Sean Ross Sapp, on the work orchestrated by TNA at Turning Point: "It was an irresponsible breach of trust"

TNA Wrestling and Mike Santana became a trend just hours before Turning Point was set to begin, the PPV that the company held last night at the Full Sail University in Orlando, Florida. The reason? The leak to the specialized press of the wrestler's absence, who also did not respond to the company's calls, leading to the belief that Santana was upset about his recent loss of the World Championship.

Later, outlets like PWInsider and Fightful were able to confirm that it was a work, although the initial publications had already planted doubt among fans. This unusual move by TNA has sparked criticism towards the company and the media outlets that shared the information. A situation that Sean Ross Sapp, a journalist from Fightful, wanted to clarify, who strongly criticized TNA for causing a situation that only generated mistrust among fans.

"Never in my career before November 14th had an executive, manager, or public relations representative from any wrestling company given me information to advance a story pretending it was real. I know there are many misconceptions about the relationship between the media and professional wrestling executives, and I am happy to talk about my experiences. There have been occasions when companies tell us: 'this may seem unusual, but it's a story, and it will be resolved very quickly', to alleviate concerns. WWE representatives were transparent with us about the controversial Brooks Jensen story last year," wrote Sapp.

The journalist recalled a tweet in which a former wrestler claimed that "dirt sheets" receive information from promoters and wrestlers to leak information, spread rumors, or create headlines, whom he called "snakes."

"Of course promoters contact us to leak information. We have been on camera with over a thousand people in the industry, and there are hundreds more we are in contact with. Very specifically, we have never had a representative, executive, or official contact us with information pretending it is 'real' when it is not," Sapp wrote on the matter.

"If you think 'and what about that time when...?' No. Not then either. Nor whatever you are thinking. It simply is not the relationship between these companies and the media. It erodes trust. I often say that they don't lie to me much, if they do at all, but there are many times when they simply do not respond. It is their right. They do not owe information to the media; the media owes information to its audience," he added.

What exactly happened on November 14th?

"So on November 14th, we were contacted by a TNA official who said: 'For your information... Mike Santana did not participate in the Meet & Greet after Thursday night's show. He has not arrived at Full Sail University, and the talent call was at 1 p.m., and he has not responded to TNA's calls or messages. TNA executives were not available for comment, but they said tonight's Turning Point main event is now in doubt'," Sapp explained.

"I replied with an image of a frog dressed as a wizard saying 'doubt,' and immediately informed my team members not to cover this unless TNA officially released it. It was not true, and it is not the kind of things companies offer us, and if they did, it would be 'on background' (reportable without naming the source) or 'off the record' (for our knowledge but not reportable without additional sources). That was not the case here. Shortly after sending my response, another outlet received the same story and published it. We contacted them to inform them it was a work. By then, at least two other media members had received that information, one of them publishing it word for word."

"I am not one to point fingers unless people are being dishonest, making things up, or stealing content (transcriptions or original work), but if someone ever gives you information -especially an official from a company- and your first internal question is not 'why?', you are not doing a good job. This was a story from the start, and that's fine, but you can also say 'TNA has provided the following statement,' instead of trying to get us to report it as a scoop. Above all, we would be more concerned about the well-being of the person involved than some fake wrestling title,"

"There were people comparing it to Double or Nothing 2022 weekend and MJF. No. It's not the same. I will gladly explain why on this week's Fightful Report Podcast, but in that story, no information was provided by any AEW official. There were also people saying 'Why are the media ruining this TNA story?' while lying that AEW stories never leak. That's nonsense, but well: TNA officials were giving out that information. They wanted it out, and it got out."

"They wanted to create an extra strange multilayered story insinuating that Mike Santana -one of the most responsible, hardworking, and professional guys in wrestling- did not show up for a meet & greet and ignored TNA because he was upset about being booked to lose the TNA World Championship in a scripted match. Alright, fine. No wonder so many people were confused. The approach didn't make sense. Save that for your Twitter account or for TV, and then discreetly let us know he's okay, and the story will be resolved soon. No problem,"

"I saw people say: 'And what about WWE giving incorrect information about WrestleMania or other shows?' Quite a bit, actually. I'm not sure who people think 'WWE' is, but that's not the kind of information officials or PR representatives send to people like me. I also don't know why they would. There will always be misinformation, but there is usually more incentive not to say anything than to knowingly provide false information. There may be exceptions, but if someone gives us false information, it almost always leaks during the verification process. Still, that has not happened with officials or PR to advance a story. That comes from other people within the company. I know that is hard to believe for many fans, especially when places like WWE have had a very strange and public attitude of 'don't believe in Internet dirt sheets' on screen, while maintaining a cordial relationship most of the time,"

"I am not against covering things within the storyline. We do storyline articles at Fightful every day. I have done dozens of 'in character' interviews. Sometimes they are very fun. This was not that. This was an unusual attempt to do a work-shoot trying to deceive the media. To the point that one outlet had an interview scheduled with Mike Santana that was canceled, and they were given the same statement as us. So the official not only tried to deceive one of the most respected publications in wrestling history -Pro Wrestling Illustrated- but also took away content they had planned. I won't even get into the morbid parallels that something like this can have with horrible moments of the past. Many fans have already made those comparisons, and fortunately, nothing remotely similar was happening,"

"I understand that this is a non-issue for most of you, and that's fine. I don't expect everyone, not even the majority, to care about this. But I do care about the integrity and respecting the intelligence of our audience that supports us, and I wanted to be as transparent as possible. This was an irresponsible and strange breach of trust by an official in professional wrestling. There are many people who will see this as a pretentious stance from someone reporting things companies don't want to be known, but I'll say it like this: that bad information I mentioned almost always leaks because the same officials deny it. How can anyone covering TNA -and even more so those who received that information- trust them after that attempt?

The Santana disappearance story was incorporated into Turning Point, with several segments referencing the former champion's absence, who had to undergo a medical evaluation before being able to compete in the match scheduled for that same night. A match that ultimately took place, with Santana and Steve Maclin emerging victorious in the main event of the night.