During an appearance on David Penzer’s “Sitting Ringside” show, Eric Young spoke about how a variety of topics, ranging from the original plans for Sanity’s WWE debut, to Shinsuke Nakamura getting bitten by sniffer dog.

The IMPACT World Champion was asked about the original plans for Sanity’s main roster debut. EY noted how they changed because of an injury suffered by Shinsuke Nakamura:

“We were supposed to be with New Day and during the show, our debut, the main event was like an eight-man or a six-man and I can’t even remember who’s in it but I know it’s three guys versus New Day and then New Day goes over and then our music hits and we come out and stand at the top of the ramp to end SmackDown and that’s gonna be the first time you see us, SmackDown goes off the air with the three of us standing there. It’s a big moment and it’s a cool spot to be in working with New Day. These three guys that are absolute pros, three of the most amazing human beings that I know, three of the most talented professional wrestlers that I know and the match went long and our segment got cut and that’s what happens with live wrestling so we’re standing there at the Gorilla Position and they cut it because we wouldn’t have time to get out on the top of the ramp and then shoot us. They would’ve been able to show maybe a couple of seconds, but they felt maybe it wasn’t effective enough, and then, for whatever reason, that plan changed and we ended up doing something with The Usos and then through this weird cosmic event that happened, Shinsuke Nakamura is on a house show in California, we’re there with him and he gets attacked by a bomb sniffing dog and it bites him and he has to go to the hospital. So the next day, it’s SmackDown, we’re in California and they’re like, ‘Well someone has to wrestle Jeff Hardy for the U.S. Title.’ I’m pretty sure it was B.G. James [Road Dogg] [who] said, ‘Eric Young is excellent, he’s a heel, he’s new, it’s a good spot for him so have him come out and challenge Jeff’ so that’s what we do, but they’re like, ‘Woah, Eric can’t beat Jeff. We don’t even know who Eric is yet. We know that SAnitY’s brand new’ and then it’s like, well maybe The Usos can come out and we attack Jeff Hardy and The Usos come out and rolls it into a six-man. Well then it’s like, ‘Well, they can’t go over because The Usos are going for the tag titles and Jeff Hardy’s the U.S. [Champion]’ so the first time seeing us work on TV, we get beat, and like literally at that point, I knew we were done, like dead in the water and [I’m] not a person that’s been concerned about winning or losing but there’s times when you gotta win and when you’re a debuting group, half the audience doesn’t even know who we are and we get beat the first time seeing us wrestle on TV, we’re dead. We’re dead in the water. Before we can even learn to walk, they’re breaking our legs.”

As we now, Sanity never reached their potential on the main roster, mainly because of poor booking choices made by WWE. As of now, only Nikki Cross is still on the main roster, with Killian Dain in NXT, Alexander Wolfe part of NXT UK, and Eric Young in IMPACT.

Thanks to POST Wrestling for the transcription.

• Eric Young
• Shinsuke Nakamura
• SAnitY
• wwe

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