Jeff Jarrett was there for day one of TNA.
And on the latest episode of his "My World with Jeff Jarrett" podcast, the AEW star and former TNA founder spoke about the company rebranding from IMPACT Wrestling back to TNA.
During the episode, Double J also reflected back on when TNA first changed to the IMPACT Wrestling name, his Global Force Wrestling promotion and the role it played in TNA's history and more.
Featured below are some of the highlights from the episode where he touches on these topics with his thoughts.
On recalling TNA changing to IMPACT back in 2011, a name he believes was 'dead on arrival': "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!'"
On his Global Force Wrestling brand name and how that played a part in TNA’s history: "So, going down that road and knowing I’m not a big fan of it, and that’s where, in my mind, ‘Hey, if you don’t like Global Force Wrestling, we can figure out some kind of way and use the storyline to go back to TNA.’ There’s a lot of equity, your library is named that, the international partners have always — there are many places, India specifically, Australia in a lot of ways, they never ever quit calling it TNA Wrestling.’ The double entendre isn’t nearly as prevalent outside of the US,” he said. “So all the information in my head, that’s why I was like, ‘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."
On how he is excited for the company and looking forward to seeing what Scott D’Amore’s vision for the promotion will be: "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 was blessed with fantastic talent, AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, but I’m excited because it’s good for the industry. Change is good, that there is without question."
Check out the complete episode of the "My World with Jeff Jarrett" podcast where he talks more about these topics via the YouTube player embedded below. H/T to Fightful.com for transcribing the above quotes.
