Nic Nemeth became TNA World Champion at TNA Slammiversary 2026 on Sunday after he cashed in his Call Your Shot Gauntlet trophy on Mike Santana, and defeated him in the main event. Following his big victory, his second time capturing TNA's top title, and before the company heads to Albany, New York for tapings, Nemeth appeared on "Busted Open Radio" to tout Slammiversary's success, and gave credit to now-former head of creative Tommy Dreamer."What a great friggen' night for TNA," Nemeth said. "We got to [run] Tommy's vision of the lead-up to this, we paid it off. He said a million times, he's the coach and we gotta go run the plays on the field. Start to finish, TNA absolutely delivered [Sunday] night and I got to watch and hear all of it."Dreamer was let go from TNA on June 17, not even two weeks before Slammiversary. Other stars were granted their releases, like Tessa Blanchard, during what the company called "workforce reduction."Nemeth said he knew he and Santana were going to have a blast in their match, but he knew they weren't going out there to show off technique. He said he was proud of the match, even if they didn't set out to do "anything pretty.""It was to go fight and beat the hell out of each other and the last guy standing in that ring goes, 'Now I have the task of having that big target on my back as I take over carrying the reins,'" he said. "It was my turn to do that now. I've been very viable and ready to go in that position for a long time."If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "Busted Open Radio" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
