With the announcement that they’d agreed to a brand new TV rights cope with AMC last week, TNA finds itself able of strength, not less than by way of visibility, for the primary time in over a decade. Additionally they find themselves with a brand new source of income, something that’s fairly necessary given 2025 is about to show into 2026, and the promotion reportedly has a lot of their contracted wrestlers set to hit the free agent market soon, and a few talents even reportedly wrestling without deals.
Unfortunately, that TV money can have come too late for TNA to retain a few of their talent. In the newest Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer reported that WWE had already begun engaging in talks with certain unnamed WWE talent, in a situation Meltzer described as just like that of WWE stars Jordynne Grace and Joe Hendry. Each Grace and Hendry had been TNA stars that began working with WWE as a part of the TNA/”NXT” talent exchange, with WWE later signing them once their TNA deals expired.
One TNA talent confirmed that TNA had been slow in offering recent extensions to existing talent, which was attributed to the promotion waiting to finalize the AMC deal. Talents now expect that TNA will likely be making formal extension offers within the immediate future, and abilities believed to be waiting for offers from TNA are Mustafa Ali, Jake Something, AJ Francis, Steve Maclin, Zachary Wentz, and former TNA World Heavyweight Champion Mike Santana.
It wasn’t confirmed whether those TNA stars were the names that WWE had engaged with in contract talks. Of the group, Ali, Francis, Maclin, and Wentz all previously wrestled for WWE, and a recent report on Ali’s contractual status suggested the door could possibly be open for a WWE return. Some speculated that Santana could possibly be WWE sure himself after he unexpectedly dropped the TNA Championship to Frankie Kazarian, though such rumors were later disputed.