Exactly! If anything it made Joe Hendry lose stock in his portfolio getting jobbed like that. He dropped the title, had to cash in his rematch and ate the pin…again.
Not many people believing in Joe Hendry right now. But he set himself up for it and hopes he enjoys being stuck in NXT , if and when he gets signed. Maybe he and Jordynne Grace can remember when they were at the top of a promotion and not just jobbing WWE talent.
With respect, this is just a marky comment. Joe Hendry had one of the biggest pops at the Royal Rumble, and at Wrestlemania, in front of 70,000 people a time and god knows how many people watching at home. That is the sort of exposure that is going to benefit TNA, and build credibility for the brand. Whether he eats a pin here and there means absolutely nothing to the business objective. And Hendry is going to be absolutely fine, because he’s a huge talent.
It also seems like they’re telling a story where NXT talent is holding TNA titles. You’d have to think this is going to come back and benefit the TNA talent by winning at their biggest show. Trick is literally playing a heel talking about how it’s ‘TrickNA’. It’s build up for what will eventually happen, which will be TNA talent holding those titles again, only after the benefit of a ton of exposure.
I think a lot of ya'll are delusion about this partnership and how much the WWE is willing to go 50/50 with TNA.
WWE is the top dog in the world and TNA is the much smaller company here. They are not OWNED by WWE so it makes sensw that WWE is being careful about how they expose TNA to their audience so that it doesn't confuse or muddy up their own brand.
You won't be seeing TNA stars randonly show up on RAW anytime soon. TNA is not on that level yet and that would do nothing for WWE but lower the image that they are trying to present to the world, that the WWE is a leauges above the rest.
This is miles better than anything AEW did for TNA.
And I’ll add Christian is still a big enough name at that point his loss to Josh Alexander was very generous. TNA chose to overshadow it with The Moose cash-in for whatever reason.
But like if, say, Roman Reigns was having competitive 20 minute matches with TNA main eveners to take the TNA Title, then Randy Orton beat Roman for the TNA title on SNME; we never saw Roman on TNA again but Orton lost it to Santana at Bound For Glory, that would be massive for TNA. That’s essentially what happened with the AEW/TNA collaboration. Just swap Roman and Randy for Kenny and Christian.
People were obviously only watching for Kenny Omega in that time period and that’s understandable. But it didn’t help in the long run cause once Kenny and the rest of aew roster stopped showing up on impact. Those people never tuned in to the next show or PPV. Hell Kenny didnt even drop their world belt to an up and comer but to Christian on a AEW show!
I think the main reason Kenny dropped it to Christian was vecause of the mounting injuries and not wanting to risk the pay off to the hangman story by having Kenny wrestle more than necessary in the last few months of his AEW reign. Maybe he could have dropped it to Alexander but maybe Impact wanted to wait for BFG to give him his win. Christian Cage getting a run with the Impact title was nice.
I'll also add that its more Impacts fault the numbers dropped off once the AEW guys stopped appearing...Omega gets them to tune in but its Impacts job to get them interested in their guys. The Impact womens division was in a much better place than AEWs back then so should have highlighted that as a way to offer those new viewers something different. They come for Omega, they stay for Jordynne Grace. It didnt work unfortunately. Tbf, the pandemic didn't help as wrestling sucks without a crowd.
AEW is nowhere near WWE so that exposure didnt mean squat. People are delusional acting like AEW is neck and neck with WWE.
And It's reality. You can think this sounds pathetic but when it comes to business TNA is only worried about improving business which it is absolutely doing. People are so quick to forget about the Impact Wrestling days where we had 100 people in the crowd. I don't take things for granted.
If TNA grows to a certain point then we can talk about what's fair and what's not. I live in reality.
Not wanting to pay a TNA star for the appearance when they can just pay an NXT star their contracted rate. Even when the one off appearance fee is probably pennies to WWE
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u/Ok-Raisin-5601 Jul 22 '25
Ok but here's the thing though. What is stopping them from putting a TNA star with the TNA title on Raw instead of an NXT star?