A new report has emerged claiming that WWE’s relationship with TNA goes far beyond friendly crossover matches, with AEW sitting as the much bigger target across the aisle.
Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter pointed out how cold the WWE-TNA relationship has become lately. WWE talent has already stopped showing up on TNA programming even with Bound for Glory approaching, and this is a stark shift from the period when big WWE names regularly showed up.
According to Meltzer, the original purpose behind sending WWE stars to TNA may have been about weakening Tony Khan’s promotion. WWE wanted to build TNA into a stronger, more appealing product so it could land a bigger television deal, ideally one that placed TNA directly opposite AEW Dynamite on Wednesday nights. That kind of head-to-head battle could have pulled viewers away from AEW and made things harder when its own television deal eventually came up for renewal.
Meltzer pointed out that WWE talent naturally comes across as superior on TV, due to the way they are booked, making it tough for TNA’s own roster to hold fan interest once those bigger names step away. TNA’s ticket sales have already taken a hit now that the WWE crossover has slowed down.
TNA did land a real television win by signing a multi-year deal with AMC Networks, but it never ended up going head-to-head with AEW the way WWE hoped. Moreover, WWE may have preferred keeping TNA independent rather than buying it outright, since a friendly rival provides legitimate competition without raising antitrust concerns the way outright ownership would.
