As PWInsider and Fightful reported that Moose was pulled from MLP Multiverse despite having previously been approved to work the WrestleMania week show in Las Vegas earlier today (April 8), Insider’s Mike Johnson wrote about “recent rumblings” that “TNA has had a change of heart about letting their talents in the ring with talents contracted to other companies.”
“Other companies” would seem to involve those not allied with WWE, specifically AEW.
TNA president Carlos Silva told Fightful’s Sean Ross
Sapp that they’d pulled wrestlers from some show due to “partner conflicts”, and sent a statement to PWInsider around the same time. Both spoke of “wrestlers” plural being pulled, which added to concern for the next week’s Ricochet/Leon Slater bout at the Mark Hitchcock Memorial Supershow in Vegas on Thurs., April 16 and May 1’s Maxwell Jacob Freidman/Nic Nemeth match at Create-A-Pro in New York.
Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer followed-up on the earlier reports to say next week’s Ricochet/Slater match “is still on as of now,” but MJF’s match with the former Dolph Ziggler “might not happen.” And that seems to be the impression Max is under, because shortly before Dynamite started, he posted this:
Welp. Nic Nemeth and TNA are afraid of the AEW World Champion. Shame old, Carlos doesn’t care about the fans or his roster getting paid. I’ll still be there @CreateAPro
Let’s see if Nicky still has the balls to show up to Long Island.
PWInsider’s report mentions that the move may be driven by concerns from TNA, their media partner AMC, or partner WWE about TNA talents being booked poorly or to look bad on shows that could end up on streaming. That seems like something that could be worked out while approving matches, or with cease and desists after agreements are violated, but I’m not a promoter.
It was also mentioned that this might stem from Collision airing opposite Impact for an hour last week, and there have been wrestling “wars” over less.
We’ll see where this leads. For now, share your reactions to the above in the comments below.
