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TNA underwent a major upheaval behind the scenes recently that left many Impact wrestlers unhappy due to Gail Kim being let go from her duties behind the scenes as Co-Head of Talent Relations and Producer. Also let go was Ariel Schnerner who headed up the creative team.
The shakeup was not a big surprise with TNA President Carlos Silva being new to his role taking over for Anthony Cicone, who took over in February of 2024 when Scott D’Amore, another popular figure behind the scenes with TNA talent, was fired by parent company Anthem.
Despite the shakeup behind the scenes last year, TNA continued to do well as a promotion drawing attention for presenting a product that drew praise despite a lack of real star power on the roster. TNA’s budding relationship with WWE drew buzz for the company and that relationship became official earlier this year with both companies exchanging talent regularly. One of the biggest beneficiaries of that relationship has been Joe Hendry, who’s theme song went viral last year in combination with him making several appearances on NXT programming.
A key replacement behind the scenes is former ROH booker Hunter Johnston, who wrestles under the name Delirious, taking over as Head of Creative. Johnston and Tommy Dreamer both worked under Schnerner on the creative team before Johnston was put in charge by Silva last week. He has been working behind the scenes in TNA on the creative team previously, but this is his first time being a lead booker since Ring of Honor was sold to AEW in March of 2022.
Johnston held the position of ROH booker and executive producer from August of 2010 until ROH was sold to AEW only briefly being removed as booker for a short stretch before Marty Scurll was named head booker. Scurll was removed when allegations of having sex with a minor were made against him during the speak out movement in 2020. Johnston produced over 500 episodes of TV for ROH when it aired in syndication under the ownership of the Sinclair Broadcast Group.
ROH gained a lot of popularity thanks to a formal partnership with NJPW that started in 2014. Under Johnston, ROH relied a lot on NJPW and the company began losing talent to WWE’s NXT brand. With each group of talent signed, it became clear that ROH needed to create their own stars and not rely as much as they were on using NJPW talent to enhance their TV, live event, and PPV business.
ROH began to rise in popularity with The Young Bucks working full time in the company starting in 2015. They also wrestled regularly in NJPW during this period as part of The Bullet Club faction. ROH rode a wave of momentum on the backs of The Young Bucks and their popular weekly YouTube show Being the Elite (BTE) where they filmed their own angles and storylines that ended up playing out in ROH and NJPW programming. Adam Cole, Hangman Page, Marty Scurll, and Cody Rhodes all benefited greatly from their appearances on BTE as members of Bullet Club.
Many sources I spoke to in ROH felt that Johnston relied too heavily on NJPW during his time as booker of ROH. Johnston booked in a way where he often waited too long to pull the trigger on pushing new acts even though it was clear they were ready for a run and the time was right for Johnston to push them, essentially putting all his eggs into one basket.
Another knock against Johnston during his time in ROH from sources I spoke to was that talent found him to be difficult to communicate with as he did not return phone calls and messages and also had a reputation for disappearing during live events. It wasn’t an uncommon site to see Hunter hanging out outside of venues before shows with a big hooded sweatshirt covering his face so he could not be identified.
Johnston also had a reputation with multiple sources I spoke to during this period for not being proactive when it came to negotiating new contracts with talent, as he would expect things to fall into place instead of being proactive to ensure new deals got done.One of the stories I broke about how Delirious was difficult to find and communicate with in his role as head booker was when Keith Lee ended up signing with Evolve in 2018. He was supposed to finish up with ROH in his hometown of Dallas.
ROH officials had decided to only use Lee on one show earlier in the week and not let him appear in Dallas, but he wasn’t told about it ahead of time. Lee ended up looking for Johnston when he got to the show to confirm ROH’s plans with him for the weekend, but he could never find him and eventually an ROH official informed Lee that he was off the show.
Several ROH talents and members of management liked Johnston during this period. He was seen as a nice guy that put several wrestlers that moved into prominent roles into key spots. It has been pointed out to me by his supporters behind the scenes that he booked Jay Lethal and Jay Briscoe as successful ROH World Champions.
He was also credited by many for putting multiple wrestlers in a position where they could succeed before moving onto bigger companies. Ultimately ROH ended up leaning on the Being the Elite talent (Matt Jackson, Nick Jackson, Cody Rhodes, and Hangman Page) too much that ended up leaving ROH for AEW. AEW forming in 2019 with almost all of the key members of Being the Elite signing there was the death knell for ROH as it lost its place in the wrestling marketplace and there was a shortage of marketable talent on the roster. ROH continued on, but eventually the pandemic led to SBG being in the red and deciding to sell ROH to AEW owner Tony Khan in 2022.
Johnston has stayed under the radar since becoming part of the TNA creative team. I haven’t heard anything negative or positive about him and I haven’t seen any reports about how he is viewed by talent. TNA is the place where many people with checkered reputations get a second chance, but Johnston getting another run as a head booker is a surprise.
Johnston has a lot of negative history from his time in charge of ROH creative, but he was doing a good job of booking a coherent promotion with a focus on wrestling when ROH was sold closed shortly after the pandemic ended. It is unlikely that he will be seen as an ally by the wrestlers behind the scenes as Kim was, but given that he’s been part of TNA’s booking operation for several years and he will continue to work with Tommy Dreamer, I wouldn’t expect huge changes to the booking operation moving forward other than perhaps more of a focus on the in-ring wrestling.
One of the most interesting aspects of Johnston being in charge of creative is how he is perceived by WWE officials. Johnston is going to have to work with members of the WWE creative team to plan out the booking. How he functions in this role working with WWE officials is likely going to decide how long he is in charge of creative.
If he exhibits any of the behaviour he did while he was in charge of creative in ROH while working with WWE officials, it’s likely that he won’t last long if he leaves them with a negative impression. Johnston booked ROH for over a decade and hasn’t gotten a look from AEW or WWE since ROH was sold, which is telling.
If he’s going to continue in his current role as the creative lead in TNA, he’s going to have to keep AEW moving forward in the right direction and steer the ship moving forward as TNA continues to grow by growing its own roster and capitalizing on its relationship with WWE to remain relevant in a packed marketplace dominated by WWE and AEW.
Contact Sean at pwtorchsean@gmail.com. Follow him on BlueSky @SeanRadican
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