between Jervis and IMPACT, however, Mr. Cottonbelly isn’t picky about where he would ply his trade if given the opportunity.
“I think I could do that IMPACT Wrestling. I know I could do that in NXT or RAW or Smackdown or AEW. In fact, I have been calling my shot for a minute now, that someday I’m going to get an opportunity at AEW, and maybe to be on Dark, or maybe to be on Dynamite. But I’m going to get it, because I’m working hard towards it, and the only way to really, really follow your dreams and achieve them today is to ask for what you want. You have to identify it. You have to figure it out in your mind, visualize it, see it so clearly, and then speak it. Write it down, tell others, speak your dreams into existence.”
Please credit Spencer Love/Love Wrestling with any transcriptions.
