For the first time ever, the TNA World Championship will be defended on a WWE premium live event, as it was announced on tonight's episode of NXT that Joe Hendry will put the belt on the line against Trick Williams at the upcoming WWE Battleground event, set to go down May 25, 2025 at the Yuengling Center in Tampa, Florida.
Over the past few weeks, they've had their share of confrontations, not the least of which includes Trick Williams attacking Joe Hendry at TNA Rebellion.
They were already scheduled to battle it out at the next TNA+ special, TNA Under Siege (CAA Centre in Brampton, Ontario, Canada on May 23rd) in a tag team match where Hendry will team with Elijah against Williams and Frankie Kazarian, but they also got into it tonight.
Williams interfered in Hendry's six-man tag team match alongside Hank Walker and Tank Ledger, which ended up giving DarkState the victory.
Later, in the 25-man battle royal, Hendry came out to the ring and his music was enough of a distraction to leave Williams open for an attack from behind, wherein Elijah was able to eliminate him from the match. Williams and Hendry began to fight to the back.
Later on, in her office, NXT General Manager Ava spoke to Hendry and told him that his feud with Williams was becoming too disruptive, so since neither man is going to back down, she spoke to TNA Director of Authority Santino Marella and they agreed to a new match being added to the card for Battleground, with the TNA world title on the line:
This even furthers the bond between NXT and TNA as of late, as the two companies continue to check off first-time-ever scenarios with their crosspromotion deal.
This match joins the NXT Championship and NXT Women's Championship titles being defended, as previously reported. For the full results of tonight's NXT, click here.
Do you think Trick Williams can win the TNA World Championship at Battleground? Drop your predictions below!