Dave Meltzer Ponders Which Former WWE Stars Could Be Unveiled As TNA's Mystery Signing

Impact Wrestling, soon to once-again be TNA Wrestling, is set to debut a major new name soon, and on the latest "Wrestling Observer Radio," Dave Meltzer theorized as to which released former WWE stars the company could be signing.

"There's a whole slew of guys that are on the 21st of [December] that become free agents, so they could debut as soon as Saturday for AEW, or they could debut when TNA has that big show in Vegas," Meltzer explained. "There's a long list of guys, but the three big ones are Dolph Ziggler/Nick Nemeth, Mustafa Ali, and Matt Riddle. So I would presume, the way he talked, Riddle is an interesting one. There's a negative stigma around Riddle."

Meltzer believes Riddle wouldn't be a good choice for AEW due to the aforementioned stigma, believing Impact would have an easier time weathering any criticism for signing the controversial wrestler.

"Nemeth is probably the safer pick," Meltzer continued. "Is that a game-changer? No. He's a talented guy."

Meltzer believes Nemeth would be a shoo-in in Impact should he be passed over by AEW, though as always, there's the financial question to consider. But it's very possible Impact has the necessary funds in pocket.

"Impact does have, from what I gather, earmarked some money so where they can spend some money on a free agent," Meltzer explained, hedging that they likely don't have enough to outbid AEW, but they might have enough to entice wrestlers who don't get an offer from Tony Khan.

Nemeth, Riddle, and Ali were all released after the merger between WWE and UFC into TKO Holdings Group was finalized. Riddle was the subject of an internal investigation before his release due to an incident at JFK International Airport.