Steve Maclin recalled the frustrations in his final year in TNA that eventually led to his departure. 

He told TSN that it stemmed from multiple pitches to the creative team not being materialized which felt like an ‘uphill battle’ after five years with TNA. 

“I kind of felt towards the end of my fifth year I was just spinning the wheels where I was throwing ideas to creative and they were taking them and then nothing would come of it. Even when I became International Champion (in April of 2025), it was like, ‘All right, cool, where are we going to? Am I going to Mexico, Japan? How are we going to make this title mean something?’ And every pitch that I threw just never came to fruition like I imagined.” 

“It just felt like I was always fighting an uphill battle where I just folded every time, like, ‘Okay, cool, whatever you guys want, then.’ For me, that’s not something I like to do, especially when I try to put every bit of me into a story to better the product, to better the company and to better the person I’m in the ring with.”

Maclin attempted to add some of his real-life disappointments in the promotion to his feud with then TNA Champion Mike Santana. 

“I was trying to really dive into that story, like here I was as a guy trying to be so selfless for so long for the company and (management is) just clamouring for people getting ready to leave right away. The writing was on the wall with certain talent just leaving as to how the story was going to end. All right, cool, so how do we make the most of this story to make the product, for when they do leave, continue to move on instead of just coming to a dead stop? None of it made sense sometimes.”

“Obviously, I’m not part of the creative process. I can add my two cents, which I’m really appreciative of, where I can throw my opinion into the hat, but it just doesn’t come out of it. It was just one of those things where I was trying to take real-life situations and feelings and add that into the storyline.”

His last TNA match was against Santana in a May edition of IMPACT for the World Championship. Following his subsequent exit from the promotion, Maclin has competed at PWE, Fight Factory War On The Shore 3, NCG Drive to Glory and MLP. And on October 3, he will face Adam Copeland for the first time ever in his career.