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Could Jeff Jarrett end up the Steve Jobs of TNA, returning to the former company he once helmed? Could be.
Last night, John Pollock of Live Audio Wrestling reported that Anthem Sports & Entertainment, which is the parent company of the LAW and the company now funding TNA (with the expectation that they will formally announce they have purchased majority ownership in the company coming anytime now) has been meeting with Jarrett, one of the founders of the company and certainly, the heart and soul of the promotion for much of its lifetime.
PWInsider.com can independently confirm that report and confirm that discussions between the two sides began last Monday 12/5.
We are told that Jarrett has been specifically meeting and talking with Anthem's Ed Nordholm, who is now overseeing the day to day operations of the company. Jarrett has not been at TNA HQ and we are told that the pair went out of their way to meet in secret for "exploratory discussions." We are told that the discussions took place partially so that Nordholm could get more of a background on TNA and different aspects of how the company operated over different time periods.
Pollock reported that there is no agreement at this time for Jarrett to return to the company that he helped found with his father Jerry. As of this morning, that is indeed true.
However, we are told that that should Jarrett return in some form to TNA, whether it be as a performer or in a management style role, that his fledgling Global Force Wrestling promotion would still be an active, viable component of any relationship that comes out of the discussions. Jarrett has been putting a lot of time in with different negotiations in Los Angeles alongide A. Smith & Co. Productions, the production team behind "American Ninja Warrior" in exploring different concepts and potential television partners for GFW. He's not going to abandon all that work, even for a company he helped launch.
When you think about the idea that TNA could certainly use a rebranding to separate themselves from the past, the concept of the GFW name replacing TNA Impact Wrestling certainly makes sense on some level.
Pollock's story also stated that Anthem is seeking to bolster the TNA Creative side with a new writer to replace Dave Lagana, who resigned last month as well as 2-3 other additional creative team members. Bringing Jarrett, who represented a much stronger period in TNA history, or members of his team, such as Scott D'Amore back, also seems like a positive on many levels and would help fill that need.
Jarrett founded the company but resigned in 2012 in order to pursue the creation of GFW while still technically a minority owner in TNA. Last year, as part of a deal to buy Jarrett out of his stock in the company, TNA brought Jarrett back for a short GFW vs. TNA storyline and inducted Jarrett into the company's Hall of Fame.
As I noted above, the story was broken by John Pollock last night. As far as how that happened, I am told that Pollock heard about potential discussions with Jarrett (I had heard similar rumblings over the last week) and went to Anthem. Even though he was technically their employee and they could have attempted to get Pollock to theoretically kill the story, Anthem decided to take a "separation of church and state" stance and instead confirmed the story to him, allowing him to write the story as he saw fit. That says a lot about Anthem as a company in my mind.
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