Tommy Dreamer Explains Thought-Process Behind Not Crowning Mike Santana as TNA World Champion at Slammiversary 2025

Former TNA creative head Tommy Dreamer recently opened up about his thought process behind not crowning Mike Santana as TNA World Champion at last year’s Slammiversary.

Slammiversary 2025 emanated from Santana’s home state of New York. In the main event, he and Joe Hendry challenged Trick Williams for the TNA World Championship in a Triple Threat match.

However, despite the match taking place in his hometown and in front of his daughter and close friends, Santana wasn’t crowned as the new champion, as Trick retained the gold.

In the latest edition of Busted Open, Dreamer explained his thought process behind delaying Mike Santana’s crowning moment until October’s Bound for Glory event. He said (quote via Fightful):

“Mike Santana’s story. I’m so close with Mike and his daughter and his family, and when I talk about the internet, everyone wanted Mike to win at Slammiversary, and it’s cool. Then who do you face at Bound for Glory? And when Bound for Glory beat Slammiversary in attendance, you know you made the right decision. It’s so easy to make everybody happy. But you also have to make people mad to get you to where you wanna go, and then when you draw more people, it’s like you did your job right, and no one’s gonna give you that credit for it. It’s a thankless job, but I’m thanked by the people and their text messages.”

Mike Santana ended up defeating Trick for the title at Bound for Glory 2025. He is currently in his second reign as TNA World Champion and is set to defend his gold against Nic Nemeth at this weekend’s Slammiversary event.