Leon Slater made history at Slammiversary.
The new X-Division is going to continue making history for years to come as Fightful Select reports that Slater had signed a three-year deal with TNA Wrestling back in 2023. His contract is expected to expire sometime in the Fall of 2026.
After a hard fought battle against Moose, Slater overcame the odds and pinned the X-Division Champion. Previously, Chris Sabin, Trevor Lee, and Amazing Red all tied for the youngest X-Division Champion since they won it at the age of 21. Slater was 20 when he won the belt. It was a great moment that was capped off of AJ Styles returning and putting over the newly crowned X-Division Champion.
Slater has been one of the bright spots of TNA Wrestling recently and it’s great that the company is taking a risk on such a young star. Slater actually did an exclusive interview with Cultaholic, where he talked about how long his title win was planned.
“They actually started quite a while back. This is probably like a year ago, the conversations maybe started in like September 2024 because my birthday is in September. When I turned 20, I was saying to the team at TNA like, ‘Hey, I’d really like to pursue trying to be the youngest X-Division Champion of all time.’ And this was like for real, because I’m the first person that’s actually had a chance to do it since [Amazing] Red did it 20 years ago,” Slater explained.
This past year, Slater got the chance to showcase that he’s more than flips and cool moves, proving that he’s a diverse performer that’s reliable and engaging.
“So it was a real possibility to make history and I think that was super intriguing to the team. And then, obviously, as the months and weeks have gone by and I’ve started to do more stuff with The Hardys and almost proved myself to be reliable, more than just a cool move and athletic manoeuvres.”
It should be fun to watch Slater’s run in TNA. The X-Division Champion will defend his title against Cedric Alexander at the upcoming Emergence special on August 15. The match comes after Slater won a triple threat match involving Jason Hotch and Cedric Alexander. Slater got the pin on Hotch, but him and Cedric had an intense staredown following the big win. It should be a great match if they're given some time.