In a bizarre scene for those who followed the tumultuous breakup of TNA Wrestling and Jeff Jarrett, Jeff and wife Karen returned to TNA on Wednesday night. Jeff announced his in-ring return in an angle that has created a lot of buzz for a lot of different reasons.
[adinserter block=”1″]The return of Jeff Jarrett to TNA has brought TNA the kind of buzz they have been looking for over the last several months. While the interest lies with the out-of-ring fallout from Jeff’s return, the story has a lot of people talking. What this means for TNA, Global Force Wrestling, and Jeff are all questions people are asking.
There are multiple reports coming out of his return. Wade Keller at PWTorch.com reported that there is a lot of heat backstage between TNA wrestlers and management. TNA wrestlers were told that they were not allowed to appear on Jeff’s GFW shows and many of them had to cancel or pass up big paydays or face a breach of contract. Those wrestlers are reportedly not very happy that they missed out on the paydays while TNA does business with Jeff.
I have some personal experience with this kind of a situation and it sucks. I was doing announcing for both CZW and Ring of Honor back in 2002. For whatever reason, CZW had heat with ROH and implied that talent shouldn’t be working for both companies. Fans of this era may recall the Briscoes leaving CZW shortly thereafter. I made a choice and wound up staying with CZW (maybe the worst career move I ever made) and then a couple of years later CZW and ROH are working together on the invasion and CZW is bringing back some of those old wrestlers. I was angry and felt stabbed in the back having given up a great opportunity and money out of loyalty, yet CZW did business with ROH later when it was convenient. A much different situation admittedly but I can truly sympathize with those talents today.
Dave Meltzer on his F4Wonline.com podcast reported that the deal between Jarrett and TNA did not close until earlier in the afternoon. Meltzer speculated that it could lead to a Hall of Fame induction. Meltzer also speculated on what this all means for Global Force Wrestling. Meltzer speculated it could be anything from an invasion angle to a full out sale of the company to Jeff and Toby Keith. Again these were just speculations and not confirmed reports from Dave’s podcast.
Jarrett resigned from TNA in January 2014 after a failed attempt to buy the company. Jarrett created GFW later that year but didn’t start running his first shows until a few weeks ago. GFW has television scheduled to tape coming up but nothing has been announced regarding a home. Jeff has also appeared on a few New Japan shows this year.
[adinserter block=”2″]In the ring, Jeff was pinned by Jeff Hardy in a cage match at Final Resolution which was supposed to end his career in the ring within TNA. This would be Jeff’s first match back in TNA since then. I know some that are crapping all over the angle but I will say this. Jeff was a far better worker in TNA than people give him credit for. His matches with Kurt Angle in particular were some of Angle’s best. He can still go. I just think that TNA hot-shotting an angle like this a few days before a PPV does nothing for anyone. As an example, Jeff’s return posted on TNA’s YouTube channel only has 22,000 views as of this writing. Casual fans don’t know the story and it is that backstage story that will sell this angle and make Jarrett a draw. I think TNA need to get out there and tell the story, with at least a few weeks of build to let it sink in and educate new fans that may not be aware of the backstage issues.
We’ll see what happens next with this whole invasion angle or sale. I think it is a lot to do about nothing. I think it could turn out to be Jeff coming back for a few matches, a Hall of Fame induction, and some open doors for Jeff and GFW to make a deal, possibly working with TNA to bump ROH off of Destination America. More to come for sure!
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