Straight away we need to dispense with some reality.
Contrasting the WWE-TNA partnership against the arrangement AEW had with Impact demonstrates the failings of that former cross-promotional effort. If you go back and look at the numbers there were definite peaks for the company with Omega holding all of his titles. There were buyrate increases, and there were ratings spikes from what was admittedly pathetic viewership. They could only go up. Further, if you ask Scott D’Amore, there was a short-term net positive of the working agreement between AEW and Impact.
It was also extremely one-sided and arguably counter-productive to Impact as a whole. Beyond Omega’s presence those viewership and buyrate increases were the only real positive. You might also recall that Omega did not even drop the Impact World title to an Impact talent; he lost to Christian Cage on AEW television, and then he dropped the Impact title to Josh Alexander at Bound for Glory that fall. The reasons for why have never been clear.
From the outset I saw Alexander as the logical choice to take the title back from Omega. That also seemed to be what Impact had in mind as well considering the sequence of events. We can only assume what went down and what the whole of the truth actually is. Regardless, this is all to point out that while there were positives to the agreement, the end of the AEW-Impact arrangement was not logical. It accomplished less than if Omega had dropped the title to Alexander. It’s just a hard fact that Alexander taking the title straight from Omega rather than Cage makes more sense if you want to build the company and new stars because a win over Omega meant more at that point than one over Cage.
WWE-TNA
Overall, this partnership has had more positive impacts for the whole of the company’s roster than the AEW one. Where Omega’s “belt collector” gimmick was treated more like a special attraction used to spike interest, the WWE-TNA effort has done more to showcase TNA talents on a larger television platform. That has therefore given more roster members greater exposure. The same has been true for NXT talents who have gone to TNA television. This simply has an air of parity to it. More wrestlers have been showcased overall across the women’s and men’s divisions.
However, as time is inching along it’s becoming clearer that NXT talents — the faces of WWE’s tomorrow — are getting more out of this partnership than TNA talents. It appears to be all about the optics of who the bigger stars are, and that isn’t anyone on the TNA roster if it means holding the two top titles.
For example, a TNA contracted talent has not held the TNA men’s world championship since May when Trick Williams defeated Joe Hendry on an NXT-centric show with no other talents appearing. That was four months ago. There were also recent moments where it would have made sense to return the title to the company. For example, many would argue that Mike Santana should be TNA champion right now because the moment to do it was obvious and there for the taking.
Perhaps this is just a one-off? Let’s look at the Knockouts. Current NXT women’s champion Jacy Jayne held the Knockouts title for a month, ending Masha Slamovich’s 267-day reign at Slammiversary only to drop it a month later to former WWE-alumnus Ash by Elegance at NXT Heatwave. She held the title for 33 days before forfeiting it, leading to NXT talent Kelani Jordan claiming it. Although this isn’t that awful, that is three times an NXT talent has won a TNA championship throughout this agreement.
The underbelly of NXT and TNA working together
In that time a TNA-contracted talent has won exactly zero WWE/NXT championships, and that’s problematic. That’s where I begin to question the overall value of what WWE is doing with NXT and TNA and their corporate brass. TNA championships, each with their own history, are being used to prop and build up NXT talents destined for WWE TV while the same is not being down for TNA talents. For example, even if you wanted to play the prestige card, you can argue Joe Hendry is more over than anyone on NXT television. Why is he not beating Ethan Page? You can argue the highpoint for TNA was Hendry being featured on WrestleMania, and even that has to be understood from the perspective that Hendry is probably WWE-bound in 2026.
I think the working agreement has been pretty fair for the most part, but once you really start to consider the arcs of their stories the entire trajectory is skewed toward WWE. And you’d have a valid argument in their favour, however we are not talking Raw and Smackdown roster members here are we? We are talking 1:1 TNA wrestlers on NXT TV, and NXT wrestlers on TNA television, with the successes favouring the NXT cohort. Where is the balance of wrestler successes for those who, other than platform, are on equal footing in terms of relevancy? Long term what is the value in this agreement if the result will be less for TNA, pillaging their talent and possibly buying them out and/or folding them into WWE under TKO?
This is all conjecture, but the company has demonstrated two things in the past when it comes to other companies. First, it’s always WWE first. The optics their talent perform under take precedence, and it doesn’t matter if it happened “then” back during the WWF-WCW invasion angle, now during the NXT-TNA crossover, or the selection of times they have worked with Pro Wrestling NOAH in Japan on certain projects. The purchase of AAA this year further fans the flames, so it’s fair to be presumptuous and assume the worst outcomes for TNA on the back end of things. Other than putting a few people on TV prior to last week, where’s the benefit?
This can all become moot if after ShoWdown the TNA titles are back on their own contracted talents, but if you recall the WWF-WCW InVasion angle, that was rarely the case.
InVasion 1.0
Don’t forget we have the value of precedence and hindsight to look at. Regardless of who the ownership group is, we know how WWE interacts with other entities. They have that ability to dictate terms given their size and history, and the objective is always to protect the company’s optics, its IP and its image.
Back in 2001 when Vince McMahon bought WCW from Time Warner (straight away direct ownership differentiates the two examples, but there are parallels), the InVasion angle launched after Lance Storm invaded Raw and ran out of the arena like a thief in the night in May 2001. From that point forward, let’s look at the WCW championship histories:
- WCW World title: This was held by Booker T at the beginning of the angle. He dropped the title to Kurt Angle about two months into the storyline, won it back a month later on Raw, and then dropped it the Rock at SummerSlam. No other formerly-contracted WCW wrestler held the belt again for the rest of the year, with Rock and Chris Jericho trading it back and forth.
- WCW US title: This was also held by Booker T, but was bequeathed to Kanyon in July 2001. He defended the U.S. title for about six weeks before losing it to Tajiri that September. Tajiri was aligned with WWF despite his history with ECW. After Tajiri, his reign was followed by Rhyno, Edge, Kurt Angle. The title was later deactivated when Edge, the final man to hold that version of the U.S. title, unified it with the IC title against Test. No formerly WCW-contracted wrestler held it after Kanyon.
- WCW Tag Team titles:Â These were held by Sean O’Haire and Chuck Palumbo when WCW closed. They won them in January 2001, and according to Cage Match they defended them four times on WCW TV in the company’s last days. They did not defend them under the WWF banner until July 2001 on Sunday Night Heat against Kanyon and Shawn Stasiak (…yeah…). Their next defence was an eventual loss a month later against Undertaker and Kane. The Brothers of Destruction did lose the titles to a cobbled-together team of Booker T and Test, however the final champions were the Hardys and the Dudleys. Booker T is the lone exception across three championships to be featured even remotely prominently late in the original InVasion story.
- WCW Cruiserweight title:Â Shane Helms was the champion when WCW closed, and his championship reign was also the first to be ended on WWF TV. He lost it to Billy Kidman, and actually this was one of the more fairly contested titles in terms of results. From the point it was introduced July 3, 2001 when Kidman won it, X-Pac won it, and then it was traded back to Kidman, and then pinponged between Kidman and Tajiri until May 2002.
There are more exceptions where WCW talent held WWF titles, such as DDP and Kanyon briefly holding the WWF tag titles, or Lance Storm holding the IC title, however it’s not like there was parity in WCW wrestlers holding the WWF title. Only Rock, Steve Austin and Angle held the WWF title during the InVasion period. The point is simple: optics matter, and as was shown here, when Sting was brought in and now, it’s always WWF/E first.
Looking Ahead
The question we then need to ask is if that’s always the trajectory, should we worry about what happens to TNA on the backend of this? How different will AAA be a year or two from now? Will WWE purchase NOAH at some point? That’s mostly speculation, but with the TNA example active, and knowing what they have done in the past, it’s telling that Dominik Mysterio is also the AAA Mega champion right now. While I think that’s a good move, it’s also not the same thing as TNA’s situation with their own championships.
However, what I would ask for you to consider is this…
If WWF buying WCW was them at the apex of the power dynamics back in 2001, that they continued their monopolistic overtures with AAA in 2025, and they have working agreements with TNA and NOAH at various stages, is it not possible that 2001 is the end result and each other is simply at varying points of the same trajectory toward WWE homogeneity?
They bought and gutted WCW’s image. They bought AAA and now have a homegrown WWE talent as Mega champion, they are dominating the interactions with TNA, and they are at a minimum playing overtly nice with NOAH on a number of things (Muta’s hall of fame induction, Nakamura, etc.).
Right now, we know how WCW went, and we know where AAA is headed. That at least seems to be staying as it’s own brand. However, where does that leave TNA and NOAH, or any other company they could “work” with? Are they bound for the heap like Evolve? I think their history and handling of properties should give us pause. If we disagree with how they operate, figure out whether or not that’s something you want to invest in. Or if it’s even valuable enough to care about — that’s something to answer individually.
Wrestling is better when it has diversity — true diversity — and not a sterilized presentation of differences. Understand that as it’s happening, critically look at what WWE is doing and how they interact with others. Even just isolating this conversation to TNA isn’t a net positive. For the benefits that do come for the talent in terms of showcasing on bigger platforms, such as NXT ShoWdown, they are being treated like a feeder entity and little more than that at this present moment.
That simply isn’t a productive partnership.
