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James Storm almost shed happy tear seeing TNA World title at WWE WrestleMania

Posted: Jun 13th 2025 By: Joseph Currier

TNA legend James Storm got emotional seeing the company’s World Championship featured at WWE Royal Rumble and WrestleMania.

When Joe Hendry was TNA World Champion, he made a surprise appearance as an entrant in the Rumble and later competed at Mania, losing to Randy Orton in a non-title match. WWE and TNA working together makes Storm feel like he’s in an alternate timeline, but he thinks the relationship is “really cool” for the wrestlers who are in TNA today.

Storm told Insight with Chris Van Vliet that he almost shed a tear of happiness seeing Hendry appear with the TNA World Championship on WWE’s biggest stage.

“I actually almost shed a tear,” Storm said. “Because I was happy for Joe, but I was really happy for TNA. And people can say whatever they want to say about, you know, ‘Oh, this was not a good look.’ No, it was a good look. It’s the biggest show of the year and they have another company’s belt like being [shown].”

The Hendry vs. Orton match was divisive with some fans being critical of the TNA World Champion losing in three minutes, but Storm believes Hendry represented the company well.

“I don’t understand what the big deal is,” he said. “You know, like I thought Joe went out there and did the company big time justice.”

Storm, who still wrestles on the indies, was part of the first-ever TNA show in 2002 and is one of the most decorated wrestlers in the history of the promotion, including a solo World Championship reign and Tag Team title runs with Chris Harris as America’s Most Wanted and Bobby Roode as Beer Money.

The TNA World Championship is still featured on WWE programming with NXT star Trick Williams now holding the title. In what was the first TNA World Championship match to ever take place in WWE, Williams won the belt from Hendry at NXT Battleground last month.