Best TNA Wrestlers that joined WWE (Ranked)

TNA Wrestling has incredibly been going in some form for over 20 years, with Jeff Jarrett starting the promotion alongside Jerry Jarrett in 2002 following the sale of World Championship Wrestling/WCW to WWE. Jeff was one of the people that Vince McMahon and co were not interested in bringing into the fold, following a monetary dispute a few years prior, so Jarrett and his father looked to create an alternative, which ended up being Total Nonstop Action Wrestling.

TNA was the de facto number 2 promotion in North America pretty much until the creation of All Elite Wrestling/AEW, so it isn’t surprising that some of the best stars from the TNA roster would end up making their way up to the biggest stage at some point in their careers. Here, I’m going to be looking at some of the performers who went from (then) Dixie Carter and Jeff Jarrett’s company to become arguably even bigger stars in WWE.

Something that I will stress here though is that I want to really look at the stars who were “proper” TNA stars, so not names who had a cup of coffee for the Jarrett’s in the early 2000s or a few stints here and there for the Dixie Carter/Panda Energy run promotion in the late 2000s/2010s. Basically, don’t get angry that I haven’t included CM Punk, because he wasn’t a TNA guy, he was a Ring of Honor guy. Also, as much as I would love to include Sting…I don’t think what they did with him in WWE makes it justifiable. Again, don’t get mad.

AJ Styles

If TNA were to fold today, then ‘The Phenomenal One’ AJ Styles would arguably be remembered as the poster boy for the company. Having performed literally on the company’s first ever show alongside Jerry Lynn & Lo-Ki to face The Flying Elvises (no, really), Styles would become one of the biggest stars on the roster and establish himself both as an X Division great but also as a bonafide main event player.

After a frankly sensational run in New Japan, Styles would finally make his way to WWE in 2016, appearing in the Royal Rumble match in the #3 slot. Styles was not what you would consider a “Vince McMahon guy,” as he didn’t have the size or stature that you would typically associate with a “Vince McMahon guy.” Despite that, Styles would convince McMahon and co that he was more than capable of being a main event player in the biggest promotion on the planet, having some of the best matches of John Cena’s latter career and helping to establish Roman Reigns at the top of the card.

Samoa Joe

While I personally consider Samoa Joe more of an “ROH guy” like CM Punk, you absolutely cannot deny that what he managed to achieve as a member of the TNA roster was stellar. Starting in the X Division, Joe would run rampant through the lower card before meeting the likes of AJ Styles and Christopher Daniels, with the three men having the best match in the company’s history at the Unbreakable 2005 PPV.

Joe’s run in WWE is best remembered for his time in NXT, but he still managed to have a decent go of it on the main roster. The biggest issue with Joe was that it didn’t really feel like the company knew quite what they had with him, something that people were worried about when it came to Styles. Still, for some who won the NXT Title three times, the United States Championship twice and got a main event against Brock Lesnar, you can’t really say that he didn’t accomplish much there.

Chelsea Green

The ‘Hot Mess’ Chelsea Green is one of the best character performers on the WWE roster right now. When she was brought back into the company during the 2023 Royal Rumble, the rumour mill was claiming that she would be adopting a Karen-esque character. Turns out, the ‘Karen’ character is perfect for her, and she has been consistently one of the highlights of WWE programming since her comeback.

Chelsea actually went black and forth between WWE and TNA/IMPACT Wrestling between 2016 to now, but she also had a short run on the Lucha Underground show as Reklusa, having a sensational main event match against Pentagon Dark that you absolutely need to see.

Bobby Roode

Bobby Roode was a TNA Champion, an NXT Champion, a WWE United States Champion and both RAW and SmackDown Tag Team Champion. Was Bobby Roode used to his fullest potential in WWE? No, absolutely not. But, he still managed to have a solid run in the company before now making his way into a backstage role. Roode was another one of those quintessential TNA guys, being part of Team Canada, Beer Money and then having a main event singles run that at one point had some fans comparing him to Triple H.

Roode seemed to be both aided and hampered by his ‘Glorious’ theme in WWE, and there was definitely more that they could’ve done with him. The former TNA star will go down as a bit of a “what if” in terms of his WWE run, but that does not mean that he wasn’t successful.