TNA's Leon Slater Explains How He Learned He'd Be On John Cena's Final WWE Show

Current TNA World Champion Leon Slater hasn't just made waves within TNA, he's also frequently appeared in WWE, both in "WWE NXT" and on the main roster, due to his company's partnership with the professional wrestling giant. Slater notably appeared on John Cena's retirement show, WWE Saturday Night's Main Event in Washington, DC in December 2025, where he teamed with Je'Von Evans to take on AJ Styles and Dragon Lee.

Slater spoke with the Extreme Channel and explained a little more about his time in "NXT." He said that he'd do two or three weeks of a TNA and "NXT" loop, since he still lives in the UK. He recalled a time he thought he'd be able to fly back home with a gap in his schedule, but found out that wasn't the case.

"I was asking them, 'Oh, cool. I'll go home here then, yeah?'" he said. "The travel lady at 'NXT' goes, 'No, you'll be in DC that weekend.' I go, 'Alright. Cool.' I didn't really think of it and I walked off, I was like, 'DC, like what's going on in DC this weekend?' Then I realized and I was like, 'Oh my God!' As the talks carried on and it was made official, it started to set into reality. The weekend itself was just incredible. I got to have a lot of my friends there. I got to meet a lot of my childhood heroes... It really was a dream that day, it was incredible."

Slater, who was then TNA X-Division Champion at the time, and Evans would be defeated by Styles and Lee, who were then World Tag Team Champions. After the match, all four men paid respect to Cena with salutes in the ring.

Slater said the Saturday Night's Main Event bout alongside Evans is the match he's most proud of in his career. He also spoke about meeting Cena, and said the "Never Seen 17" was actually one of the first people he saw as they came back through gorilla position after the match. Slater described Cena as a "legend," and said he is always "so giving."

"For someone who has so much on his plate between the Hollywood stuff and all his other interests and his involvement in WWE, he's so giving with his time," he said. "That was my biggest takeaway from meeting John... I saw him in the hallway earlier in the day and I said, obviously, like, 'So nice to meet you, sir, thank you for having me,' and he's like, 'No, no. Thank you for being here...' He was just a real standup guy and he couldn't have been more giving with his time and he couldn't have been more generous with his feedback and his critiques after the match."

The former X-Division Champion has been on a tear in TNA in 2026, and his efforts culminated in a victory over Nic Nemeth in the main event of TNA Bound for Glory, where he captured the company's top title. Slater earned the shot by exercising his third option after regaining the X-Division title from Cedric Alexander in a Last Man Standing steel cage match at TNA Lockdown.

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit Extreme Channel and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.