Matt Hardy Talks TNA’s AMC Debut Reaction: “I Do Know That The AMC People Were Very Happy With It”
A new era in TNA is upon us.
On December 2nd, TNA Wrestling officially announced on their social media accounts that they’ve agreed to a new media rights deal with AMC network, with a debut date of Thursday, January, 15, 2026.
Immediately following the show and for days after, the reaction from the wrestling community has been largely negative, with the booking and creative surrounding the show at the top of the list of complaints.
For the first time since the show, Jon Alba spoke to Matt Hardy on the Extreme Life of Matt Hardy about his reaction about the show.
“I think overall, I do know that the AMC people were very happy with it. This was their first venture into pro wrestling sports content at all, in the big scheme of things, so they’re not very familiar with that. And I know they have hopes—they want to see more story, they want to see stories incorporated into this.
I think the AMC people were blown away by the chaotic scene of doing a two-hour live wrestling show. Just seeing all the moving parts, everything that’s happening, stuff going on, changes on the fly, this, that, and the other thing. I think they were blown away and pretty impressed by that.
I think there was some really good stuff on it. I also think there were some issues that happened with the visa situations that caused a lot of rebooking on the card. But once again, it was our first time out, and it wasn’t perfect. I think we could have maybe switched up the pacing on some things a little more. We could have kept things a little tighter.
I think in television in 2026, nowadays, you have to keep a product that is boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Viewers’ attention spans are so short as it is anyway. But we’re a work in progress, and I don’t think anybody is going to say that isn’t true. That’s part of this, because as we’ve said before, it is TNA, and we’re trying to grow into something bigger. It’s going to be a work in progress and a process, and I think we will get there.
When it was all said and done, I think everybody was just happy this first show happened.”
Full video:
Matt & Jeff Hardy successfully defended the TNA Tag Team titles against the Righteous – Vincent & Dutch – at the Genesis PPV.
Jeff Hardy also successfully defeated Mustafa Ali this past Thursday night In New Mexico.
Per PWtorch, the viewership numbers for the TNA premiere on AMC came out at 173,000 and 0.04 in the 18-49 age demographic. The viewership number was quite a bit lower then both network average in prime time (214,000) and many people expected .
Tune in this week for a loaded Thursday Night iMPACT on AMC.
(H/T NoDQ.com for transcription)
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