Highlights
- Jeff Jarrett had conversations with Anthem about rebranding Impact Wrestling because he believed the name was "dead on arrival" in 2011.
- He is surprised that they are rebranding now after buying the show and knowing its history for several years.
- Jarrett hopes that the name change comes with a compelling storyline to engage the current viewers and attract new fans, and he wishes the team the best in taking the company to new heights.
Jeff Jarrett was part of WCW in 2001 when it was bought by Vince McMahon and WWE. Jarrett didn't go back to his former home though. Instead, with his father, Jerry Jarrett, he helped to create Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, known as TNA, in 2002. The company had its ups-and-downs under Jarrett, partially because of his constant title reigns, and in December 2013 he resigned from TNA. This past week, however, came the news that Impact Wrestling (the name TNA has gone by since 2017), will be going back to its TNA Wrestling name in January 2024. So what did one of the men who helped create the company think about it?
In his My World podcast, Jeff Jarrett said, "I'm surprised in a few different ways in that the conversations that I had with Anthem, I'll just leave it at that, all the way at the highest levels, I was pretty clear with them, 'Hey guys, in my opinion, IMPACT Wrestling, naming that the company, was almost dead on arrival in 2011.' I said, 'I just think IMPACT Wrestling is dead.' I had those conversations in depth. I gave them the history, but they were well aware of it. They bought the show 'Impact!' from day one, Anthem did. They knew that it was 'TNA Wrestling presents Impact!'... Okay, so now five years, six years, after you acquired it, you're rebranding? So that would be a little bit of a surprise to me."
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Jeff Jarrett Hopes The TNA Name Change Comes With A Storyline
Jarrett added, "At the end of the day, it's all execution. What is Scott's vision? That's what I'm most excited about. Scott, what's your vision of TNA? I know what mine was. I'm well aware, and we can talk about different things. The four different divisions, how's that going to be presented or promoted? The six-sided ring, to me, there's a lot of nuances. At the end of the day, it's the story... I do think change is good. The one thing that I immediately thought was, 'Have they been doing a storyline to bring it along?' To my knowledge, they haven't... So I think you could have done a hell of a storyline out of this and really got the the the current watchers of AXS or IMPACT Wrestling — because you got to do social media changes, the rebranding, boy oh boy, it's so much easier said than done. It is a full lift. So I'm optimistic, and it sounds like they've got until January to kind of complete the thing. I just hope if they haven't, that they kind of get into a storyline to bring the people along, because I think it's a real authentic story, and people can be brought along in the story with it.
"When you put your own money up and see go from a dream to a reality, I will forever be somewhat emotionally tied to it, but I wish Scott and the team nothing but the best, and I hope they take it to heights that it's never been before." (h/t Fightful)
