TNA continues to be disrespected by NXT superstars. In the words of Trick Williams, “Let’s talk about it.”
Trick Williams and Fatal Influence delivered a harsh message to the TNA locker room on Impact (Aug. 21, 2025). The gist was that NXT is the superior brand. At this point, who can argue? Trick Willy still holds the TNA World Championship, and Jacy Jayne has the Knockouts Championship in her possession.
Williams opened the show to talk trash. He beat Moose in the man’s own hometown at Emergence
to keep the gold, and he did the same to Mike Santana at Slammiversary. TNA is breaking attendance records and bargaining new TV deals. Williams took full credit for that surge in popularity. People criticize how he wears the TNA world title upside down. Trick does that for a reason, because he turned TNA upside down.
Santana arrived on the scene to set the record straight. That main event from Slammiversary also featured two of TNA’s hottest stars (Santana and Joe Hendry) in the match with Trick to carry the numbers. On top of that, Trick never pinned Santana in that bout. Santana will hunt Williams down to win the world title.
Enter Santino Marella trying to use his Director of Authority power to book an impromptu title fight. The champ wasn’t having that. Williams revealed that he doesn’t have to defend the TNA World Championship for 50 days. It’s in his contract. Trick Willy gloated again.
That story didn’t end there. Backstage, just because Trick doesn’t have to defend the world title, Santino can still book him to compete. Santino arranged a tag team match for next week on Impact. It will be Trick Williams & AJ Francis versus Santana and a partner.
That partner would turn out to be Steve Maclin. It also sounds like Santino’s lawyer may have found a loophole on that 50 days malarkey.
Moving over to the Knockouts division, Jayne is set to defend the strap against Masha Slamovich and Ash by Elegance at WWE Heatwave on Sunday, August 24. The women engaged in a promo session on Impact to hype that bout.
Jayne trashed the TNA locker room as full of mediocrity not worthy of holding a championship, and here she is with two. Jayne accused TNA of desperation. They know that none of the Knockouts can beat her one-on-one, so they conspired to make it a three-way defense. Jayne was annoyed that nobody in TNA bothered to thank her for bringing their title to a mass audience on NXT TV. Ash and Slamovich would interrupt to say their piece. It mostly amounted to typical trash talk about winning the title. The segment concluded with a heated staredown but no violence.
The best part was Jayne schooling the crowd on ‘what’ chants. It was small smattering of jeers, then Jayne shouted that they will still be saying ‘what’ when she stays the double champ. The crowd burst out loudly, “WHAT!” That was a nice heat check by the champ.
The NXT presence on Impact didn’t end there. Fallon Henley and Jazmyn Nyx sassed the IInspiration over the fact that NXT is the superior brand. Look at the proof. It’s only a matter of time before Fatal Influence wins the Knockouts tag titles to bring back to NXT. Jessie McKay and Cassie Lee puffed their chests for a match next week to prove which team is better.
That was some quality heeling across the Impact episode to build on the brand competition.
Share your thoughts on NXT superstars disrespecting TNA.
