Earlier this week, it was reported that WWE was enthusiastic about using TNA X-Division champion, Leon Slater, during their current European tour. “SmackDown” was at Wembley Stadium. The British wrestler answered Carmelo Hayes’ open challenge for the U.S. Championship. While he got here up short, he continued to impress.
He was originally scheduled to defend his title against Myron Reed on “Thursday Night iMPACT’s” AMC debut. The match was canceled after which it was announced Reed together with The Rascalz have signed with AEW. Slater was also scheduled to defend his championship at TNA Genesis on January 17 against Cedric Alexander and Moose. The match is now Alexander and Moose facing Joe Hendry.
With rumors of Slater’s appearance on “SmackDown”, there was speculation that allowing Slater to compete on WWE programming was in exchange for WWE allowing AJ Styles to seem on “Thursday Night iMPACT”. Fightful Select reports that Slater’s scheduled matches were pulled resulting from visa issues. He was amongst TNA talent having visa issues and was already home within the UK, thus TNA allowed WWE to make use of Slater. During “iMPACT”, it was announced during a backstage segment he could be missing Genesis resulting from visa issues.
Prior to Friday night, Slater last competed in WWE in a losing effort against Oba Femi at Recent 12 months’s Evil. He’s reportedly under contract with TNA through the tip of this 12 months.