TNA Wrestling underwent significant internal changes today. According to PWInsider, Anthony Cicione, who became President of TNA in February 2024, has departed from his position. At this time, no successor has been announced.
Additionally, a new executive has been appointed to oversee production and other aspects of the company.
As part of these changes, Josh Mathews, Senior Producer and Senior Director of Digital Media, and Christy Hemme, head of social media, have both left TNA.
Mark Brown is the new TNA Director, according to Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful. Brown held a similar position previously for Ring of Honor.
Veteran broadcaster Josh Mathews has officially parted ways with TNA Wrestling, reported exlusively at Fightful Select. Mathews, who joined TNA in 2014, has been a prominent figure in the company’s broadcasting and production departments.
Upon his arrival in TNA, Mathews quickly ascended to the role of lead commentator, replacing long-time announcer Mike Tenay in December 2014. In 2021, Matthews finished his time as TNA’s main play-by-play announcer but would step in on occassion if the lead announcer was unavailable. Behind the scenes, Mathews took on significant behind-the-scenes responsibilities, including serving as a senior producer and the senior director of digital media.
While Matthews s best known for his time behind the commentary table, he did compete a handful of times for the promotion. His biggest match came at Slammiversary XV, where he and Scott Steiner lost to Joseph Park and Jeremy Borash. In 2018, Matthews even became Impact’s Grand Champion after being gifted the title by the recently-heel-turned Matt Sydal.
Matthews is the latest notable name to part ways with TNA Wrestling. In recent months, fans have seen an exodus of talent including Rhino, PCO, Mike Bailey, and Jordynne Grace, the latter of whom has since joined WWE. Josh Alexander’s contract with TNA is set to expire this week with this week’s Impact set to feature his final TNA match against Eric Young.
A veteran of the business for decades, fans are eager to see what’s next for Josh Matthews now his TNA tenure has ended. Whether it’s a return to WWE, where he worked from 2001 to 2014, or something else entirely, expect Josh Matthews to remain part of pro wrestling.
Josh Mathews, who drew the ire of many in the business for referring to himself as “the greatest play-by-play announcer in the world” recently, has been having a social media meltdown. Over the past day, Mathews has been arguing with the likes of Jeremy Borash, Tony Schiavone and Shark Boy.
Josh Mathews vs. Tony Schiavone & Jeremy Borash
Big meeting about to happen. I think it's about my Hall of Fame Induction.
Shark Boy is less than impressed with Matthews, and has made no secret of this on Twitter. Matthews responded, and the results have been kind of hilarious.
Better than Gordon Solie? Better than Tony Schiavone? Give me a break, @realjoshmathews! You couldn't carry either of their mic cables.
– The Saturday, April 30 TNA Impact replay drew 48,000 viewers. This is down from 52,000 viewers on April 23.
– For what it’s worth, Dave Meltzer noted on the Wrestling Observer message board that he was told by a TNA wrestler during WrestleMania 32 weekend about how officials had told him to tweet about morale. Meltzer wrote:
“Over WrestleMania weekend a TNA wrestler who I really don’t know bumped into me. he joked about morale, saying that he was actually told to send a Tweet by management about how great the morale is. He didn’t, and said for the people who have been with the company for a long time, it was the worst ever.”
– Josh Matthews previews Tuesday’s Impact in this video:
– There were two title changes on last night’s episode of Impact Wrestling. Global force Wrestling stars Trevor Lee and Brian Myers defeated The Wolves to become the new TNA Tag Team Champions. The Wolves will get their title rematch next week.
Bobby Roode also defeated GFW’s PJ Black to become the new TNA King of the Mountain Champion.
– TNA announcer Josh Mathews and TNA Knockout Madison Rayne were married in Nashville last week.
TNA announcer Josh Matthews continues to vent his frustration over the way WWE does business.
Matthews, who has been outspoken about WWE on numerous occasions in recent months, tweeted a reaction to Samoa Joe’s NXT debut on Wednesday night at TakeOver: Unstoppable.
By all accounts, Joe’s debut was a mark-out moment that’s had wrestling fans giddy over his addition to the already-stacked NXT roster. Matthews, however took offense to the ‘sickening hypocrisy’ of how Joe’s debut was handled.
– Billy Corgan is scheduled to be at all of this weekend’s TNA Impact Wrestling tapings in Orlando. Corgan will be doing a media conference call later this week to discuss his involvement with TNA’s creative process.
– TNA President Dixie Carter announced on Twitter that Friday live Impact will be headlined by TNA World Heavyweight Champion Kurt Angle vs. Eric Young.
Also confirmed for the show are The Dollhouse vs. Gail Kim and Awesome Kong plus Mr. Anderson vs. Ethan Carter III in a stipulation match voted on by the fans.
– TNA Slammiversary will be available to stream online in addition to airing on traditional PPV. The show will be available for purchase on the Flipps app, the same service that WrestleKingdom 9 used back in January.
On Sunday night, UFC aired a Fight Night special on Fox Sports 1 and “piggybacked” off the sports fans who were watching the NFL playoff games.
WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross noted that UFC “won” the night while battling the NFL playoffs and called it an “excellent idea” for UFC to air their show as the second game between the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts was winding down.
TNA announcer Josh Matthews took exception to JR’s tweet, stating that, “If you are over 60, just go away.” JR responded to Matthews, who then doubled down on his jab towards JR.
For full coverage last night’s UFC Fight Night event, as well as video the post-fight press conference featuring Dana White and a “sauced up” Conor McGregor, visit our partner site, MMANews.com.
Here’s the full exchange between JR & Josh Matthews:
With TNA’s move to Destination America, the company is in the process of changing a lot of things about the Impact Wrestling show as well as the overall philosophy of the company.
As part of this new era, TNA officials are working on several changes to the product in an effort to position themselves as a true alternative to WWE.
TNA President Dixie Carter has said in recent interviews that the changes to Impact will be rolled out over the next several weeks, so the show will continue to evolve and will eventually have a very different feel than it did on Spike TV.
(Information from PWInsider.com was used in this report)
Longtime WWE announcer Josh Matthews has been released from the company, according to a report at PWInsider.com.
His profile has already been moved to the “Alumni” section of WWE.com, but no official statement has been made as of this writing.
Mathews has been with the company since the original Tough Enough reality series on MTV. In recent years, he served as an announcer and was most recently hosting the RAW, SmackDown and pay-per-view kickoff and post-game shows on the WWE Network.
– Back in August while promoting SummerSlam, John Cena made reference to his “Five Moves of Doom” on an episode of Raw, a colloquial term for his trademark sequence of moves (flying shoulderblock, sitout hip toss, side-release spinout powerbomb, Five Knuckle Shuffle and Attitude Adjustment). The official WWE website published a video today in response to the infamous notion that Cena “can’t wrestle.”
“Then how do you explain the powerbomb, neckbreaker and hurricanrana he dishes out in this video?,” WWE.com says of video on the front page, entitled “10 moves from John Cena’s underrated arsenal.” The video caption reads, “John Cena shows that he is capable of much more than his proverbial “Five Moves of Doom.”
– WWE filed a copyright claim in response to satellite footage from last Monday’s Raw that surfaced on YouTube and had the two videos removed.
Pre-Raw footage was leaked of the announcers preparing for the broadcast, which notably features Michael Cole acknowledging plans of a wrestler being put through his table later in the evening. In the other video, Big E Langston, Dolph Ziggler, The Miz are shown preparing for a WWE App segment, which features Ziggler using colorful language.
– Smackdown ring announcer and “army brat” Lilian Garcia posted a message on her official website celebrating Veteran’s Day.
– The infamous debut of The Shockmaster is featured on this week’s episode of “Are You Serious?” The synopsis reads, “Is Big Show auditioning to be Damien Sandow’s apprentice? Plus, what happened on Ric Flair’s talk show, “Flair for the Gold” that was one of the worst Superstar debuts? Relive the hilarious gaffe with Road Dogg and Josh Mathews in this week’s edition of “Are You Serious?”
– Tyndale Momentum has pushed back the release date of Lex Luger’s autobiography, Wrestling with the Devil: The True Story of a World Champion Professional Wrestler – His Reign, Ruin, and Redemption, from April 2 to August 13.
The official book description reads, “Lex Luger, wrestling megasensation and three-time world heavyweight champion, ruled the ring for years as “The Total Package.” Whether he was making a dramatic entrance from a helicopter, defeating champ Hulk Hogan, or sculpting a near-perfect physique, Lex was on top of his game. Yet backstage, he was wrestling with addictions to sex, drugs, and alcohol—things he clung to even when his mistress died suddenly of a drug overdose and Lex went to jail. There, Lex faced the truth: he was losing the fight for his life. And still awaiting him was his most brutal opponent yet, when the wrestling champ found himself helplessly paralyzed from the neck down. In Wrestling with the Devil, Lex Luger reveals never-before-told stories from his career, his struggle with personal demons, and how, through unexpected faith, grace, and redemption, he overcame all odds to fight the only battle that really matters.”
– Prior to WWE’s TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chair broadcast, JTG beat David Otunga via Da Shout Out in a dark match. JTG, who hails from Brooklyn, New York, the site of the show, received a good reaction from the hometown crowd.
The announced attendance for WWE’s first event at the Barclays Center was sold-out crowd of 15,748.
– WWE has released the trailer for its next pay-per-view event, Royal Rumble, taking place January 27, 2013. Advertising for the event is centered on the return of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who vowed to challenge for the WWE Championship.
– Josh Matthews issued the following Tout promoting tomorrow’s Slammy Awards edition of Raw.
– As reported earlier, Vince McMahon made a surprise live appearance during Monday night’s RAWactive experience. During his brief appearance, the Chairman of the Board took the opportunity to denounce Josh Mathews’ announcing abilities after replacing Jim Ross on the broadcast.
In response to Matt Striker asking him his thoughts on the show, McMahon responded, “I think, generally speaking, everything is pretty good about Raw, except one particular announcer.” Striker then asks, “That Josh Mathews has to go, doesn’t he?” The WWE chief responds, “Yes, he does.”
– On Facebook, Madusa was asked to give her thoughts on Nora Greenwald, better known as Molly Holly in WWE. Greenwald has stated in interviews that she felt Madusa didn’t personally like her since she was rigorous training her at the WCW Power Plant. Madusa admits to being tough on her then, but that she always liked her.
“I personally have ALWAYS BEEN HER FAN.. have always stuck up for her,” wrote Madusa. “She may not think so or have reservations on some of my tactics training her in wcw or working with her however I truly thought she was the last of the greats…..”
Madusa also responded to the rumor of Beth Phoenix leaving WWE: “If so, it’s a loss to the WWE…”
WWE announcer Josh Matthews is playing up the angle of WWE being an “unsafe work environment” after he was attacked by Kane backstage at WWE SummerSlam.
Matthews tweeted the following storyline-driven messages on Monday afternoon, talking about RAW and SmackDown’s General Managers needing to do something about the situation:
Just arrived to arena for #RAW, as an announcer, shouldn't have to feel uneasy about being here. It's my JOB to get exclusives with…
– For fans hoping that Chris Jericho will be back on WWE television next Monday night, don’t get your hopes up. Jericho will doing a promotional appearance for Fozzy on Monday night at Collector’s Realm in Poughkeepsie, New York (5:30-7:30pm EST.). Jericho and the rest of the band will signing CDs and celebrating the release of their new album, “Sin & Bones.”
– The broadcast team for the WWE Saturday Morning Slam taping that took place on Tuesday night from Bakersfield, California was Josh Mathews and Santino Marella. It’s worth noting that Josh Matthews was kept off the SmackDown tapings due to “injuries” he sustained at the hands of Kane at SummerSlam, yet he was able to do commentary for Saturday Morning Slam, which was taped right before SmackDown.
– At one point, there were plan for Titus O’Neil and Darren Young to capture the WWE tag titles at SummerSlam, according to f4wonline.com. For whatever reason, that plan was scrapped and Kofi Kingston & R-Truth retained. The Prime Time Players are still expected to get a run with the tag titles in the coming months.
– Former WWE Divas the Bella Twins announced at NicoleandBrianna.com that they have landed their first independent film roles. The Twins will appear in “Confessions of a Womanizer,” which will film from in September and October.
– Josh Mathews announced on Twitter that he will not be calling the action on Friday’s SmackDown. He is selling Kane’s attack from Summerslam and will return next week.
– The following matches were taped at Tuesday’s SmackDown tapings from Bakersfield, California for this week’s WWE Superstars:
* Yoshi Tatsu vs. Damien Sandow
* Alex Riley vs. Drew McIntyre
* Cody Rhodes vs. Justin Gabriel
– Vince McMahon is said to be a huge fan of Eve Torres, which is the reason she was promoted on RAW as the new Executive Administrator to General Manager John Laurinaitis. Eve has been one of his favorite Divas for a long time.
– Josh Mathews is in “stable condition” after he was attacked by Brock Lesnar on RAW. WWE’s Dr. Michael Sampson was interviewed by the company website and said Matthews is going to be undergoing an MRI this week:
“When [Josh] was thrown through the set, he did land and twisted his neck, and he’s experiencing some neck stiffness, tightness. [We want] to make sure there’s no other serious damage other than just a neck sprain, which is a good sign.”
– Rosa Mendes tweeted the following after RAW about tag team champions Primo and Epico not getting the respect they deserve:
“Lots of action on #Raw tonight, we still aren’t getting the RESPECT we deserve! We are tag team champs para Siempre!”
On RAW, Abraham Washington confronted the tag champs backstage and expressed the same frustration to the champs and tried convincing them to let him represent them.