EXCLUSIVE: How Long Leon Slater's TNA X-Division Title Win Had Been In The Works

Leon Slater made history at TNA's Slammiversary pay-per-view as the 20-year-old defeated Moose to become the youngest X-Division Champion ever, beating Amazing Red's record that had stood since 2003.

Slater's title win wasn't a last-minute decision, however, and the man himself revealed in an exclusive interview with Cultaholic's Tom Campbell that conversations around him winning the X-Division Championship began back in September 2024.

"They actually started quite a while back. This is probably like a year ago, the conversations maybe started in like September 2024 because my birthday is in September. When I turned 20, I was saying to the team at TNA like, 'Hey, I'd really like to pursue trying to be the youngest X-Division Champion of all time.' And this was like for real, because I'm the first person that's actually had a chance to do it since [Amazing] Red did it 20 years ago," Slater explained.

"So it was a real possibility to make history and I think that was super intriguing to the team. And then, obviously, as the months and weeks have gone by and I've started to do more stuff with The Hardys and almost proved myself to be reliable, more than just a cool move and athletic manoeuvres. As we started to develop, I think the team realised I was getting more and more ready for an opportunity like this, and when the time came to making the matches for Slammiversary, I think they wanted to make some history. So we went and made the match, and I made it happen on Sunday."

Slater and Moose's match has been hailed as the match of the night at Slammiversary. The contest may have been even better had Moose not sustained an injury while taking a Hurricanrana from the apron to the floor, however.

Following his win, Leon Slater was surprised by AJ Styles in what was the former WWE Champion's return to TNA, appearing in the IMPACT Zone for the first time since 2013. Styles put over Slater as the future of TNA and the two talents later continued their conversation backstage, with Slater revealing what Styles said to him.

You can listen to Cultaholic's full chat with Leon Slater on our podcast feed.

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