Jeff Jarrett Talks Global Force Wrestling, TNA and More

"Double J" Jeff Jarrett is looking to double down with Global Force Wrestling. Jarrett, who co-founded TNA Wrestling, has done nearly everything there is to do in the world of professional wrestling. However, after leaving TNA to start GFW, Jarrett is looking to add another worldwide phenomenon to his already impressive resume.  

Jarrett recently spoke with Ring Rust Radio (quotes courtesy of the News of Delaware County's Joe Arcidiacono) to discuss GFW's current state, future and potential crossover with TNA after his recent return. 

GFW was in the news recently after announcing its television show Amped will tape episodes July 24. Naturally, fans have been digging for information on the nature of the show. Though Jarrett couldn't dive in with too many details, he was able to shed light on the current state and the process of the show, per Ring Rust Radio (via Arcidiacono):

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The number of episodes is a moving target at this point. We are going to go shoot the tournament then we get back who knows? It could be ten episodes, twelve, fourteen, who knows?  It’s a work in progress.  When you are trying to line up domestic and international, it’s a real challenge to try and please everybody.  We are going to do our very best to expose the product to as many wrestling fans as we can.

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Most fans were likely even more excited about the announcement of its four divisions, which included the standard Global, Women's and Tag Team championships, but it was highlighted by the reveal of the NEX*GEN championship. Jarrett quickly explained in the interview the intention behind the polarizing championship:

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Nex-Gen is a term we really thought about and studied. When you look at pro-wrestling in 2015, there are certain guys that are going to wrestle like the next generation and they are going to take it to the next level. Whether it be the speed of the Young Bucks or the innovation of the Bullet Club, there are so many different talents that will take it to the next generation.  Then you see a guy who is a rookie, brand new in the business, and isn’t a household name today. But in the next generation of household names he will be. It’s a little bit of both, no weight limit, it’s a division of guys who want to get in there and wrestle. They may never have won a title before or it may be their style of wrestling that will give them that first opportunity to wrestle for that Nex-Gen title. It’s not a traditional type of division by any means. 

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Wrestling fans are constantly craving something new. After decades in the business and the explosion of social media, it's difficult to keep creative plans secretive. At times, even if a storyline makes sense, fans will yearn for something different because they expected the outcome or were quickly able to decipher the storyline.

"The technology has changed the wrestling world so you have to try to stay ahead of the curve," Jarrett said. "I have taken a lot of my life experiences to help my team in GFW to help us evolve and put out a very compelling product." 

Having been in front of the camera, as well as behind it, Jarrett understands the need to keep pushing the business in a different direction. When discussing the philosophy behind GFW's PG-centric brand and how he anticipates it being different from WWE, he cited mainstream sports and human-interest stories:

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It goes without saying that WWE is sports entertainment. They invented the term and they do it better than anybody else. It’s a very lucrative business for them and my hats off to them on how they have created their genre. We are professional wrestling, there are a lot of similarities but we are going to be more docu-style. Are we going to have story lines? Yes.  It’s like how you have story lines in a sporting event like a baseball or football game. We are not going to write stories per say, but more along the lines of documenting them. There is a story behind every GFW athlete. Questions like: Why, why did you get into the business, why did you want to be a professional wrestler, why GFW, why do you want to be a Champion, why do you do this in your persona, what makes you tick, what’s going on in your family life?  That all affects the business and how you climb the ladder of success. That’s a big difference between writing story lines and documenting story lines.

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GFW's official YouTube page has several of these documentary-style packages. These videos help fans quickly connect and build anticipation for the promotion, its wrestlers and its matches.

Under Jarrett's watchful eye, TNA went from Nashville, Tennessee, with weekly pay-per-view events in 2002 to a worldwide company with a weekly television deal that still airs Wednesdays on Destination America. After returning in June for TNA's Slammiversary pay-per-view and winning the King of the Mountain title, Jarrett continues to influence the company despite turning his attention to GFW. It's because of his influence and vision that TNA has been present for 13 years. 

With more than a decade of experience running a promotion under his belt, it's exciting to see Jarrett embark on a new journey with GFW. He's assembling a sound roster of talent, but it's the fresh vision that should have wrestling fans excited.  

"End of the day, people want to see fantastic professional wrestling and that should be everyone’s common goal," Jarrett said. "That’s what we are headed for and that is fantastic professional wrestling." 

For more wrestling talk, listen to Ring Rust Radio for all of the hot topics, or catch the latest episode in the player above (Warning: some language NSFW).