TNA might have a change in attitude toward talent working with contracted wrestlers from other companies, like AEW.
PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that Moose was pulled from Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling’s Multiverse show on April 18 after initially approving his appearance and before MLP officially announced him. It was likely that Moose would have been in the ring with talents from another promotion, like AEW.
The rumblings over the last few days is that TNA has had a change of heart about letting their talents in the ring with talents contracted to other companies, which could have a ripple effect on not just other events Wrestlemania weekend but potentially, future events down the line after the big Las Vegas weekend.
Fightful Select’s Sean Ross Sapp reported there was a belief in the independent scene that the approved matches between Ricochet and Leon Slater at WrestleCon’s annual Mark Hitchcock Memorial Supershow and Nic Nemeth’s match against AEW World Champion MJF at Create A Pro Wrestling could also be pulled.
The immediate reaction we got from TNA was that Carlos Silva was okay with TNA wrestlers working MLP, but people close to MLP heard that Silva wasn’t happy about AEW running Collision opposite TNA IMPACT last week. Even though that was a WBD decision, as AEW has seemed to like the college basketball lead in that the weekends have brought.
Thursday Night Impact’s overall viewership decreased from an average of 256,000 to 200,000, the lowest since January 22, its second week on the network. Impact still drew the same audience in the 18-49 demographic at 68,000 viewers (0.05).
Collision, which went against the first hour of Impact, averaged 373,000 viewers and 95,000 viewers (0.07) in the 18-49 demographic, which was the show’s lowest viewership since March 7.
Fightful Select added that Nemeth was pushing to keep the MJF match.
PWInsider reported that the concern could be “centered around the idea that someone could conceivably show TNA talents in a bad light or lose on rival programming.”
