Creative team leaders depart as things are reportedly changing behind-the-scenes at TNA

Following the shocking firing of the promotion’s former president Scott D’Amore early this year, things seemed to have settled down at TNA Wrestling.

But with TNA making headlines this week for their latest — and seemingly most extensive — collaboration with WWE, multiple outlets are reporting that TNA’s parent company Anthem Entertainment recently shook things up behind the scenes at the former Impact Wrestling.

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson writes that it was a “rough day” at TNA yesterday (May 30), as a number of behind-the-scenes employees lost their jobs as part of Anthem “cutbacks”.

While no wrestlers are believed to have been cut, at least one of the people let go was a member of TNA’s creative team.

Creative Director Dave Sahadi was one of those. Sahadi has held his current job with TNA since 2019. Prior to Anthem’s purchase of the company in 2017, Shahadi directed television & PPV for TNA/Impact for 18 years. Prior to that, he’d also worked in WWE creative.

His exit follows the recent resignation of Robert “RD” Evans, whose departure was first covered in the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Evans is a former independent wrestler who was a writer for WWE until leaving in 2019, when he allegedly quit after being berated by Vince McMahon. Dave Meltzer describes Evans as “one of the key guys on the creative team” for TNA. In his write-up, Insider’s Johnson describes Evans as a producer who was “considered head of creative” by many at TNA.

Evans is said to have resigned prior to yesterday’s layoffs. An Insider source said things were “strained” between Evans & higher-ups at the company as he’d grown “increasingly frustrated”. Johnson believes Evans “left of his own accord” despite some TNA officials trying to spin his exit as a mutual decision.

It’s not known who will fill Sahadi & Evans’ roles or take on their responsibilities.

The live events department also underwent a “restructuring” with multiple people laid off, per Insider. Anthem/TNA is said to in the process of figuring out who will run live events. Both Insider and the Observer point out that TNA doesn’t have any dates booked past their television tapings on Aug. 2-3 in Tampa, but that doesn’t seem to be uncommon at this juncture. What could be noteworthy is that there’s currently no city or venue announced for Bound for Glory, TNA’s annual October PPV that’s often their marquee event of the year.

There’s no indication right now that these changes are in any way related to TNA’s relationship with WWE. But the timing won’t do anything to rein in speculation about what the partnership between the companies could lead to.