Why WWE Used Wrestler From Another Promotion In SmackDown Match
A wrestler from outside of WWE was featured in a big match on SmackDown.
The United States Title Open Challenge is something WWE has been doing for several months since Sami Zayn was the champion, then Ilja Dragunov, and now the current champion, Carmelo Hayes.
At WWE SmackDown in London, England, Hayes was in the ring to host another US Title Open Challenge, and this time the challenger was TNA X-Division champion Leon Slater.
While the two athletic young stars went on to have a great match, it may have been a surprise to some fans that a TNA wrestler would accept the open challenge even though the two companies have had a working agreement over the last year.
Fightful Select reports that Slater was supposed to work the TNA Impact episode on January 15th and the January 17th TNA Genesis PPV in Dallas, but he had to fly back to his home country of England due to Visa issues.
Since Slater was back home in England to try to sort his Visa issues, TNA allowed WWE to use Slater in the match against Hayes.
TNA hopes Slater’s situation will be rectified soon. While Slater has worked on other WWE shows recently, he remains under contract to TNA for most of 2026, according to Fightful.
Leon Slater Wants TNA To Be Respected As He Continues To Appear On WWE Shows
At WWE NXT New Year’s Evil, the 21-year-old Slater lost the NXT Title match to the champion Oba Femi, who left the title in the ring after the match because he’s going to the main roster.
In a match at Saturday Night’s Main Event on December 13th, Slater teamed up with Raw’s Je’Von Evans against AJ Styles & Dragon Lee in a terrific match that showed the young guys Slater and Evans could hang with the veterans.
During a recent interview, Leon Slater talked about wanting TNA to be respected and how he’s always up for a new challenge.
“I think the biggest thing for me, and the biggest thing for our locker room in general … I think we do hold this protective energy sometimes over that locker room and over the kind of energy that we have with us right now where we don’t want anyone coming in and messing it up,”
“My biggest thing has always been respecting other people’s locker rooms, right? Like we were saying [about] NXT, what would I look like if I turned up in sweatpants and a baggy hoodie and stuff like that, and left trash in their locker room?”
“So for me, the biggest thing is just having that respect for TNA and for what we’ve been doing because we’re in such a special place right now. And I think I speak for the whole locker room where I say we just don’t want anyone to mess that up.”
“But that being said, of course, we welcome to all comers, whether you’re old, you’re young, you’re middle-aged. And especially in the X Division. The X Division is the hottest division in TNA in my opinion. And I’m always up for new challenges, that’s for sure.”