Backstage Report On TNA Champion Mike Santana's Current Contract

Over the last year, Mike Santana has become the top star in TNA, winning the TNA World Heavyweight Championship on two different occasions, as well as headlining TNA's marquee event, Bound for Glory, against WWE star Trick Williams. This would seem to signal that Santana could be around TNA for the long-haul. As it turns out, it will only be a few more months before Santana will have to make a major decision.

PWInsider Elite reports that Santana's contract with TNA is set to expire this summer, making him a free agent. Though an exact date for when Santana will become available wasn't specified, it was noted that there was expected to be interest in Santana from outside TNA, with WWE expect to pursue him. It was not made clear if any other promotions would look to sign Santana, including AEW, where he worked from August 2019 till the fall of 2023.

Should Santana hit the open market, it would not be the first time WWE has pursued him, having previously attempted to sign Santana when his TNA contract expired some time ago. To the surprise of many, Santana opted to re-sign with TNA instead, opening up the path to his current World Title run. 

Despite that, TNA's working relationship with WWE has allowed Santana to make several appearances for "WWE NXT" over the last two years, where he continued his feud with Williams and took part in the "NXT vs. TNA" crossover event. His most recent "NXT" appearance occurred just last week, when he teamed with Bronco Nima and Lucien Price to defeat Dion Lennox, Osiris Griffin, and Saquon Shugars of DarkState.