Since taking over as president of Anthem Sports & Entertainment last December, Carlos Silva has helped oversee the reinvigoration of the TNA Wrestling brand. With the company now partnered with WWE and set to host its biggest show of the year, Slammiversary, at UBS Arena on July 21 (7 p.m., TNA+, Triller), Silva took time for some Q&A with The Post’s Joseph Staszewski.
(Edited for clarity and length)
Q: Once you took over, you decided to take big swings of having events at USC, in California, now obviously next weekend on Long Island. Why did you feel like it was time for TNA to break out of its comfort zone?
A: If you want to be big, you got to be in big cities. Doesn’t always mean you need to be in the biggest arenas in those cities, but I think it’s important, even when you do a cold open for a show, and you do a fly by around Los Angeles, and we’re here at USC’s Galen Center. And then you do the same around New York City and Long Island, and the home of the Islanders, a storied NHL franchise. It just brings value to your promotion. It’s important that you bring the brand equity of some of these cities, and it doesn’t always have to be LA or New York.
