WWE has opened its own forbidden door. This past Saturday at WWE Royal Rumble, TNA Knockouts Champion Jordynne Grace entered the multi-women battle royal, marking just the second time that another promotion’s titleholder competed in the event. Mickie James previously entered the Women’s Royal Rumble Match in 2022 when she was the Impact Knockouts Champion (TNA’s previous monicker), but even then, James was familiar to the WWE audience. Grace had never appeared on WWE programming prior to Saturday, and commentary significantly played up her accomplishments in TNA throughout her time in the bout.
Triple H Addresses TNA’s Involvement at WWE Royal Rumble
The Game is a fan of Jordynne Grace.
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Speaking at the WWE Royal Rumble post-show press conference, WWE Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque showed gratitude to TNA Wrestling for making Grace’s Royal Rumble Match appearance happen.
“Jordynne Grace coming here from TNA, their champion. I want to thank them for allowing her to be here and allowing her to participate in the Royal Rumble,” Triple H said. “I thought she had a spectacular showing tonight. She’s an amazing talent. It’s exciting to be able to branch out.”
While prior management was keen on ignoring the existence of wrestling companies outside of WWE, Triple H has always been keen on forming partnerships with the greater wrestling world’s promotions. WWE NXT had long-standing relationships with UK independents like ICW and PROGRESS, and Triple H even made a televised appearance on the latter.
It remains to be seen as to what TNA’s relationship with WWE will be like moving forward. Rumors had sparked in previous weeks that WWE and TNA would have a full-blown working partnership due to TNA using Endeavor, WWE’s parent company, to restructure its streaming service. Beyond that, TNA is now referring to its pay-per-views as “premium live events,” a term WWE popularized.
Whatever the case may be, Triple H will not be using “forbidden door” to describe WWE and TNA’s future collaborations, nor can he, as AEW owns the trademark.
“I’m not going to use all the cliche terms about what door people go through or anything like that because it’s stupid and silly,” Triple H continued. “Partnerships and opportunities like this come along for some people once in a lifetime. I’m glad she had that opportunity. It’s well deserved, she’s an incredible talent.”
