During a recent appearance on the “Battleground” podcast, Leon Slater called John Cena’s WWE retirement show the very best day of his life.
The TNA X-Division Champion teamed with Je’Von Evans against AJ Styles and Dragon Lee at WWE Saturday Night’s Major Event on December 13, 2025.
Slater said the night was a dream come true and he felt honored to share the ring with top stars.
You may try some highlights from the podcast below:
On being a part of John Cena’s farewell at WWE SNME: “It was a mad one, you realize? It was really, really wild since it was — it almost seems like a dream once I look back on it, you realize what I mean? Again, I repeat myself, but I even have to pinch myself to verify that was real. Let alone being a WWE superstar and being on that card, because I believe there was 4 or five matches. So if we’re talking about spots available, we’re talking 10-15 maximum, on such an iconic night.”
“I used to be saying to my friends and like my family, WrestleMania happens yearly, SummerSlam happens yearly. And that doesn’t take away from how huge that’s, but there’s just one John Cena and there’s just one John Cena retirement show. So the incontrovertible fact that I don’t even work there and I used to be on John Cena’s last show because the X-Division Champion coming out with it around my neck representing my brand and my people, it was something that I hold very, very near my heart. And it’s something I’m very, very happy with. So to be surrounded by that, after which to have the match that we had, it was a dream come true,” Slater said. “Especially with it being AJ and having Je’Von and Dragon there as well. It really was — it was the very best day of my life, man. I’ll be real, it was great.”
On a possible feud with Mike Santana: “Now that I’m serious about it, there’s one guy and it is vitally possible and it’s very very possible it could occur this 12 months. That guy is Mike Santana.” Slater told Battleground in a brand new interview. “I believe me and Mike have been the 2 best guys that TNA has to supply. I’ll throw Mustafa Ali in there as well and Nic Nemeth and we obviously have all these other great guys, but especially the last six months, especially since I’ve had the X-Division Championship, Mike Santana has been the guy for TNA. I’ve personally been chasing him to be the guy in TNA, I feel prefer it’s only a matter of time until we’re clashing heads whether that’s for my title or whether that’s for his title. I feel like for me, that’s a match that has to occur this 12 months so we are able to see the very best that TNA really has.”
Steph De Lander has revealed how WWE’s NXT name “Persia Pirotta” got here to life.
During a recent interview with “The Stunner,” De Lander explained that she created the name herself, taking “Persia” from a coworker’s pet snake and “Pirotta” as a tribute to her grandfather’s surname.
WWE wanted her to have two names, so she combined them into the ultimate ring name. She said,
“I did give you that name. I had, funnily enough, once I was working as a hairdresser in Australia, one in every of my coworkers had a pet snake called Persia. I like snakes. She told me, and I used to be like, that’s a cool name. I used to be like, I’m just going to, I wasn’t even wrestling on the time. I used to be like, I’m just going to place that within the back pocket for something. In order that’s where Persia got here from, after which I wanted to simply be Persia, and so they were like, Vince wants everyone to have two names. I used to be like, ;Can I just be Persia?’ They were like, no, and I used to be like, rattling it. So I wanted something that rolled off the tongue. My grandpa’s surname is Parotta. So it’s a bit of ode to my grandpa.”