WWE’s partnership with TNA may have had a much bigger purpose than surprise appearances and crossover matches. The theory now being floated is that strengthening TNA could have given WWE another weapon against AEW — especially if TNA landed a television slot that put it directly in AEW’s path.
Dave Meltzer raised that possibility in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter while discussing how much the WWE-TNA relationship has cooled off. He pointed out that WWE talent is no longer showing up in TNA the way it once did, even with Bound For Glory approaching, and said the situation looks a whole lot different from the partnership’s hottest stretch.
“Notable there is nothing from TNA, and with Bound for Glory coming, and no WWE talent appearing with TNA any longer, it does appear that relationship is nothing close to what it was. It’s a bad situation. This always happens when you work with WWE historically.”
The bigger part of Meltzer’s take is what he thinks WWE may have wanted out of the deal in the first place. His theory is that sending WWE talent to TNA helped raise TNA’s profile, gave the company more leverage in television negotiations and potentially created a stronger wrestling promotion that could take a bite out of AEW. That would have made the partnership about a whole lot more than playing nice.
“The fan base sees the WWE guys as superior because they are booked superior, and then when it ends, you have to draw with your inferior guys. TNA’s ticket sales are way down now. It looks like most saw this going in, that WWE worked with TNA as a way to hurt AEW, the key being send talent so TNA has better leverage for a TV deal.”
TNA did ultimately land a much bigger television home. Ringside News previously covered TNA signing a multi-year broadcast deal with AMC Networks, giving the company the kind of platform it had been chasing while WWE stars were regularly crossing over.
According to Meltzer, the real jackpot may have been if TNA landed on Wednesday nights. That would have put TNA directly against AEW Dynamite, giving wrestling fans another option at the exact same time and potentially forcing AEW to fight harder for viewers. Meltzer believes there may have been hope that a WWE-connected TNA could eventually become a serious No. 2 player and make life harder for AEW when its own television rights came back up.
“I think the hope was that TNA would get television on Wednesday, thereby cutting into the AEW audience and perhaps the hope that with WWE talent given some of the people who should know better predicting TNA with a TV deal would have a shot at the No. 2 spot, and if this was the case, it hurts AEW’s chances for renewal and lowers its value.”
That No. 2 conversation was already floating around wrestling long before this latest take. Ringside News previously covered Eric Bischoff backing away from his earlier belief that TNA could overtake AEW after the partnership failed to grow into the kind of threat some expected. Meltzer also speculated that WWE may have been better off keeping TNA independent instead of outright buying the company. His argument is that having a strong promotion tied closely to WWE could provide competition on paper without creating the same ownership questions.
“This would be a No. 2 affiliated with WWE, that WWE could buy if needed but it’s more beneficial in some ways not to own because of anti-trust.”
He then connected that theory to WWE’s wider competitive situation, arguing that AEW’s existence gives WWE something UFC didn’t have in the same way during its own antitrust fight — a significant national competitor.
“But a strong AEW is the potential major difference in what UFC had and WWE has as far as competition.”
There’s no confirmation WWE created the TNA relationship as some secret plan to kneecap AEW. This is Meltzer’s analysis of how the pieces may have fit together, and neither WWE nor TNA has publicly said the partnership was built around damaging Tony Khan’s company.
TNA leadership has actually spoken very positively about what WWE brought to the table. Ringside News previously covered TNA President Carlos Silva crediting the WWE relationship with helping change the company’s trajectory, especially while TNA was trying to grow its audience and land a stronger television deal. But Meltzer believes the bigger AEW pressure never materialized.
“But in the end, the TNA hurting AEW thing didn’t happen and you can see the end result.”
That’s where things get interesting now. TNA got its AMC deal, WWE crossover appearances have cooled down, and AEW never ended up with TNA sitting directly across from Dynamite on Wednesday nights trying to carve into its audience.
If the larger play was to build TNA into a WWE-friendly threat that could squeeze AEW from the other side, it never fully got there. Now TNA has to prove it can keep growing without the constant WWE star power that helped make the partnership feel like such a big deal in the first place.
Do you think WWE’s partnership with TNA was partly designed to put pressure on AEW, or was the crossover simply good business that fans are reading too much into? Let us know what you think and leave your feedback in the comments.
