WWE's Attitude Towards Not Paying Talents For Working TNA Tapings Revealed

WWE and TNA Wrestling have been working together since May 2024, initially on an informal basis, before the working relationship was formalised in January 2025.

The partnership has seen WWE NXT and TNA wrestlers cross over on a regular basis, and while TNA wrestlers are paid on a per-appearance basis by WWE for appearances on NXT, WWE talents who appear on TNA programming don't receive any extra money.

This has recently proven to be controversial due to Ridge Holland sustaining a Lisfranc foot injury in September while wrestling for TNA as a WWE representative, especially as WWE opted to allow Holland's contract to expire while he is out of action. Holland has since been fired by WWE over a social media post about impending financial troubles and feeling "hung out to dry" by the company.

According to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, WWE's attitude towards not paying wrestlers extra for wrestling in TNA or AAA is that talent are working far fewer dates than they expected to work when they signed their WWE contracts.

"If WWE talent works for AAA, which is part of WWE anyway, or if they work for TNA, they don't get paid extra because everybody is on a guaranteed contract. You make this much, they book you as they see fit. It can be for other companies. That's just how it works right now. From their standpoint, based on previous generations and even a year or two ago, the fact is is that you are going to be working far less dates for that guaranteed money than you would have been even a year ago because they've cut way back on shows," Meltzer said.

"So because they've cut way back on shows and it's essentially, for most people, one day a week, that they might book you a second day a week, or for a TNA taping, or go to AAA. Whatever the deal is, it's like you're still working a lot less dates than, for most people, they expected to work when they actually signed the deal in the first place."

WWE have cut back on house shows in recent years, and those cuts have only continued since the WWE-UFC merger under TKO Group Holdings. The change has contributed to WWE doubling their ticket prices since the TKO merger.

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