TNA President Carlos Silva reacts to WWE changing the name of an upcoming event due to the controversy surrounding it.
Silva spoke with WrestleZone Managing Editor Bill Pritchard to promote two of TNA’s major events that are taking place next week. TNA will host its annual Bound For Glory pay-per-view in Lowell, Massachusetts, on October 12, but they’ll first stop by the WWE Performance Center for a ‘Showdown’ on Tuesday, October 7.
The cross-promotional event, announced at NXT No Mercy last week, was originally called ‘Invasion,’ a name WWE had once used for a July 2001 pay-per-view. However, a report from Sky News Arabia claimed that WWE had angered Israel over the decision to schedule the show for October 7, which was the second anniversary of Hamas’s invasion in 2023.
The Jewish Chronicle also reported that Israeli fans called the decision “insensitive.” It was noted that while this could have been an unfortunate coincidence, WWE should have known better.
WWE ultimately changed the name of the event and pulled all items promoting it as “Invasion.” A new name, Showdown, was confirmed on Tuesday night.
Carlos Silva believes ‘Showdown’ was the right way to go
TNA President Carlos Silva was asked if he had any insight into why the name changed. Silva said he only saw what was posted online. However, he supports WWE and TKO’s decision to rebrand and take things in a more positive direction.
“Only what I’ve read on social. You know, we probably all read the same thing on social. I think there was some thinking around what had happened over in Israel and Hamas, with the word ‘Invasion’ and that invasion that happened a year ago.
“So, that’s—I just read the same thing and I saw that we branded everything last night ‘Showdown.’ We all leaned into it in a positive way, supported TKO and WWE on that. It seems like a great name. It is a showdown between NXT and TNA. So it seemed like the right way to go.”
Our full interview with TNA President Carlos Silva will be released next week on WrestleZone.
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