Matt Hardy Thinks TNA Wrestling’s Leon Slater Would Have ‘Killed It’ In WWE’s Attitude Era: ‘He Is So Talented’

WWE

Matt Hardy believes former TNA X-Division Champion Leon Slater would have thrived in WWE’s Attitude Era.

After a breakout year in 2025 which saw him become the youngest TNA X-Division Champion, and make several appearances on WWE programming, 21-year-old Leon Slater looks destined for major success for many, many years to come.

However, one of Slater’s mentors in TNA, Matt Hardy, also believes he could have found great success during wrestling’s hottest ever period: WWE’s Attitude Era, a time where The Hardy Boyz were at the peak of their popularity alongside Edge & Christian and The Dudley Boyz.

With Slater showing obvious influence from Matt and Jeff in his own in-ring style, but also with wisdom beyond his years, Matt believes the English star would have been a great fit in the late 1990s/early 2000s.

Speaking with GOW Media, Matt said:

“One person I think would have been great (in the Attitude Era), and I’m so jealous of how far he is at such a young age is Leon Slater.

“He’s one of those guys too (like) myself and Jeff, he’s like our kid, we kind of took him under our wing. Obviously he was a huge Hardy Boyz fan, his motivation for the Swanton 450 was Jeff’s Swanton obviously. But dude, he is 21 and he gets it.

“If there was some advice I’d give a younger me, he is the younger me, because he gets that advice and he has had it all. He understands it.

“He’s working really hard on his character aspects and trying to make people emotionally invested in him. But he is so talented, he is incredibly athletic, he is incredibly acrobatic and if he was around in the Attitude Era he would have killed it.”

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Leon Slater will be one of seven stars to compete in the Ultimate X Match for the TNA X-Division Championship at this Sunday’s Slammiversary PPV in Boston, MA, with reigning champion Cedric Alexander defending it against Slater, Fabian Aichner, KC Navarro, Mr. Elegance, Frankie Kazarian and returning TNA legend Amazing Red.

In other Slammiversary news, former WWE writer “Road Dogg” Brian James is reportedly set to attend the event ahead of potentially joining the company – click here for full details.

Leon Slater’s X-Division Farewell Coming At Slammiversary?

On the May 14 episode of TNA Impact, Leon Slater fell agonisingly short in his attempt to become the longest reigning TNA X-Division Champion of all time, as he lost his belt to Cedric Alexander on his 298th day as champion and had to settled for tying the record with Austin Aires.

While Slater has been out for revenge since, it feels like Slammiversary may, and likely should be his final hurrah in the mid-card of TNA before stepping up to challenge for the TNA World Title.

While there has been doubts over Slater’s long-term future in TNA, especially following his impressive showings in WWE last year, current champion Mike Santana’s TNA contract is reportedly due to expire in July, so the company could certainly do with “The Youngest in Charge” stepping up to the main event to fill that void.

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• Leon Slater
• wwe
• Matt Hardy
• Attitude Era
• TNA
• tna wrestling

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