Backstage Reaction To TNA's Leon Slater Being Booked For WWE Saturday Night's Main Event

Saturday, December 13 looks set to be a big night in the career of Leon Slater as the TNA X-Division Champion will team with Je'Von Evans to take on WWE World Tag Team Champions AJ Styles and Dragon Lee at the Saturday Night's Main Event which will host John Cena's final match.

The match announcement caused Slater to cancel two of his existing independent wrestling bookings, as he was already scheduled for wXw's 25th Anniversary show and RevPro Uprising.

Fightful Select has reported that wXw would have preferred for WWE to give them a heads-up about plans to book Slater for Saturday Night's Main Event over putting Slater in an unfortunate situation, due to this being one of wXw's biggest shows of the year. It was noted that Slater had been booked for the wXw event since March.

The backstage reaction within TNA was one of positivity, meanwhile, and they noted it was another example of the continuation of the WWE/TNA partnership, despite recent rumours that the relationship would be coming to an end following TNA's new TV deal with AMC.

The exhibition matches pitting WWE NXT against main roster talents were a John Cena idea. Outside of Gunther vs. John Cena and the tag team match, Saturday Night's Main Event will feature Bayley vs. Sol Ruca and Cody Rhodes vs. Oba Femi.

Leon Slater and AJ Styles have been linked in 2025, with Styles putting over Slater in a post-match appearance at Slammiversary following Slater's X-Division Title win.