TNA Wrestling talent honors the late Joe Doering at Slammiversary.
Former TNA World Tag Team Champion Joe Doering passed away at the age of 44 on June 26, 2026, after a lengthy battle with brain cancer. Many wrestling personalities paid tribute to the veteran since his passing. Now, commentator Matthew Rehwoldt (former WWE star Aiden English) dedicated tonight’s Slammiversary event to his memory, sharing a photo of a custom “JOE” armband on X/Twitter with the caption, “TNA Slammiversary is for Joe.”
Rehwoldt and fellow commentator Tom Hannifan were seen wearing the armband during the Slammiversary countdown show. The referees are also wearing the custom armband, and it’s safe to assume more TNA talent will do so during the pay-per-view.
“For all of us here in the TNA Wrestling family tonight, this is for Joe, this is in memory of the late great Joe Doering,” Hannifan said.
TNA also started Slammiversary with a tribute to Doering:
Josh Alexander honors Joe Doering with emotional final-match tribute
The last singles match Joe Doering competed in TNA was against current AEW star Josh Alexander at the 2022 Against All Odds event. Alexander took to X/Twitter to share a clip from the contest and an emotional tribute to the veteran.
“July 1 2022 I wrestled what would be Joe Doering’s last match. A month prior I’d noticed something was off with Joe. But it never crossed my mind that his cancer might have returned. In my mind he’d already faced that battle and won. I’ve thought about it all countless times since and never asked. I think he knew the cancer had returned or at least had a gut feeling. Regardless he kept it all to himself. When it came time for the match he was down for everything. Angle slam off the apron to the floor? Let’s do it. Superplex? He was down,” Josh Alexander wrote about Doering.
“I remember going to him before the match and telling him “Joe hopefully I don’t regret this. But I really want you to lay your stuff in on me out there. If you clothesline me I want my boots to come loose.” He kind of smirked like only Joe could and agreed. (And he sure did what I asked) We had a 20+ main event title match on ppv. I can’t imagine the pain or discomfort he was feeling at the time. But in true Joe fashion he was an absolute warrior.
“Joe always was a professional. A class act and one hell of a wrestler. I left that match sore as shit but proud. It’s a strange feeling being both honoured and sad to have been the one that he closed out his career with. I’m just fortunate to have known him both in and out of the ring. He fought cancer for so long. I can only hope that now he can finally rest,” Alexander’s said about Joe Doering’s passing.
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