Knowing All Elite Wrestling's flagship show AEW Dynamite would be going head-to-head with NXT on Tuesday night this week with their Homecoming Title Tuesday special, WWE decided to fight back and counter-program with their own special of NXT Showdown (previously titled NXT Invasion), featuring a set of clashes between the NXT roster and TNA Wrestling. Among the standout advertisements for tonight's show to really catch some attention was DarkState defending the NXT Tag Team Championship against The Hardys, who also put their TNA World Tag Team Championship belts up for grabs.
This title-for-title, winners take all match guaranteed not only a new set of champions for one of those rosters would be crowned, but that history would be made by default. At no other point in the past have the tag team titles for either company been held by someone from the other side. While Trick Williams has held the TNA World Championship for several months, Jacy Jayne had a quick run as the Knockouts world champion and Kelani Jordan is currently holding that title, the tag teams were not yet factored into that equation until tonight when Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy faced off against Dion Lennox and Osiris Griffin.
How We Got Here
The Hardys were on top of the TNA tag team division for 183 days from October 26, 2024 (beating The System at Bound for Glory) until dropping the belts to The Nemeth Brothers (Nic Nemeth and Ryan Nemeth, formerly known as Dolph Ziggler and NXT's Briley Pierce) at Rebellion 2025. They recaptured the titles 79 days ago at Slammiversary in a four-way ladder match also featuring The Rascalz and First Class.
DarkState became tag team champions at NXT Heatwave 44 days ago, dethroning The Belly Boys (Hank Walker and Tank Ledger) on August 24th.
Not much of anything was set up to build this match, which effectively sold itself on the title implications.
Match Details & Results
At the start of the match, all four members of DarkState went on the attack. Cutler James and Saquon Shugars were sent to the back and no longer allowed ringside by the referee, who restored some order and allowed the rest of the match to be an even contest.
Both teams were game, with DarkState arguably having the advantage at the start due to their early attack, but it was ultimately a trademark combination of Matt Hardy hitting a Twist of Fate followed by Jeff Hardy landing a Swanton Bomb that put away Dion Lennox for the pinfall.
Reactions & What is Next?
While nothing was forcing either company to do this in the first place, this just feels like it makes so much sense to go in this direction once the match was announced. Frankly, I can't imagine DarkState winning the TNA titles for multiple reasons—not the least of which being The Hardys have their upcoming match against The Dudleys at Bound for Glory. Having the NXT tag titles involved only ups the stakes for that "one last time" sendoff. Plus, The Hardy Boyz weren't able to win the NXT Tag Team Championship during their WWE careers as they were main roster mainstays. Giving them this win checks that off the list for their already Hall of Fame careers and gives a major boost to the NXT roster for future defenses to come.
There's no debate that more fans will be interested in seeing Matt and Jeff at some upcoming show like Halloween Havoc than would be interested in DarkState, who have been floundering with relatively no direction and not a ton of heat for all their efforts. That's not a sleight against the individuals within DarkState, who are all still fresh and trying to learn their trade and apply their talents in their own right, but WWE hasn't done a great job booking them as anything but RETRIBUTION 2.0. Had they won this, the only benefits would be that it makes The Hardys vs The Dudleys slightly less predictable and that DarkState would have a big victory to gloat about, but it's doubtful anyone would prefer to see Lennox, Griffin, Cutler James and Saquon Shugars as the primary tag team act of two companies when they can't even fully get over in one at the moment.
It's also nice to see TNA get a win. They've been dropping their titles to NXT Superstars this past year, while never getting even. By doing this, it shows that while it still isn't an equal playing field, it is effectively a two-way street, and momentum does have a chance to shift to TNA from time to time.
My bet is The Hardys drop the tag titles either back to DarkState in the near future, or they keep the belts for the next couple months before losing to a makeshift tag team that hasn't been created yet, since there aren't a lot of strong tag team options right now in NXT. If I were booking things, I would probably try to shift gears to another main roster team instead for an NXT run, like Motor City Machine Guns, #DIY, The Street Profits, or maybe The War Raiders if not just to get those matches in against The Hardy Boyz while they could, and to give NXT another shot in the arm, rather than to just put the belts on OTM or The Culling, for example, but we'll have to wait and see.
What do you think about The Hardys holding the NXT tag team titles? Who should they eventually drop them to? Drop your thoughts in the comments section below!