Alex Hammerstone on TNA departure: ‘I felt like the company stopped caring about me’

Alex Hammerstone says he got the feeling he wasn’t a top priority in TNA Wrestling.

Hammerstone returned to Major League Wrestling on Saturday at Battle Riot VII. He had announced his departure from TNA in February, after signing with the company in March 2024. In a recent interview with Sports Illustrated, Hammerstone said he believes TNA stopped caring about him.

“At a certain point, perception is reality,” Hammerstone said. “So I’m sitting there and from my perception, I felt like the company stopped caring about me and maybe I needed to do something in a different way. Maybe they were looking for something that I wasn’t giving them. But also that was never a conversation that was had. I’d be very happy to be sat down and told, ‘Hey, creatively, this is what we want to do. So we need to see more of this out of you.’ And I never got that. It was just like, hey, where are we going creatively? And a lot of times it’s like, well, you know what you’re doing with this guy. You know what you’re doing with that guy, so why don’t you know what you’re doing with me?”

When he signed with TNA last year, he felt the company had offered him the best deal.

“There’s been subtle discussions at every point with every company at the time last year,” Hammerstone said. “When I was in free agency like that, that TNA deal seemed like the best — the best offer for me at the time. I understand that sometimes people get lost in the shuffle, but with the size of the TNA product at the time, I thought that was a good opportunity to stand out. I was very happy with the match they gave me at Hard to Kill. So, that just seemed like the most logical choice at the time.”