Before WWE officially made things official and announced an expansive, multi-year working relationship with TNA, one member of the promotion's Hall of Fame who was putting work in the Impact Zone was JBL, who has been bouncing around the indies all year as a sort of unofficial liaison.

How did it feel to see the pairing, which, to at least to some degree, resulted from his hard work, officially become official? Well, in an interview on the Something to Wrestle podcast, JBL broke it down, noting that he believes the partnership can be incredibly fruitful for all parties involved.

“I think so collaboration will be better going back the other way you saw some TNA guys and girls show up on the NXT shows, it was a huge boost for TNA, but also big boost for NXT. It gives you something extra. It gives you something different,” JBL said via Fightful. “I don't know if an invasion angle is ever going to be out there. I doubt it. I don't know that. I have no idea what creative is, but I think it's fantastic for both, and I think you're gonna start seeing some NXT guys on TNA. I think that's wonderful, because when you're learning the business as people are learning down in NXT, no matter how great your coaches are, and they have great coaches down there. I mean, Finlay, Robbie Brookside, and those guys are world-class. Finlay is one of the best teachers of all time, but no matter how much you have from a coach, you still have one territory.”

Discussing the idea of territories further, JBL noted that back in his day, performers would go from one promotion to another to learn all about the business. In WWE, that doesn't really happen, well, at least until now.

“Now you have somewhere else for them to go with TNA. [They can] work with a different group of people. Learn a different sense and system. Learn different camera people, different producers, everything that you do that changes and adds to that background of education that these young people have before they go to WWE,” JBL said. “To me, it's going to be very helpful and I think it does wonders for TNA. It does wonders for NXT. I mean, these are the two companies that [fans] chant their initials. It's hard to it's hard to over-emphasize that that didn't happen with WWE, back in the day, didn't happen with WCW. We were hot as fire. It happens when you've got groups like ECW, when fans take an ownership of it. So you have two groups, NXT and TNA, where fans have taken an ownership of it, and these two groups are working together. I think it's fantastic.”

Will WWE and TNA both benefit greatly from their new partnership? Frankly, it's hard to say until it actually happens, but if this is a chance for young stars to get new experience, it's hard to argue with the spirit.