TNA X-Division Champion Leon Slater accepted Carmelo Hayes’ United States Championship Open Challenge this past Friday on WWE SmackDown, which took place at the OVO Arena Wembley in London, England. Slater was originally scheduled to face Myron Reed of The Rascalz on Thursday night’s debut of iMPACT on the AMC Network, but he was quietly removed from the show and replaced by Joe Hendry for his match at the Genesis pay-per-view.
According to Fightful Select, Slater was pulled from these events due to visa issues affecting several TNA talents. However, since he was in his hometown, TNA “allowed WWE” to book him for SmackDown.
Recently, Slater has been a regular presence on WWE programming. He competed at last month’s Saturday Night’s Main Event, which featured John Cena’s retirement match. In that event, Slater teamed up with Je’Von Evans to take on the then-World Tag Team Champions, AJ Styles and Dragon Lee. Earlier this month, Slater also challenged Oba Femi for the NXT Title at New Year’s Evil.
