WWE and TNA formally announce multi-year agreement

Wrestlenomics Report, 1/17/2025

In this issue:

• WWE and TNA formally announce multi-year agreement

• Raw ranks #4 on Netflix for the week, globally

• Peacock reveals then removes WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event dates

• Nick Khan says there will be a WWE PLE upcoming in Paris, confirms Raw and Smackdown at T-Mobile Arena

• Inactive wrestlers: Who hasn't had a match for their promotion in 45 days or more?

• State of the business

WWE and TNA formally announce multi-year agreement

WWE and TNA announced a multi-year partnership on Thursday, though it’s unclear what this entails other than a formalization of the talent exchange that has been happening for many months.

The companies announced NXT and TNA talent will continue appearing on each other’s programming. Notably, as it has been all along, the announcement focuses on TNA interacting with NXT, not WWE’s main roster.

Analysis: The partnership is another indicator of WWE’s post-Vince McMahon approach to other wrestling companies and talent development.

I believe WWE is partly motivated by mitigating antitrust risk, which is probably of serious concern to TKO, given the settlement in late 2023 of MLW’s antitrust lawsuit against WWE, and UFC’s antitrust lawsuits. By showing WWE is open to working with other players in the wrestling industry which it doesn’t control, WWE can appear less monopolistic in the eyes of regulators and reduce the viability of another antitrust lawsuit like MLW’s.

TNA is the #3 wrestling company in the U.S. and makes a useful partner -- small enough to be less of a threat than AEW, but significant enough to provide WWE with plenty of value at least when it comes to talent exchanges.

TNA, as well as WWE’s for-now less formal relationship with NOAH in Japan, provide developing or barely-used talent a much-needed opportunity to get wrestling experience outside of WWE. More than 12 years into the existence of the Performance Center and WWE has struggled to produce valuable stars who had little or no prior wrestling experience before coming to WWE. Whether that’s because of a closed-minded philosophy within WWE about the craft or something more systemic to the PC, allowing developing wrestlers to work in a variety of settings and styles is a strategy with a proven track record throughout the entire history of professional wrestling.