The WWE-TNA partnership may have cooled off, but Stevie Richards isn’t buying the idea that this is just a temporary lull. After Nic Nemeth recently said he’d still like to see more crossover between the companies, Richards shared a much more skeptical take on where things stand.
Speaking on The Stevie Richards Show, Richards said that when the partnership first started, he thought WWE had much bigger plans than simply bringing in a few wrestlers. At one point, he believed the company could end up buying TNA outright—or at least making it a much bigger part of its system.
“We talked about it early, and we were guessing that WWE was either going to buy TNA for the roster, for the spot, or especially for the tape library.”
“But as we saw this, we were looking at, are they going to buy the company as a whole, buy the tape library, or just take three people and call it a day?”
Looking back now, Richards admitted he thinks the answer may have been a lot simpler than he originally expected: “Well, it kind of is.” Richards also agreed with Dave Meltzer’s assessment that TNA got a short-term boost from working with WWE but is now dealing with the aftermath. He said he and the show’s host had already talked privately about the possibility that TNA was being used as part of WWE’s larger battle with AEW.
“Yeah, that’s what we talked about mostly off camera, that this was… TNA could be, you know, pretty much soldiers of the proxy war. But Dave’s absolutely right.”
Even with that criticism, Richards said he understands why promotions continue saying yes whenever WWE comes calling. He described it as “weaponized hope,” arguing that the opportunity is simply too big to turn down, even if history suggests it doesn’t always work out the way people expect.
“There’s something with wrestling promotions to work with WWE. Weaponized hope. Are you not going to take the opportunity? Are you not going to try? At least I know historically everybody has tried. They usually had—at least TNA’s still around.”
Richards admitted he actually had high hopes for the partnership under Triple H. Instead of another short-lived crossover, he expected TNA to become something much closer to NXT, Evolve or WWE ID—a place where talent could consistently develop before moving up.
“I thought TNA was going to be kind of like somewhere on the level of NXT or Evolve or something. I thought they were really going to try to create a feeder league, create their college program.”
“Like we were talking about the draft earlier, if you had TNA people that you looked at and you could draft them and bring them in because it’s another company, doesn’t that give you more of a… I don’t know… just a wider reach, more worldwide appeal, worldwide brand?”
Instead, Richards believes WWE ultimately handled the relationship the same way it has handled similar partnerships in the past.
“But yeah, I mean, this is the way WWE operates no matter what. You know, this is the Invasion angle, right? In a way, in a much smaller sense.”
He believes WWE simply stopped paying as much attention to TNA once it landed the wrestlers it wanted. Richards pointed to Joe Hendry as someone who generated real buzz during the crossover, but questioned what that momentum ultimately turned into.
“But the TNA thing, I had actually high hopes that WWE under Triple H would treat it like an Evolve, would treat it like a WWE ID. Why is it none of the WWE ID property? Like, the biggest, most televised one outside NXT. Why? Why didn’t they do it? They just get tired of playing with the new toy.
We got our three people, which, by the way, Joe Hendry did really well against Randy Orton at WrestleMania, but nothing came out of it. Now, you just plug him into the occasional musical skit.”
Whether Richards is right or not, his comments paint a very different picture from Nemeth’s optimism. Nemeth still hopes the partnership has another chapter left, while Richards believes WWE may have already closed the book after getting exactly what it wanted.
Do you think Stevie Richards is right, or do you think the WWE-TNA partnership still has plenty left to offer? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
