TNA Wrestling attendance has remained a talking point, and a former roster member is now adding his own perspective to the ongoing debate over crowd sizes and ticket distribution.

Speaking on the January 17, 2026 episode of the Café de René podcast, former TNA wrestler Master Emir claimed that free tickets were routinely handed out during his run with TNA Wrestling in 2025. According to Emir, even aggressive comping did little to improve the atmosphere inside the buildings.

“So I worked for TNA last year, and one of the things you’re talking about is giving away tickets. They were giving tickets away for free. They had people going out and handing out free tickets. And the building we were in wasn’t even half full, even with free tickets being given out. It was atrocious.”

Emir did not point to a specific event or pay per view, but his comments land at a time when TNA is attempting to re establish momentum and visibility following its recent national television partnership with AMC. Live attendance has become a frequent metric used by fans to judge whether that reset is translating into real world growth.

The issue of complimentary tickets first flared up publicly in October 2025, when TNA announced a record crowd of 7,794 fans for Bound for Glory. Almost immediately, online speculation suggested a significant portion of that number may have come from free admissions, with some claiming up to 3,000 tickets were comped.

Those claims were strongly rejected by former TNA World Champion Moose, who addressed the criticism directly on social media. Moose pushed back by highlighting how far the company has come compared to earlier years.

“People saying half of our record setting attendance was free tickets are brain dead,” Moose wrote. “Back in 2016 17, we were wrestling in front of 150 comped fans because Universal didn’t allow ticket sales.”

Moose acknowledged that some complimentary tickets are standard across the industry, particularly for sponsors, friends, and media, but dismissed the idea that thousands of seats were being given away.

“I could understand 200 or 300 comped tickets, but 3,000? That’s just bad business. No promotion does that unless they’re desperate. And if it was that easy, everyone would be doing it.”