A recent controversy between AEW and another top wrestling promotion had become the talk of the town, and now a wrestling veteran has claimed that WWE was behind it.
The wrestling promotion we are talking about here is TNA. Earlier this year, TNA stars Nic Nemeth and Leon Slater were scheduled to take on AEW stars MJF and Ricochet in highly anticipated crossover matches on the independent scene. However, TNA president Carlos Silva pulled his stars after initially saying there were no issues, reportedly due to conflicts with WWE, with whom they have a working relationship. Recently, Silva addressed the decision, calling it a tough but necessary move to protect TNA’s business interests. Now, wrestling veteran Vince Russo has weighed in on the AEW/TNA controversy and addressed Silva’s comments.
Speaking on the latest edition of Coach and Bro, Russo claimed that WWE is the main reason Silva had to call off the matches and that Silva couldn’t afford to piss off the Stamford-based promotion.
“What I’m hearing is he’s gotta make decisions that are best for TNA. Well, the best decision for TNA is not to piss off the WWE. That’s what he’s talking about because, obviously, he wanted to do this (the AEW vs. TNA matches). If it were up to him, he would have gone forward with it; he made that clear. But, at the end of the day, someone said, ‘brother, you ain’t doing that,’ and those are people we can’t piss off because if we do, it’s going to be bad for TNA business. So again, if you sign a contract that may benefit you in some areas, in other areas it will come to bite you in the a**,” said Russo (40:52 – 41:38)
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Check out his comments in the video below:
Vince Russo says WWE offered new deal to former World Champion to prevent him from joining AEW
In an earlier edition of Coach and Bro, Jonathan Coachman and Vince Russo discussed the retirement and subsequent re-signing of former WWE Champion AJ Styles to a new non-wrestling role. The Phenomenal One, who got inducted into the Hall of Fame: Class of 2026, retired from pro-wrestling at the Royal Rumble this year following his loss to Gunther. Shortly after, Styles took on the role of a trainer in World Wrestling Entertainment.
While addressing his new role, Russo stated that the only reason WWE offered him the position was to prevent Styles from heading to AEW.
“I would think they wanted to keep him from going over to AEW. I don’t know for sure man, but that would be my opinion,” Russo said. (14:02 – 14:10)
MJF vs. Nic Nemeth is a dream match in the eyes of many fans, and they will hope that All Elite Wrestling and TNA figure out a way to give them that match.
Please credit Coach and Bro podcast and give an H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription if you take quotes from this article.
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Edited by Karan Raj