WWE's NXTNA—a snarky shorthand for the NXT-TNA-AAA mashup—smells like a calculated middle finger to AEW, cloaked in cross-promotional chaos. 
Ricky Starks, rebranded as Ricky Saints, went from AEW's midcard darling to NXT's dual-title kingpin in six months, snagging the North American belt from Shawn Spears in April and toppling Oba Femi for the NXT Championship at No Mercy.
 NoDQ.com crowed the Femi match as WWE's "F.U." to AEW, spinning a supposed jobber into a titan.
Never mind Starks' AEW resume—wins over CM Punk, Jericho, FTR for tag gold, the 2023 Owen Hart tourney, and 2022's World Title Eliminator and Dynamite Dozen Battle Royal. Jobber? Hardly. WWE's just rewriting history to dunk on Tony Khan.
Then there's the "Invasion" fiasco. Naming an NXT-TNA clash on October 7—anniversary of the 2023 Hamas attacks—sparked outrage in Israel, with outlets like Israel Hayom slamming WWE's "preposterous" A quick rebrand to "Showdown" doused the fire, but the blunder screams careless empire.
Meanwhile, NXTNA's real game is counterprogramming AEW, with Khan shrugging it off to Going Ringside: "Tough competition makes us work harder. AEW's 2025 ratings and streaming surge suggest he’s not sweating it.
Elsewhere, MLW's Cesar Duran took a swing at WWE's Saudi "blood money" deals at Fury Road, while Salina de la Renta hyped their "choose violence" ethos.
TNA's Santino Marella, meanwhile, dreams big, telling Lucha Libre Online that a TV deal could vault TNA to number two, fan-driven over Khan's deep pockets. Good luck catching WWE's juggernaut, though—Marella admits it’s untouchable.
NXTNA's a bloated flex, recycling talent and rivalries while tripping over its own hubris. Starks shines, but the real story is WWE's shameless chess game—global missteps and all—against a scrappy field that’s punching back.

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