Post by flame3169118 on Sept 6, 2017 15:25:32 GMT -5
ImpactWrestling released the following statement today:
Effective immediately, Jeff Jarrett is taking an indefinite leave of absence from his position as Chief Creative Officer to focus on personal matters. Jeff will be available on a consultative basis as needed.
Jarrett returned to Impact Wrestling in January when Anthem Sports and Entertainment took over operations from Dixie Carter. Stay tuned for further updates
In an update on Jeff Jarrett taking a hiatus from GFW, it's believed that the decision was made just a few hours prior to the announcement being made. Jarrett had posted the following this morning:
Tuesday morning...let's go...super excited about September for @impactwrestling @gfwwrestling ...
— Jeff Jarrett (@realjeffjarrett) September 5, 2017
There is speculation that GFW was planning on doing a Jeff Jarrett match with Alberto El Patron as soon as Bound For Glory. It was previous reported that El Patron was going to be brought back in a storyline where he would be feuding with the company over his suspension
According to PWInsider .com, "erratic behavior" from Jeff Jarrett could be a primary reason why he is currently on hiatus from GFW. Apparently there have been incidents going on for several months, the first of which was an argument back in April between Bob Ryder and Jeff/Karen Jarrett. The "tipping point" is believed to have been Jarrett's behavior at the recent TripleMania show which included Jarrett throwing beer into the crowd:
Here’s Jeff Jarrett throwing a beer into the stands and then getting hit with a beer can pic.twitter.com/F32Kz6ezft
— Dan McQuade (@dhm) August 27, 2017
Anthem's Ed Nordholm was at the TripleMania event and was reportedly the person that made the decision for Jarrett to be sent home during a meeting that the two had earlier today
The more news that comes out, the cloudier things are getting: Coming off the news that Jeff Jarrett will be taking a leave of absence from GFW, there is now information coming out that the GFW/Anthem merger might not as completed as people were led to believe. PWInsider. com reports that trademarks for the Global Force Wrestling name and the GFW letters are still listed as being owned by Global Force Wrestling, LLC, which is the company that Jarrett started in 2014. It's possible that if Jarrett doesn't return to the company, the merger could be dead and GFW would no longer be used as a name for the company that was previously known as TNA/Impact Wrestling
Regarding Alberto El Patron's status with GFW/Impact Wrestling, Jeff Jarrett was said to be a factor in El Patron being part of the company. With Jarrett possibly not coming back and Anthem's Ed Nordholm reportedly wanting to cut ties with El Patron, El Patron's future with the company is very much up in the air right now
This comes from PW Insider:
As noted earlier on PWInsider .com, Global Force Wrestling Chief Creative Officer Jeff Jarrett has taken a "leave of absence" from the company that he initially founded in 2002 and returned to after Anthem Media purchased TNA Impact Wrestling. We are told by several people that the decision was one Ed Nordholm made today and that he met personally with Jarrett in Nashville, TN this afternoon.
As noted earlier by Dave Scherer, Jeff Jarrett, based on his social media activity, did not know the move was coming. He was scheduled to host a NFL Fantasy Draft party at his home today with GFW staffers but obviously, that is no longer happening. The staffers are instead holding it at GFW HQ.
The belief among those we have spoken to is that unhappiness with Jarrett involving alleged "erratic behavior" (as one source described it), claiming that was a driving factor in Nordholm's move today, not an unhappiness with the company's creative direction. We are told that the situation had been building for months and the final tipping point appears to have been Triplemania several weeks back, where Jarrett was obviously not in the best of shape, as he had put on weight and seemingly stumbled down the ring steps before wrestling for just a few short minutes before journeying around ringside for an extended period. The Triplemania appearance led to a lot of people talking about whether Jarrett needed time off. It should be noted that Ed Nordholm was in Mexico at the show.
The incident a few months back where Jarrett was screaming at Bob Ryder at a TV taping was also pointed to by a source today as the "beginning" of everything that led to today, including one person who claimed it was far "uglier" than anyone realizes.
Attempts by PWInsider. com to reach Jarrett this evening were unsuccessful.
It should also noted that one source stated that Jarrett was not "blameless" but there also was "blame to be thrown in all directions" regarding the situation and claimed that a lot of things that Jarrett had been criticized for publicly were simply due to him following marching orders out of loyalty to Anthem after they brought him back to his former company. That source posited that things Jarrett had been blamed for, including defending Anthem when it came to the "Broken Hardys" situation, was simply Jarrett towing the company line. I do know there was a belief among some that Jarrett was trying hard to step in between Nordholm and the wrestling side of things, as it had been oft-repeated in GFW circles that Nordholm simply didn't "get" the business. One person used an example of the company going out of its way to bring in Alberto el Patron as a surprise by flying him secretly to Tampa and bringing him to Orlando under the cover of darkness, only for Nordholm to then take a picture and tweet it out, "ruining" the surprise. The source claimed that Jarrett, who they admitted "needed a break" had been bending over backward to try and balance things between Anthem and GFW, noting, "Jarrett desperately wanted his company back and wanted to prove to everyone he was right all along with his vision."
With Jarrett taking an indefinite break, a few people have wondered how Nordholm will fare running the company for Anthem. There were a number of meetings today in Nashville in regard to the future direction of the company. There has been no decisions made regarding any changes in creative direction and as of this writing, the current team Jarrett put together, including Scott D'Amore and Dutch Mantel, remain on board.
One source pointed out that John "Big" Gaburick was still with the company as a consultant and floated the idea that perhaps Gaburick was retained as a "Plan B" if the Jarrett regime did not work out. PWInsider .com can confirm that Gaburick was at GFW HQ today as well as their production studio, and he has not been around much at all (beyond working TV tapings) in recent months. There is belief among some PWInsider .com has spoken to that Gaburick gained a LOT of power today within the company, although others have downplayed that idea. (I'd be very hesitant to trust Gaburick as if memory serves right, he was the one that tried to sell the video archives to Vince in exchange for a job)
It should be interesting to see whether this exit has any change on the staff of the company as Kevin Sullivan, who heads production, is a long-time Jarrett ally who helped him launch the GFW company in 2014.
Speaking of GFW, interestingly, one source told PWInsider .com that the "GFW/Anthem merger" was "nowhere near as completed" as has been flouted publicly. A press release was issued months ago annoucing the merger, claiming that Jarrett had been given a minority ownership in the company as part of the deal. Trademarks for the Global Force Wrestling name and the GFW letters are still listed as owned by Global Force Wrestling, LLC, as they have been since Jarrett launched that company in 2014. So, if Jarrett does not return, it's entirely possible the GFW letters will fade away from Impact Wrestling. If Anthem was really utilizing those letters without having any actual ownership, all they did was help raise the profile of the Global Force Wrestling name internationally, which in hindsight, was a really dumb business decision.
The status of Alberto el Patron is also in question as sources indicate that Nordholm was willing to cut bait on Patron after the July airport incident while Jarrett had been intimately involved in calming that situation. With Jarrett out of the picture and less than a year believed to be left on Patron's deal, the when for Alberto's return may be back to "if he returns."
The belief is that as long as Jeff Jarrett remains separated from the company, Karen Jarrett is also gone, as she (as one would expect and quite frankly, as she should) will remain loyal to her husband.
As of this evening, Jim Cornette, who obviously came in via his long-standing relationship with the Jarrett family, is still with the company.
There's been a litany of reactions to Jarrett's exit. Those who he brought into the company since Anthem took the company over are upset to see him go as he was well liked. Those who had their run-ins with Jarrett are, obviously, not as upset.
Reby Hardy also commented via Twitter, writing, "Y'all trippin if you think imma be anything BUT laughing at the misfortune of someone who went SO OUT OF THEIR WAY to fck w my family. FOH. Not gonna get a fake response out of me. You'd be doing the saaaame thing if you were in my shoes." (Way to kick a guy when he's down)
In the midst of all this, GFW is scheduled to hold a media call tomorrow afternoon with John Hennigan. It will be interesting to see what the line of questioning is tomorrow
Against my better judgment I'm posting this, though this should be taken as a RUMOR only nothing more, nothing less until we see it from more reputable sources:
According to Justin Barrasso of SI .com, sources close to the situation have indicated that Anthem Sports and Entertainment is looking to withdraw itself from the wrestling industry and sell GFW/Impact Wrestling. With the news of Jeff Jarrett being sent home and the company reportedly "hemorrhaging" funds, speculation has started up again about WWE possibly buying the GFW/Impact Wrestling tape library. It was noted in the SI. com article that John "Big" Gaburick, who is still part of GFW's creative team, is close with WWE's Executive Vice President of Television Production Kevin Dunn.
PWInsider. com reports that calls were made yesterday to talent to assure them that everything is fine with the company despite the Jarrett announcement
A potential exit by Canada-based Anthem again brings up the question of potential buyers. Impact’s tape library, which includes matches and shows featuring names like Sting, Kurt Angle, AJ Styles, Samoa Joe and others, is a valuable commodity which has reportedly drawn offers from WWE in the past. Barrasso’s piece also mentions that Impact producer John Gaburick is extremely close with Vince McMahon confidant, WWE Executive Vice-President of Television Production Kevin Dunn - insinuating they could facilitate a deal.
This would obviously greatly benefit The Hardys, who have been involved in a very public battle over ownership of the “Broken” gimmick they popularized while under contract to TNA.
Other potential suitors include Ring of Honor, which would solidify their place as the second biggest U.S. wrestling company, or even Billy Corgan. The Smashing Pumpkins founder lost a battle to assume control of TNA in late 2016, and has since bought some rights to the National Wrestling Alliance name, but what exactly he owns and what he plans to do with it is not clear.
Unfortunately, the people most affected are talent and fans. Many of the wrestlers working on Impact just got out from under months of uncertainty, and while there are no reports of missed payments as there were under Dixie Carter’s ownership, there were said to be cost-cutting measures taken at the August tapings
-----------------------------------------
If a sell is made then the best option for TNA/Impact/GFW/whatever name you want to go by and the fans would have to be Corgan as he did seem to have a vision for the company before everything became convoluted, the worst would be Gaburick (who's proven himself to be a slimeball in his own right) and he would no doubt sell it to Vince and that little toad Kevin Dunn
Effective immediately, Jeff Jarrett is taking an indefinite leave of absence from his position as Chief Creative Officer to focus on personal matters. Jeff will be available on a consultative basis as needed.
Jarrett returned to Impact Wrestling in January when Anthem Sports and Entertainment took over operations from Dixie Carter. Stay tuned for further updates
In an update on Jeff Jarrett taking a hiatus from GFW, it's believed that the decision was made just a few hours prior to the announcement being made. Jarrett had posted the following this morning:
Tuesday morning...let's go...super excited about September for @impactwrestling @gfwwrestling ...
— Jeff Jarrett (@realjeffjarrett) September 5, 2017
There is speculation that GFW was planning on doing a Jeff Jarrett match with Alberto El Patron as soon as Bound For Glory. It was previous reported that El Patron was going to be brought back in a storyline where he would be feuding with the company over his suspension
According to PWInsider .com, "erratic behavior" from Jeff Jarrett could be a primary reason why he is currently on hiatus from GFW. Apparently there have been incidents going on for several months, the first of which was an argument back in April between Bob Ryder and Jeff/Karen Jarrett. The "tipping point" is believed to have been Jarrett's behavior at the recent TripleMania show which included Jarrett throwing beer into the crowd:
Here’s Jeff Jarrett throwing a beer into the stands and then getting hit with a beer can pic.twitter.com/F32Kz6ezft
— Dan McQuade (@dhm) August 27, 2017
Anthem's Ed Nordholm was at the TripleMania event and was reportedly the person that made the decision for Jarrett to be sent home during a meeting that the two had earlier today
The more news that comes out, the cloudier things are getting: Coming off the news that Jeff Jarrett will be taking a leave of absence from GFW, there is now information coming out that the GFW/Anthem merger might not as completed as people were led to believe. PWInsider. com reports that trademarks for the Global Force Wrestling name and the GFW letters are still listed as being owned by Global Force Wrestling, LLC, which is the company that Jarrett started in 2014. It's possible that if Jarrett doesn't return to the company, the merger could be dead and GFW would no longer be used as a name for the company that was previously known as TNA/Impact Wrestling
Regarding Alberto El Patron's status with GFW/Impact Wrestling, Jeff Jarrett was said to be a factor in El Patron being part of the company. With Jarrett possibly not coming back and Anthem's Ed Nordholm reportedly wanting to cut ties with El Patron, El Patron's future with the company is very much up in the air right now
This comes from PW Insider:
As noted earlier on PWInsider .com, Global Force Wrestling Chief Creative Officer Jeff Jarrett has taken a "leave of absence" from the company that he initially founded in 2002 and returned to after Anthem Media purchased TNA Impact Wrestling. We are told by several people that the decision was one Ed Nordholm made today and that he met personally with Jarrett in Nashville, TN this afternoon.
As noted earlier by Dave Scherer, Jeff Jarrett, based on his social media activity, did not know the move was coming. He was scheduled to host a NFL Fantasy Draft party at his home today with GFW staffers but obviously, that is no longer happening. The staffers are instead holding it at GFW HQ.
The belief among those we have spoken to is that unhappiness with Jarrett involving alleged "erratic behavior" (as one source described it), claiming that was a driving factor in Nordholm's move today, not an unhappiness with the company's creative direction. We are told that the situation had been building for months and the final tipping point appears to have been Triplemania several weeks back, where Jarrett was obviously not in the best of shape, as he had put on weight and seemingly stumbled down the ring steps before wrestling for just a few short minutes before journeying around ringside for an extended period. The Triplemania appearance led to a lot of people talking about whether Jarrett needed time off. It should be noted that Ed Nordholm was in Mexico at the show.
The incident a few months back where Jarrett was screaming at Bob Ryder at a TV taping was also pointed to by a source today as the "beginning" of everything that led to today, including one person who claimed it was far "uglier" than anyone realizes.
Attempts by PWInsider. com to reach Jarrett this evening were unsuccessful.
It should also noted that one source stated that Jarrett was not "blameless" but there also was "blame to be thrown in all directions" regarding the situation and claimed that a lot of things that Jarrett had been criticized for publicly were simply due to him following marching orders out of loyalty to Anthem after they brought him back to his former company. That source posited that things Jarrett had been blamed for, including defending Anthem when it came to the "Broken Hardys" situation, was simply Jarrett towing the company line. I do know there was a belief among some that Jarrett was trying hard to step in between Nordholm and the wrestling side of things, as it had been oft-repeated in GFW circles that Nordholm simply didn't "get" the business. One person used an example of the company going out of its way to bring in Alberto el Patron as a surprise by flying him secretly to Tampa and bringing him to Orlando under the cover of darkness, only for Nordholm to then take a picture and tweet it out, "ruining" the surprise. The source claimed that Jarrett, who they admitted "needed a break" had been bending over backward to try and balance things between Anthem and GFW, noting, "Jarrett desperately wanted his company back and wanted to prove to everyone he was right all along with his vision."
With Jarrett taking an indefinite break, a few people have wondered how Nordholm will fare running the company for Anthem. There were a number of meetings today in Nashville in regard to the future direction of the company. There has been no decisions made regarding any changes in creative direction and as of this writing, the current team Jarrett put together, including Scott D'Amore and Dutch Mantel, remain on board.
One source pointed out that John "Big" Gaburick was still with the company as a consultant and floated the idea that perhaps Gaburick was retained as a "Plan B" if the Jarrett regime did not work out. PWInsider .com can confirm that Gaburick was at GFW HQ today as well as their production studio, and he has not been around much at all (beyond working TV tapings) in recent months. There is belief among some PWInsider .com has spoken to that Gaburick gained a LOT of power today within the company, although others have downplayed that idea. (I'd be very hesitant to trust Gaburick as if memory serves right, he was the one that tried to sell the video archives to Vince in exchange for a job)
It should be interesting to see whether this exit has any change on the staff of the company as Kevin Sullivan, who heads production, is a long-time Jarrett ally who helped him launch the GFW company in 2014.
Speaking of GFW, interestingly, one source told PWInsider .com that the "GFW/Anthem merger" was "nowhere near as completed" as has been flouted publicly. A press release was issued months ago annoucing the merger, claiming that Jarrett had been given a minority ownership in the company as part of the deal. Trademarks for the Global Force Wrestling name and the GFW letters are still listed as owned by Global Force Wrestling, LLC, as they have been since Jarrett launched that company in 2014. So, if Jarrett does not return, it's entirely possible the GFW letters will fade away from Impact Wrestling. If Anthem was really utilizing those letters without having any actual ownership, all they did was help raise the profile of the Global Force Wrestling name internationally, which in hindsight, was a really dumb business decision.
The status of Alberto el Patron is also in question as sources indicate that Nordholm was willing to cut bait on Patron after the July airport incident while Jarrett had been intimately involved in calming that situation. With Jarrett out of the picture and less than a year believed to be left on Patron's deal, the when for Alberto's return may be back to "if he returns."
The belief is that as long as Jeff Jarrett remains separated from the company, Karen Jarrett is also gone, as she (as one would expect and quite frankly, as she should) will remain loyal to her husband.
As of this evening, Jim Cornette, who obviously came in via his long-standing relationship with the Jarrett family, is still with the company.
There's been a litany of reactions to Jarrett's exit. Those who he brought into the company since Anthem took the company over are upset to see him go as he was well liked. Those who had their run-ins with Jarrett are, obviously, not as upset.
Reby Hardy also commented via Twitter, writing, "Y'all trippin if you think imma be anything BUT laughing at the misfortune of someone who went SO OUT OF THEIR WAY to fck w my family. FOH. Not gonna get a fake response out of me. You'd be doing the saaaame thing if you were in my shoes." (Way to kick a guy when he's down)
In the midst of all this, GFW is scheduled to hold a media call tomorrow afternoon with John Hennigan. It will be interesting to see what the line of questioning is tomorrow
Against my better judgment I'm posting this, though this should be taken as a RUMOR only nothing more, nothing less until we see it from more reputable sources:
According to Justin Barrasso of SI .com, sources close to the situation have indicated that Anthem Sports and Entertainment is looking to withdraw itself from the wrestling industry and sell GFW/Impact Wrestling. With the news of Jeff Jarrett being sent home and the company reportedly "hemorrhaging" funds, speculation has started up again about WWE possibly buying the GFW/Impact Wrestling tape library. It was noted in the SI. com article that John "Big" Gaburick, who is still part of GFW's creative team, is close with WWE's Executive Vice President of Television Production Kevin Dunn.
PWInsider. com reports that calls were made yesterday to talent to assure them that everything is fine with the company despite the Jarrett announcement
A potential exit by Canada-based Anthem again brings up the question of potential buyers. Impact’s tape library, which includes matches and shows featuring names like Sting, Kurt Angle, AJ Styles, Samoa Joe and others, is a valuable commodity which has reportedly drawn offers from WWE in the past. Barrasso’s piece also mentions that Impact producer John Gaburick is extremely close with Vince McMahon confidant, WWE Executive Vice-President of Television Production Kevin Dunn - insinuating they could facilitate a deal.
This would obviously greatly benefit The Hardys, who have been involved in a very public battle over ownership of the “Broken” gimmick they popularized while under contract to TNA.
Other potential suitors include Ring of Honor, which would solidify their place as the second biggest U.S. wrestling company, or even Billy Corgan. The Smashing Pumpkins founder lost a battle to assume control of TNA in late 2016, and has since bought some rights to the National Wrestling Alliance name, but what exactly he owns and what he plans to do with it is not clear.
Unfortunately, the people most affected are talent and fans. Many of the wrestlers working on Impact just got out from under months of uncertainty, and while there are no reports of missed payments as there were under Dixie Carter’s ownership, there were said to be cost-cutting measures taken at the August tapings
-----------------------------------------
If a sell is made then the best option for TNA/Impact/GFW/whatever name you want to go by and the fans would have to be Corgan as he did seem to have a vision for the company before everything became convoluted, the worst would be Gaburick (who's proven himself to be a slimeball in his own right) and he would no doubt sell it to Vince and that little toad Kevin Dunn
