TNA was left completely out of the 2026 Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, despite the company’s official partnership with WWE, which has been in place since January 2025.
Fourteen teams will compete in the tournament, representing NXT, EVOLVE, Raw, SmackDown, and AAA. The tournament begins Tuesday on NXT on The CW.
Asked about TNA’s absence in a recent interview with Adrian Hernandez, Nic Nemeth acknowledged that as a member of the company, he would like to see it represented.
“It doesn’t because myself, and my brother are comically busy at the moment,” Nemeth said. “But it does, as a TNA wrestler, not being the tag champs, yeah, it does. Because there’s a relationship there. We’ve had some moments where we got a lot of NXT people who were brand new, gave them a shot, gave them some TV time, got those reps in. It would be nice to see it replicated. But, of course, it’s not always the time and place for it.”
Nemeth added that talent from both companies gained opportunities during the period when the crossover was most active, and he hopes that level of interaction returns.
“So all of those moments can still happen, and they will when the time is right,” Nemeth said. “It would be great to be represented out there. But also, I’m super busy right now, and I’m not interested in doing NXT as the world champion and tag team champion. But down the line, I would love to see more of an interaction if we continue that relationship because it was really fruitful for both sides.”
Nemeth currently holds two championships in TNA. Along with the TNA World Championship, he and his brother Ryan won the TNA World Tag Team Championship at Lockdown in August.
TNA’s exclusion also stands out given that the WWE-TNA agreement was designed to provide crossover opportunities for talent from both companies on NXT, iMPACT!, premium live events, and pay-per-views.
The September 26 Worlds Collide event was also announced exclusively with WWE, NXT, and AAA talent, with no TNA participation.