News

New TNA World Champion Crowned At Bound For Glory

By Lyle Kilbane • Published Oct 13, 2025 04:54 EDT
WWE Trick Williams TNA World Champion

There were plenty of reasons for TNA to celebrate at Bound For Glory, none greater than a new world champion being crowned.

TNA has been an unhappy place ever since NXT star Trick Williams captured the TNA World Championship at Battleground when he defeated Joe Hendry.

Several TNA stars expressed their unhappiness with WWE when their world title was put in a double title match against then-NXT Champion Oba Femi. That match ended in a disqualification when Mike Santana retaliated after a slap from Williams.

That led to an all-out brawl between the TNA and NXT rosters, and a special Showdown event was then announced, pitting the two sides against one another.

At that show, The Hardys became double champions as they captured the NXT Tag Team Championship. Both rosters split wins in the two Survivor Series-style tag team bouts, with the night called a draw as Ethan Page retained his NXT North American Title against Mustafa Ali.

Mike Santana Wins TNA Gold

At Bound For Glory, nobody was more intent on getting the TNA World Championship back into the company’s hands than ex-AEW star Mike Santana, who challenged Williams for the gold.

Williams aimed his Trick Shot at Santana, but he was able to dodge it and an uranage before dropping the NXT star with his huge discus lariat to win the match and become the TNA World Champion for the very first time.

This being TNA, however, it was not as simple as that. As TNA president Carlos Silva tried to hand the title to Santana, Nic Nemeth tried to cash in his Call Your Shot contract that he’d won with Frankie Kazarian earlier in the night. However, Elias made his surprise return to take out Nemeth. Kazarian then tried to cash in, but couldn’t as he was not in possession of the Call Your Shot trophy. Santana took him out with a lariat anyway.

Santana eventually received his title and then handed it to his daughter as the two celebrated in the ring.