Newsweek | Jeff Jarrett and the Resurrection of Impact Wreslting

[It's Damn Real!]

“Make Impact great again,” says Jeff Jarrett, sitting across from me in a hotel boardroom overlooking London’s River Thames. Even just 45 days ago, Jarrett never imagined those words would come out of his mouth.

“From the very first meeting I had with them, it was very apparent to me how sound business-wise and structurally [they were] and where they wanted to go with things aligned with my thoughts,” Jarrett tells Newsweek. “It was a pretty quick realization that we should work together.”

“It was a black-eye on the industry,” says Jarrett of Impact’s struggles in 2016. “It wasn’t fruitful for anyone—whether you’re a fan of, a wrestler, an employee. It was a really ugly, unfortunate situation. It wasn’t good for the industry.”

“My hope is that we’ll get to an agreement where he becomes the chief creative officer of the company and we’ll stay on the business side of the company,” says Nordholm.

The first set of tapings under the new Jarrett-led creative regime will take place in Orlando, Florida, in early March. Jarrett says viewers shouldn’t expect a drastic reboot of the way Impact looks or feels or in terms of ongoing storylines—something Impact has attempted numerous times in the past. “Do you know what the definition of insanity is?” he says with a smirk. (The answer: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, according to Albert Einstein.) “But we are going to, to use a baseball analogy, hit some singles, doubles and swing for the fences. The effort is going to be there.”

Talent is key to that effort. Jarrett says he has a database of non-contracted wrestlers across the world that he hopes to begin hiring from in order to create new homegrown stars. Many of Impact’s past headliners—A.J. Styles and Samoa Joe among them—are now in main event matches for rival WWE. “That energizes me. Let’s go find that new crop,” he says.

http://www.newsweek.com/resurrection-impact-wrestling-jeff-jarrett-558334

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There's a lot of ground to cover here, but the article itself is really interesting and inspiring if you still harbor hopes that Impact can reinvent itself one more time.

I think the most pertinent point made is the one quoted near the end regarding not expecting a drastic reboot of the look and feel of Impact, rather a focus on talent building. That's exactly the right attitude to have, and it's exactly the goal Impact needs to truly be great again.

 

[klunderbunker]

Global
Force
Wrestling

I know a lot of people are excited about Jeff Jarrett taking over Impact (and I can certainly get why) but we're nearly three years into the GFW experiment under Jarrett's control and it's gone absolutely nowhere. It's not the same thing by any means but that's Jeff's most recent result on top of a promotion. That's not exactly encouraging, but maybe they can make things work a little better with TNA.

 

[Weems2k]

One thing for certain they must do in 2017. Determine whether they staying with the TNa brand, or just reform it into Impact Wrestling Inc, or something of the sorts.

 

[It's Damn Real!]

Global
Force
Wrestling

I know a lot of people are excited about Jeff Jarrett taking over Impact (and I can certainly get why) but we're nearly three years into the GFW experiment under Jarrett's control and it's gone absolutely nowhere. It's not the same thing by any means but that's Jeff's most recent result on top of a promotion. That's not exactly encouraging, but maybe they can make things work a little better with TNA.

The problem with GFW is the same issue that plagued TNA for years—it was a light version of its competition. So it was never going to fly. I actually have hopes that the two companies will either partner up (as I'd imagine Jarrett has no desire to cease operations on GFW), or simply merge under the same banner to bolster the roster of Impact Wrestling.

So, sure, his GFW attempt went nowhere, but that was more an issue of spreading the butter thin than it was an indictment on his ability to run a wrestling promotion.

One thing for certain they must do in 2017. Determine whether they staying with the TNa brand, or just reform it into Impact Wrestling Inc, or something of the sorts.

They've already begun the transition away from the TNA acronym.

http://www.ringsidenews.com/2017/01/19/tna-wrestling-no-company-makes-name-change/

It appears they're simply going by "Impact Wrestling" going forward, which is fine.

 

[TDFG]

Never mind the resurrection of Impact, this is the final resurrection of Jeff Jarrett.

GFW was/is going nowhere and we can see by the changes in the company that this is Jarrett's swansong or last shot at redemption.

If anyone deserves a shot of turning Impact Wrestling around then Jarrett, D'Amore & Mantell are the right people to give it a shot.

I know they are trying to get a TV deal in UK which will give the company a big shot in the arm and I hope they can turn it round.

Apparently Kongo Kong & Magnus will be part of the company going forward, I can't say I'm too excited with this, hopefully they can sign PJ Black, Sonjay Dutt and bring The Hotshots across to give the X-Division and Tag-Division a lift.