Jeff Jarrett's Out, Online Fans Want Paul Heyman
By on July 20, 2009
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The news broke hard and fast today that Jeff Jarrett was removed from creative responsibilities at TNA Wrestling following a scandal involving Jarrett, supposedly, living with Kurt Angle's ex-wife Karen.
According to a post on Dave Meltzer's Web site:
At the house show on Saturday night, Angle was telling people that he is going to end up with booking control of the company that Jarrett had and that he won't sign a new contract if Jarrett remains in power. Nobody really know how things transpire from here. Jarrett was booked in segments on last night's show that were either tweaked or removed. The direction of the booking last night was planned before any of this went down as the TVs for the next month were written before the Bubba stuff happened, although everything involving Jarrett obviously has had to be tweaked.
Then Wade Keller's Web site ran a poll on who should be the next TNA creative head, with including Jim Cornette, Kevin Nash, Terry Taylor, Dutch Mantel, Vince Russo, Paul Heyman, Kurt Angle, Gabe Sapolsky, and "Someone Else."
Heyman was far ahead of anyone else, garnering 60 percent of the votes, with Cornette getting 20 percent in second place.
Torch's sister site, Jason Powell's ProWrestling.Net, then, ran a blog saying TNA owner Dixie Carter needed to bring in Heyman. In the blog, which can be read in its entirety on the Web site. Powell writes:
I've come up with a simple change that will put the company on the right track creatively, save you money, and possibly improve the television ratings right from the start.
Hire Paul Heyman.
Sure, Dixie, you've probably heard he's the anti-Christ from some of your employees. Keep in mind that most of those people would be out of a job if you gave Heyman the type of power and control he would presumably require before even considering the gig.
Heyman won't come cheap, but I guarantee you could save a ton of money by paying his asking price and turning him loose. Let Heyman clean house of all the Jarrett cronies on the payroll, all the overpaid veterans who care about nothing more than cashing their paychecks, and, of course, the useless creative staff. In the end, you'd save a ton of money and would ultimately have a better product.
In the process, your company would become Internet darlings. The same fans that scoff at the mere mention of TNA would suddenly see you and the company in a new light. Not only would you attract the same group of fans who tune in for TNA Impact every week (because I'm convinced that most of these people are the same hardcore wrestling fans who watch ECW on Syfy every week), but you'd also get an entire new audience of passionate Internet wrestling fans who have faith in Heyman's creative ability and won't give the time of day to a product booked by your current regime.
Heyman couldn't turn things around overnight, but I have much more confidence in him than the vision-less creative staff you currently employ. Your current product focuses on old guys who promise you they'll pass the torch to all the young guys when the time is right. In some cases, these guys have been making that promise since WCW was still around. When push comes to shove, they never do the type of meaningful jobs that create stars. And in many cases, the wrestlers who will do jobs don't mean enough anymore to make younger wrestlers.
Focus on the business end, Dixie, and let Heyman control the creative end of the business and play the hatchet man role that you're company so desperately needs. It might not be as comfortable as the status quo, but sometimes you have to make the tough decisions to make your business stronger. Make this one decision and let Heyman do the rest in terms of creative and personnel decisions.
I know, Dixie, you're company has shown growth in several areas. That's great. As I've said before, though, you have to stop and ask yourself how much more growth there would have been by now if you had the right people in place all along. You can't change the past, but you can rectify the situation by making the one simple move that can save you money, score goodwill amongst the fans, and get people truly excited about your product.
Hire Paul Heyman.
Sure, Dixie, you've probably heard he's the anti-Christ from some of your employees. Keep in mind that most of those people would be out of a job if you gave Heyman the type of power and control he would presumably require before even considering the gig.
Heyman won't come cheap, but I guarantee you could save a ton of money by paying his asking price and turning him loose. Let Heyman clean house of all the Jarrett cronies on the payroll, all the overpaid veterans who care about nothing more than cashing their paychecks, and, of course, the useless creative staff. In the end, you'd save a ton of money and would ultimately have a better product.
In the process, your company would become Internet darlings. The same fans that scoff at the mere mention of TNA would suddenly see you and the company in a new light. Not only would you attract the same group of fans who tune in for TNA Impact every week (because I'm convinced that most of these people are the same hardcore wrestling fans who watch ECW on Syfy every week), but you'd also get an entire new audience of passionate Internet wrestling fans who have faith in Heyman's creative ability and won't give the time of day to a product booked by your current regime.
Heyman couldn't turn things around overnight, but I have much more confidence in him than the vision-less creative staff you currently employ. Your current product focuses on old guys who promise you they'll pass the torch to all the young guys when the time is right. In some cases, these guys have been making that promise since WCW was still around. When push comes to shove, they never do the type of meaningful jobs that create stars. And in many cases, the wrestlers who will do jobs don't mean enough anymore to make younger wrestlers.
Focus on the business end, Dixie, and let Heyman control the creative end of the business and play the hatchet man role that you're company so desperately needs. It might not be as comfortable as the status quo, but sometimes you have to make the tough decisions to make your business stronger. Make this one decision and let Heyman do the rest in terms of creative and personnel decisions.
I know, Dixie, you're company has shown growth in several areas. That's great. As I've said before, though, you have to stop and ask yourself how much more growth there would have been by now if you had the right people in place all along. You can't change the past, but you can rectify the situation by making the one simple move that can save you money, score goodwill amongst the fans, and get people truly excited about your product.
UPDATE: Heyman's webmaster posted on his Facebook page: "Paul says never, but this is an interesting editorial" with a link to Powell's blog. Heyman has yet to issue a public comment on the suggestion, which he's probably saving for a blog on his revamped "Heyman Hustle" site, which has been a centerpiece of CraveOnline in the past ten days.
Surely, more to come.
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