Leon Slater isn’t sure what’s next, but he has an idea of who might be.
Slater won the X Division Championship at Slammiversary. The win also set a new record for the youngest TNA champion ever, as Slater is just 20 years old. The new champion spoke with WrestleZone about his title win, getting surprised by AJ Styles and what’s next for him.
Slater offered praise for Moose, the man he beat for the title at Slammiversary, for pushing him to reach new heights. Slater then named a few “in-house” opponents he’d like to square off with. At the top of that list is KC Navarro, someone Slater says is on a similar path to him.
“I think the world is next. We have a bunch of people in-house with TNA that I’d love to square up against. And I guess before I get onto that, let’s give a little shoutout to Moose,” Slater said. “That moment wouldn’t have been what it was without him. He’s been pushing me to get to the level that I’m at right now and to get the level that I’m striving for. I couldn’t have rose to the levels that I did without him being that huge mountain for me to climb over. So, shoutout to Moose.
“But in his absence, we got to keep rocking, right? So, a couple of people that I want to square up against — I want KC Navarro as number one,” Slater proclaimed. “I feel like people have kind of put on these parallel paths. We both are kind of the new, young hot upstarts in TNA. So, that’s definitely a match-up that I’d like to see. And I think the fans would too.”
Leon Slater sees potential challengers on the TNA and NXT roster
Slater said Jason Hotch, Rascalz members Myron Reed, Zachary Wentz and Trey Miguel were other top choices. However, he pointed out that he wasn’t restricted to only picking TNA talent.
“So, if anyone from NXT wants to come up, whether that’s a Young OG [Je’Von Evans] or whether that’s a Saint [Ricky Saints], or whether that’s a very proud Canadian [Ethan Page]. Any of them boys want to step up, I’m more than happy to take challenges from there. Or even if you think you are Phenomenal and you want to step to the boy, I’m here for it too,” Slater said, alluding to his segment with AJ Styles.
Slater also commented on potentially wrestling The Hardy Boyz, two of his mentors in TNA. Slater can see it happening in the future as a student-versus-teacher battle, but TNA needs to get their respective men’s and women’s world titles back from Trick Williams and Jacy Jayne before they think about that.
It doesn’t seem like the Hardy-Slater battle will take place any time soon, as the trio aligned with Steve Maclin to declare war on NXT invaders on Thursday night.
Read More: TNA iMPACT Results: Review, Grades, Card For July 24
