Sami Callihan Reflects On TNA Under Carlos Silva, Says Slammiversary Build Hasn’t Been The Best

Sami Callihan says that some of the issues around TNA as of late come from having someone not part of the wrestling business in charge. TNA has come under criticism for a number of things in 2026, including their pulling talent from independent matches against AEW talent and the recent spate of releases including Tommy Dreamer, Callihan, Tessa Blanchard, Steve Maclin, and Myla Grace.

Callihan weighed in on the state of TNA during his appearance on Busted Open Radio. He noted that some of it comes down to Silva just not being familiar with the wrestling world. He pointed out the pulling of talent from indie matches and said that the Slammiversary build has been lackluster compared to recent years. You can see the highlights below (courtesy of Fightful):

On TNA Under Silva:

“This seems to be the trend in pro wrestling with anyone outside of the stratosphere of wrestling that comes in from a corporate level. As great as they might be in business, as great as they might have ideas, as good of a person as they might be, people don’t understand pro wrestling. In a business world they might see something and be like, ‘That’s messed up. I’m going to call that out.’ In the world of wrestling, that’s normal. It was one thing after another. Carlos said in an interview that he was mad AEW was running Thursday against them. If you did any research, AEW had done that every year during basketball season. You can’t just say that.

“I understand not wanting bad stuff happening to your company, but having someone from the wrestling sphere, they would have known that. That’s not against him, but little things like that could’ve made the company better. Hopefully, he continues to get better. I don’t want to see TNA die, but you need proper scouting and bringing in proper independent talent and big names, long-term storytelling, being able to create those viral moments. Since we’ve been on AMC, we’ve played it so safe and it’s been a detriment.”

On His Release Occurring Just Before Slammiversary:

“I thought it was weird. But at the same time, I don’t think the build for Slammiversary this year has been great. I brought it up before, ‘Slammiversary the last two years, we’ve had ginormous fillings.’ Last year, we ran a major arena for the first time in years, and is Mike Santana finally going to win the world title in his hometown? The year before, we had Joe Hendry, who had been launched into the stratosphere, is he finally going to get the trigger pulled on him and win the World Championship?

“I’m not privy to a lot of stuff that may go on, but I don’t think our big events this year have had the greatest builds. Whether that be people being burnt out or having to deal with a thousand different voices in their head, I don’t think Rebellion had the greatest build. We didn’t have matches until two weeks before. Same thing with Slammiversary this year. You can’t book television wrestling like the independents, but big events have to be booked like that. ‘This is why you should buy tickets.’ I don’t think it’s been the greatest build.”