Surprisingly, former MLW World Heavyweight Champion Alex Hammerstone announced his TNA exit after being with the promotion full time for only a year.
The former TNA star made his official debut back in January 2024 and immediately went into a feud with former Impact World Champion Josh Alexander. These two had excellent chemistry and produced a number of great matches in early 2024. However, Hammerstone never particularly reached the highs of his early TNA run.
He slid down the card and fought for the X-Division championship at Emergence. He was apart of the TNA/NXT exchange as he was the surprise opponent for former NXT North American Champion Oba Femi on the September 10th episode of NXT. The following week, Hammerstone beat Tony D’Angelo via countout. Unfortunately, Hammerstone and D’Angelo never revisited their rivalry since the former was injured at Turning Point last year.
Hammerstone had a relatively quiet 2024 despite his name being hot coming into TNA. The former Major League Wrestling star showcased why many deemed him as a future WWE main eventer on several occasions during his run, but a world title never seemed to be in Hammerstone’s future. Apparently, Hammerstone felt the same about his career in TNA as well. Coming off the high of his MLW return at Battle Riot VII, The 34-year-old sat down with Zach Heydorn of Sports Illustrated's The Takedown and spoke about his lackluster run in TNA.
"At a certain point, perception is reality," Hammerstone told Zach. "So I'm sitting there and from my perception, I felt like the company stopped caring about me and maybe I needed to do something in a different way. Maybe they were looking for something that I wasn't giving them. But also that was never a conversation that was had. I'd be very happy to be sat down and told, 'hey, creatively, this is what we want to do. So we need to see more of this out of you.' And I never got that. It was just like, hey, where are we going creatively? And a lot of times it's like, well, you know what you're doing with this guy. You know what you're doing this that guy, so why don't you know what you're doing with me?"
What does the future have in store for Alex Hammerstone? As of now, his MLW appearance was a one-off, but that can clearly change soon. Meanwhile, the former TNA star is still exploring the free agency market to truly make a name for himself.