Why Leon Slater Worked WWE SmackDown But Not TNA (WWE News)
Reigning X Division Champ Leon Slater won't be at TNA Genesis this weekend.
Fightful Select reports that TNA star Leon Slater was originally booked to appear on both Impact's AMC debut and this weekend's Genesis pay-per-view before his matches were pulled. That, in turn, enabled Slater to appear on Friday's episode of SmackDown in London, England.
TNA sources told Fightful that "visa issues" prevented the reigning X Division Champion from flying out to the United States for Impact and Genesis. Of course, as SmackDown was in the UK, he was able to show up and answer an 'Open Challenge' for the WWE United States Title.
Slater worked a fine match opposite US Champ Carmelo Hayes, and he received a nice reaction from the London crowd when he was revealed as a surprise guest. That bodes well for the 21 year old Brit, but he's still under contract to TNA - Leon's deal with Total Nonstop Action runs through "at least most of 2026".
The X Division Champ has been showing up on WWE programming via NXT. He was also on John Cena's retirement card for the 13 December edition of Saturday Night's Main Event. To reiterate though, he isn't tied down to a WWE deal. Slater is very much a TNA talent.
TNA simply let their pals WWE use him due to the ongoing visa problem. They're hoping to have that sorted out as soon as possible so he can resume his work on Impact and TNA PPV. At Genesis, Leon was originally scheduled to defend his belt against both Moose and Cedric Alexander.
He's since been replaced by Joe Hendry.