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TNA Wrestling was indeed one of the biggest professional wrestling promotions back in the 2000s, and it will not be exaggerated if said that it was the biggest competition of WWE back in that time. It was never a serious competition to WWE, but no doubt it did an amazing job of providing some threat to the mightiest promotion of them all.
Founded in 2002, it tried to be established as the immediate replacement of WCW, which died in 2001. It signed almost all the big names of WCW, making it clear that all they were trying to be was the alternative to WCW. During the early days, it was doing an amazing job as it signed some of the top stars of the wrestling world back then.
Kurt Angle thought TNA Wrestling would be able to compete with WWE
Kurt Angle signed for TNA Wrestling in 2006 after he was disappointed with the way he was booked in WWE, and he went on to become one of the biggest names ever in TNA Wrestling. During a recent interview with Ken Anderson on his “Mic Check” podcast, Kurt Angle revealed that he expected TNA Wrestling to compete directly with WWE. He said;
Kurt Angle joined TNA Wrestling in 2006
“I was always hopeful. I took a lot of pride in wrestling for TNA. I loved it because they gave us our freedom to do what we wanted. We were allowed to say what we wanted. We had to stick with the script of the idea of what they wanted, but we were able to structure our promos.
TNA Wrestling is presently on a multi year partnership deal with WWE
"Ken was very, very good at doing promos, and he was good at structuring them. They were also allowing us to structure our matches. We didn’t have a lot of agents that would structure the matches for us like they do in WWE. I know in WWE, you can put your own two cents worth in, but they’re going to come up with the finish, and they’re going to come up with how you do it." said Kurt Angle.
TNA Wrestling did an excellent job competing with WWE, but ultimately it failed, and today it is nowhere near its glory days. Earlier this year, it signed a multi year partnership deal with WWE, where they are being treated similarly to NXT, which is the developmental territory of WWE. Presently, chances are very low that the promotion will ever be as good as it used to be.
