After days of Pat McAfee dominating the wrestling news cycle, TNA and its President Carlos Silva has emerged as wrestling's newest main character on Wednesday, after the promotion decided to pull certain wrestlers from working upcoming matches against AEW talent. The announcements have drawn harsh criticism towards TNA and Silva's direction, especially after reports emerged that the decision was influenced by Silva's unhappiness towards "AEW Collision" airing opposite "TNA Impact" last Thursday, despite the decision being out of AEW's hands.Perhaps the harshest critic of Silva, however, has been AEW's MJF, who had matches with Bear Bronson and Nic Nemeth canceled as a result of Silva's decision. The AEW Men's World Champion took some shots at Silva on Wednesday prior to "AEW Dynamite.""Welp. Nic Nemeth and TNA are afraid of the AEW World Champion," he wrote. "Shame old, Carlos doesn't care about the fans or his roster getting paid. I'll still be there ... Let's see if Nicky still has the balls to show up to Long Island."MJF had even more to say Thursday morning, taking to X to respond to a Fightful report about Silva's unhappiness over AEW and TNA running head to head."It's called being preempted due to March madness," MJF wrote. "This guy [Silva] is actively a dumb mother*****r. Congrats. You pay your talents s***. Than force them off shows where they can make money. #lolTNA."
Not to get all "Arrested Development" on you here, but how can this situation be described as anything other than "Carlos Silva has made a huge mistake"? And frankly, I'm having to tone down my language when I describe it like that. Whatever way you slice this, Silva, and by extension TNA, looks horrible. First, he's depriving fans, shows, and promotions of major matches, including one promotion that is run by one of his own talents in Brian Myers (who booked MJF vs. Nemeth for Create-A-Pro Wrestling). Second, he's potentially depriving his talent of an extra paycheck they could be earning, and on short notice. And third, he appears to be doing so because he's having a fit over something that was out of AEW's control. Oh, and if you want to add a fourth point to it, he's doing so after one of his talents (Jody Threat) defeated one of AEW's biggest stars (Mercedes Mone) on an indie show just last week. Hmm, I wonder why that one wasn't a big deal.And look, I know some are going to wonder whether that "Silva got mad at AEW for airing against him" story is a cover for WWE swooping in, giving TNA the old "your talent working with AEW talent doesn't work for us, brother" and forcing them to make the move. I don't believe that (the only way reasoning as dumb as "they aired against us, so I have to pull my talent!" gets out is if its true in my book), but it also doesn't matter. What matters is that Silva is now the guy that took away important matches from fans and promotions for the silliest of reasons, and may have taken money out of his own talents' pockets by doing so. In short, he's added another reason for fans to go LOLTNA. I'd say he'd learn a lesson from this, but if wrestling has taught me anything, it'll just lead to him doubling down even more in the future.
