Scott D’Amore Admits to Missteps in AEW and TNA Partnership

Scott D’Amore’s sudden exit from his role as TNA President caused a major change in the wrestling world. During his time in charge, AEW and TNA formed a partnership and now D’Amore has admitted some missed opportunities with the partnership.

From 2020 to 2021, AEW and TNA/IMPACT Wrestling teamed up, allowing wrestlers from both promotions to appear on each other’s shows. AEW stars like Kenny Omega and Christian Cage made their mark in TNA, with both winning major TNA titles.

In return, TNA wrestlers such as The Good Brothers and Deonna Purrazzo appeared in AEW. Omega and Cage often showcased their TNA belts when they were featured on AEW programming.

While speaking on the Talk Is Jericho podcast, Scott D’Amore talked about TNA’s partnership with AEW. He explained that the partnership was a strategic move for TNA during a challenging time. The goal was to leverage Omega’s popularity and Don Callis’s skill in creating compelling storylines to boost TNA’s visibility. Omega won the TNA title, and The Good Brothers joined him in TNA.

D’Amore admitted the partnership had its share of successes and challenges. While Omega didn’t lose the TNA title as planned, having Christian Cage come in and honor TNA’s legacy was a significant moment. D’Amore believes the partnership was beneficial overall, even though it wasn’t without its issues.

“The idea was to do something with Don and Kenny. Kenny was getting ready to turn heel, Don I think has always been underrated for his ability to draw true heat. You know that, I know that, Dr. Luther knows that and others that have been around him. I think that’s been a forgotten thing in wrestling. The idea was for Don to come in and be a part of that. The discussions that I were a part of is that Kenny is so freaking good, how is he going to be boo’d? As Dutch Mantell would say, [you put that man with] Don Callis, he’s gonna have some heat. There’s that and that led to having Kenny crossover and come to Impact, win the title, have the Good Brothers go over there. It was, I think at the time for a company that was really in a tough spot, we hadn’t quite found our feet. We had improved, but going into COVID, we certainly weren’t on sound footing. To have Kenny come over, to have some exposure on AEW’s massive platform, it was a shot at the time that we thought we had to take. Looking back, I think there is a lot of positives to the relationship. I think there’s some things I wish we could’ve tackled differently, but overall, I stand by the fact that the decision had to be made. You look at what came out of it, buyrates with Kenny, even the buys with Christian. People are tied up in the fact that Kenny didn’t lose the belt, Kenny would’ve been happy to put over somebody at IMPACT, it was not what was in the cards. Of the options, here’s Christian. Here’s a guy who has so much equity and history in TNA. Here’s a guy who doesn’t get his due for being the first person to choose TNA Wrestling over WWE during a very scary time in the industry. When he first came, Vince McMahon wanted him to stay in WWE. He politely declined, flew in, and signed his TNA deal. He’s the first guy who ever did that. Sting had came, but Sting was sitting at home. Christian had actively took the gamble of saying, I may burn this bridge with WWE forever, which clearly he didn’t, but at the time, who knew? He chose to come to TNA. That’s such a monumental moment in TNA history that if it wasn’t going to be Kenny coming in to anoint his successor with the title, then having Christian do it, having the title featured on that massive rated first episode of Rampage and having Christian with his lineage come and be the guy to anoint Josh Alexander was a pretty great moment. I’m grateful for the relationship. Like I said, perfect? Nope. Certainly [had] ups [and downs].”

Even Tony Khan was called out for putting down TNA during AEW’s partnership with the promotion. Nevertheless, TNA Wrestling is currently invested in their partnership with WWE and that’s all that matters to the promotion right now

Do you believe AEW and TNA’s partnership could have been executed better? Let us know in the comments section below!