Oleg Prudius (Vladimir Kozlov) explains why he returned to wrestling, getting involved with TNA/IMPACT

Photo Courtesy: IMPACT/TNA Wrestling

He dove into why he’s back in the business. 

It was back on an October 2023 edition of IMPACT Wrestling on AXS that Oleg Prudius (Vladimir Kozlov) returned to the company. He formed an on-screen alliance with Dirty Dango and Alpha Bravo. 

That partnership transitioned over through the rebranding into TNA. As Prudius was doing a virtual signing for K & S WrestleFest, he explained why he decided to get back into the mix. 

He stated that it’s in his blood, plus there are friends of his at TNA such as Santino Marella. He shared that while he was filming ‘The Wrecker’, IMPACT had a show in Las Vegas and he was asked to come. While there, he talked with the company about getting back involved. He believes there are a number of talents on the TNA roster that could crossover into acting. 

It’s still in my blood. I miss action (Prudius responded when asked what made him get back into wrestling), and plus I have so many friends in TNA with my former partner Santino Marella. You know what is a funny story? Because when I was involved in production for movie ‘The Wrecker’, TNA made a show in Las Vegas (in 2023) and everybody said, ‘Oleg, come over. Let’s sit down, talk, meet’ and after, we got some idea, maybe somehow, I would be involved in wrestling and in the future days, make a cross-promotion between wrestling and movies. Because I feel like lots of wrestlers, performers from TNA, they can become huge actors because they can do stunt, they can perform and they have the skills (in acting). Yeah.

Elsewhere during the signing, Prudius touched on his exit from WWE in 2011. He felt it was time to do something different and said he had a good time there. 

I think it was time to leave (Prudius said about his exit from WWE). Do something different… I had a good time.

This past January, Prudius wrestled at TNA Hard To Kill in a six-man tag and his traditional tag match with Dirty Dango aired on the 1/25 TNA iMPACT

If the quotes in this article are used, please credit K & S WrestleFest with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.

About Andrew Thompson 8336 Articles
A Washington D.C. native and graduate of Norfolk State University, Andrew Thompson has been covering wrestling since 2017.