The TNA Wrestling and WWE NXT partnership: Who did it benefit the most?
Enough with all the negativity on this site—let’s get back to talking about what truly matters: pro wrestling.
It seems the partnership between TNA and NXT has come to an end, at least for now. Wendy Choo has been “killed off” on both NXT and TNA television, and Jordynne Grace was part of last week’s main event. With nobody from NXT participating in the latest TNA tapings and no TNA talent appearing on this week’s NXT, it appears that, at least for the rest of 2024, the partnership between the two companies has ended.
So, I wanted to take a look at the partnership and how it benefited both brands.
First, let’s look at NXT’s side of things. The biggest benefit was that it provided NXT with another place to send younger wrestlers who needed more training. It allowed them to gain experience outside the WWE system and see how other companies operate. It also gave us the chance to see Santino and his daughter working together in backstage segments, which was very entertaining. Plus, it gave fans in markets that don’t usually get an NXT house show a chance to see some of the NXT talent live.
TNA benefited by gaining more exposure for their brand. By having top names like Joe Hendry and Jordynne Grace appear on NXT and compete with NXT talent—sometimes even winning matches—they felt like a bigger deal, which helped them draw larger audiences for their shows. Thanks to the NXT partnership, they achieved two of their biggest gates in company history for Bound for Glory and Slammiversary. Although they’re still on a network with limited reach, they saw a small growth in ratings, and TNA is now shopping the show around to secure a better TV deal. So, to say this partnership was better for TNA than the one they had with AEW is an understatement. WWE made TNA look equal to NXT, giving them a much-needed boost, and in exchange, TNA provided NXT with another place to help their talent train and gain experience.
While I think the partnership is done for now, I feel it’s not the end of collaboration between the two companies. They’ll likely revisit it at some point, which is something that wouldn’t have happened under the old management.