Mike Santana Talks About Differences Between NXT & TNA

Mike Santana is once again TNA World Heavyweight Champion after defeating Frankie Kazarian on last week’s Impact episode. It was TNA’s first event on AMC, and they expected a ton of new eyeballs to see Santana reach the top of the mountain.

After Thursday night & before Saturday’s Genesis event, Santana sat down with Cheap Heat Live to discuss a number of topics. Santana’s been active in TNA & NXT lately, and he compared the two:

Comparing WWE/NXT & TNA

“It’s (WWE NXT & TNA) two totally different worlds. When you go to WWE, like I remember the first time that I went, it was May 25th. I showed up at Battleground I’m a very observant person. I always take a moment to just sit back and see how the the machine works. And boy is it a machine. And it’s the WWE for a reason. You know what I mean? And it was like, man, so many moving parts, so many people working and and moving back and forth, but like the structure, it’s why it works. You know what I mean? Like it’s so structured, so organized, everything is to the tee. which I love.

At this point Peter Rosenberg interjects with a question on if it was different from his time in AEW.

“100% I love…structure, right? So, going there, I didn’t know what to expect and I was like, “Oh, this is this is great.” Like, this is how it runs. I’ve always been treated very well there, been very well working under guys like Shawn (Michaels) and Matt (Bloom) and all the agents there. Man, it’s been such a great experience…

With TNA, there’s a lot of freedom. There’s a lot of creative like freedom…you have your own way of putting the matches together. The agents are there to help make them better or whatever. But like in WWE, it’s like everything is very structured and I think both (are) great. And I think that’s why the talent benefit from going back and forth (between NXT & TNA) because you’re learning and experiencing two totally different worlds.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Cheap Heat Live with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.