Jeff Jarrett joined the Busted Open Radio Show to discuss dropping the Total Nonstop Action name and Global Force Wrestling’s plans moving forward.
The man in charge of GFW was very honest in terms of where the company is and what the future holds.
“We’ve had our ups and downs. It’s so ironic how things have come together. It’s no secret that as far as branding and re-branding in the early days it was TNA and the name of the television show was Impact. Then it got into early 2010-2011 it was called Impact Wrestling and questions about where did TNA stand. I will be the first one to admit that it was a bit of confusion as far as the brand and as an old promoter once said, if you confuse ’em you lose ’em.”
“As we roll into 2017 and I got onboard as a consultant, step by step process, now it’s two companies merged together. The name of the television show on Pop TV is Impact and the name of the brand is GFW. It’s not going to happen overnight. We are super excited and I can’t state enough just the buzz in the building on Sunday night. It almost felt like the glory days of TNA. It felt really, really good on Sunday night.”
Jarrett spoke about how they have a lot of great athletes on the show and how it’s going to take time to build the brand. Jarrett discussed GFW hitting the road with live events, which is something the company stopped doing for a few years.
“It’s like starting the promotion from the ground up. We realize it’s going to be a challenge, but we’re up for it. What better place to start in than the New York City area with a long time tradition of professional wrestling. We’re going to start in our September run in the Ontario area or the midwest. We’re going to bring our ‘A’ game. You’re going to see Lashley, Alberto and the stars we see on television. We have stars from NOAH and AAA as well. We’re excited to get back out there.”
You can listen to full interview with Jeff Jarrett on Busted Open Radio.
Any true wrestling fan likely wants GFW to succeed, and the name change was a great idea. The “TNA” name was silly when they came up with it 15 years ago and it would have been nice if they got rid of it earlier. Jarrett is right that it will take some time for the company to get going again during this rebuilding phase, but at least they have a good talent roster to build around.
Doing live events is a positive sign. If the shows are good, fans will talk about them online, other fans will read about the great time they had, and word of mouth can spread that way. If the shows are bad, obviously that will hurt the brand. As long as they let the talent have the freedom to do their thing, it should be a fun experience for the fans in attendance.
