AJ Francis re-signs with TNA Wrestling

  • Ian Carey
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AJ Francis is not leaving TNA Wrestling anytime in the foreseeable future. 

The former Top Dolla was released by WWE in September 2023 and debuted for TNA at Hard to Kill 2024 the following January. On Tuesday, he revealed to Sports Illustrated that he has re-signed with TNA Wrestling.

Francis said:

“TNA has taken care of me over the last year. A year ago, I wasn’t the most sought after free agent. A year ago, people thought I wasn’t going to wrestle anymore. A year ago, people thought that my wrestling career might be done. And a year ago, TNA took me in for their very first show, Hard To Kill in (Las) Vegas. That was the very first night that I interacted with Joe Hendry. One year later, Joe Hendry’s the biggest star in wrestling. He can still send me a box of cigars for that whenever he wants.”

During the last year in TNA, Francis won the TNA Digital Media Championship and was the self-proclaimed Canadian International Heavyweight Champion during a program he worked on that culminated in PCO beating him for both titles at Slammiversary. He recently headlined TNA Final Resolution 2024, losing a TNA World title match to champion Nic Nemeth in the main event. 

Francis was backstage at AEW Worlds End in Orlando this weekend, Fightful reported. He also mentioned to Sports Illustrated that he’d had offers from other companies but decided he wanted to return to TNA. 

Francis continued:

“I always wanted to go back to TNA. Even though over the past week, I’ve made it clear that I could go anywhere. There were feelers out for me potentially going over to AEW, maybe going back to NXT because I never really got a run in NXT, maybe go back to SmackDown. Obviously going to Netflix for Raw would have been cool too. But there was a lot of options out on the table for me. TNA just feels like the best place for me. TNA has always since the day that I got there changed people’s perception of me. My last match in TNA was for the TNA World Title, an absolute banger of a match in the main event of Final Resolution against Nic Nemeth.”

“It’s funny because a year ago when it was announced I was coming to TNA, the discourse by TNA fans was, ‘Why is he coming? We don’t need him. What’s he doing here’? And then over the last week, when I was out here saying I might be leaving, it became, please come back to TNA. We love you at TNA. It’s been great the TNA. So it’s funny, what a year could change. A year can change everything. There was never anything that made me want to leave TNA.”

The last two weeks of TNA Impact have been “Best of 2024” compilation shows. This week, the promotion presents its first show of 2025, which will also mark the first TNA show to air on Sportsnet in Canada.