10 Things WWE Can Do With TNA

Unpredictable, shameful, ridiculous, shambolic: there are almost too many adjectives to describe TNA at the moment. As much as their show quality has improved this year, they’re in total disarray behind the scenes, and the company’s future has never looked bleaker.

It looked like they were set to fold a couple of weeks ago, but TNA were able to secure the last-minute funding required to make it through their Bound for Glory PPV and Impact TV tapings. They’ve taped enough television to last through December, and will continue limping through a joyless existence until at least year’s end.

Last week’s revelation that Billy Corgan was suing the company sent TNA into a tailspin, and the damage was compounded by news that they’re $3.4 million in debt to three groups of creditors. The walls are closing in on TNA, and while the Nashville-based promotion’s death has seemingly been on the cards for years, it’s now a question of “when?” rather than “if”.

Corgan was widely touted for a takeover prior to Bound for Glory, but that now looks to be off the table. Carter’s stubbornness to cede control of her wrestling vanity project looks to have killed all chance of a non-hostile takeover, but there’s one major party that could still swoop in.

WWE have lurked in the shadows throughout TNA’s recent troubles. Their interest largely revolves around the tape library, but there’s more value to TNA than that. Hypothetically speaking, here are 10 things WWE can do with TNA.

There are currently more former TNA World Heavyweight Champions on WWE’s roster than TNA. WWE have seven, while TNA have just six, including Drew Galloway, Lashley, and the Hardy brothers: four wrestlers who made their names in WWE in the first place.

AJ Styles, the most important wrestler in TNA history, is the current WWE World Heavyweight Champion. Samoa Joe had a run as NXT Champion and is currently deeply entrenched in a quest to wrest it back from Shinsuke Nakamura’s control. Bobby Roode, Austin Aries, and Eric Young, meanwhile, are all playing prominent roles at Full Sail University, and are regular highlights every Wednesday night.

WWE’s roster is stuffed with ex-TNA talent at the moment, but you won’t ever hear those initials read on-air. These men made themselves stars in TNA, and while guys like Joe and Aries got their starts on the indies, they wouldn’t be as popular as they are today if not for TNA. WWE will casually acknowledge Styles’ tremendous NJPW run, but not the TNA spell that shot him to national prominence in the first place.

Why? Because TNA are technically still a competitor, even if they’ll never get close to challenging WWE for ratings. Acquiring the brand would finally let WWE acknowledge the work that brought these men to the company in the first place, and curb the revisionist history that sets in any time one of these former TNA workers rises through the ranks.