Matt Hardy says TNA changing time of Slammiversary to avoid AEW Forbidden Door was the “right move”
TNA star Matt Hardy recently discussed the fact that TNA Slammiversary, AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2026 and NXT Great American Bash 2026 will all be taking place on Sunday, June 28th.
Speaking on his podcast, Hardy would say that Slammiversary having to change start time was the “right move” for the company, rather than trying to go head to head with Forbidden Door:
“TNA announces Slammiversary, then Forbidden Door is announced…we move earlier in that day, which is the right move for us, no doubt, we’re going on at four. Then all of a sudden, there’s NXT. There’s going to be three premium live events, what a night!”‘
That 4 p.m. start time for the PPV now avoids a direct head-to-head with Forbidden Door, which AEW
has advertised as having a 7 p.m. start. 7pm was the original start time for Slammiversary, but as Hardy recognises, it makes sense to not try and go head-to-head and potentially lose out on viewers.
AEW vs NXT vs TNA
NXT Great American Bash 2026, however, WILL be starting at 7 PM EST on The CW. This isn’t the first time that we’ve seen an NXT show go head-to-head with AEW. As is usually the case in recent head-to-head situations, it’s an NXT show on television competing with an AEW PPV event, as opposed to the old ‘Wednesday Night Wars’ between NXT and Dynamite.
It should be an intriguing night, especially when it comes to viewing figures on all three shows, and we’ll be keeping track of all three right here on f4wonline.com.
Jake is an SEO-minded Football, Combat Sports, Gaming and Pro Wrestling writer, successful Editor in Chief, Sports SEO Coordinator for NationalWorld and SEO Writer for F4Wonline.com. He has more than ten years of experience covering mixed martial arts, pro wrestling, football and gaming across a number of publications, starting at SEScoops in 2012 under the name Jake Jeremy. His work has also been featured on Wrestling Headlines, Wrestlingnewsco, HotNewHipHop, The Hard Times and Sportskeeda.
Previously, he worked as the Editor in Chief of 24Wrestling, building the site profile with a view to selling the domain, which was accomplished in 2019. Jake was previously the Editor in Chief for FightFans, a combat sports and pro wrestling site that was launched in January 2021 and broke into millions of pageviews within the first two years. He previously worked for Snack Media and their GiveMeSport site, creating Evergreen and Trending content that would deliver pageviews via Google as the UFC and MMA SEO Lead. Jake managed to take an area of GiveMeSport that had zero traction on Organic and push it to audiences across the globe. Jake also has a record of long-term video and written interview content with the likes of the Professional Fighters League, ONE and Cage Warriors, working directly with the brands to promote bouts, fighters and special events.
He previously worked for the (then) biggest independent wrestling company in the UK, PROGRESS Wrestling, as PR Head and Head of Media across the social channels of the company.