GFW/Impact Executive Jeff Jarrett was recently a part of a conference call, discussing the direction of Global Force Wrestling post-Slammiversary. Jarrett covered a number of topics, including the decision made to turn Impact into GFW, James Storm not being at Impact tapings, the “Broken” trademark, and more.
Here are the highlights.
Turning Impact into GFW:
“Obviously, it was a collective decision very early in [me and Ed Nordholm’s] relationship. In December, it was very clear that the TNA name was going to go away with no uncertainty, long before I came on board. And so, as the days, weeks, turned into months, the process began that it was very apparent that the name of the brand, name of the league, name of the promotion, WWE is to Raw as Global Force is to Impact, that the name TNA was going away. From day one, the name of the television show was always Impact, and so it was a collective decision with multiple executives who were on board.”
Why James Storm was not at post-Slammiversary Impact tapings:
“James Storm had a head injury. He says it’s not bad, I kind of think the doctors, although they protect James, James will always be James. The doctors had different opinions.”
Update on “Broken” trademark:
“I’ve had a healthy exchange with Jeff [Hardy] over the past two weeks. We wished each other a happy Father’s Day. The IP situation is strictly, quite frankly, the IP language that is used in our contract is almost identical to the IP language used in the WWE contract… intellectual property law is rather cut and dry, that you have the publisher, the writers, and then you have another element to that, you have the performance. There’s people in Nashville that can sing a song and take it to number one, and 10 years later, another artists can come along, and they can sing that exact same song and take it to number one, and they make their money off of performances.
“But, the writers and the publishers continue to make that money. It goes without saying, the wrestling business is different. Vince McMahon owned the name “The Rock” until The Rock bought it back. Same with Razor [Ramon], same with Diesel, and I can go on and on about guys jumping ship, especially back in the Attitude Era. Guys would jump ship from WWE to WCW. Big Bossman was never the Big Bossman in WCW, but quite frankly, there’ll only be one Big Bossman. And it goes without saying. Matt’s performance – there’s only one “Broken” Matt. He did that, it transcended the Hardy Boyz, or Matt Hardy. It goes without saying, there’s only one Brother Nero. When there’s two Jeff’s in a vacation home it gets kind of confusing, so we started calling Nero, Nero, instead of Jeff Jarrett and Jeff Hardy.
“So, hats off to those guys in the performance, but it goes to the ownership, and there’s multiple writers. There’s writers who were a part of the ‘Broken Brilliance,’ that it’s very obvious that they’re no longer with the company. Matt Conway and Billy Corgan, to be exact. But you have Jeremy Borash, Jimmy Long, and Matt [Hardy], and Jeff [Hardy]. So there were a group of writers, without question. The ownership always lies with the publisher, and that’s not new to this industry, or intellectual property law.”
Jarrett discussed, the Alberto El Patron/GFW Championship situation, GFW in the UK, Super X Cup return, women’s tournament plans, and much more, moving pay-per-views out of the Impact Zone (it “has to make financial sense” and the last time “was a disaster”), and much more.
You can hear the full call below.
If any portion of this transcription is used, please H/T WZ Daily/Jeff Jarrett conference call via WrestleZone.
