Previously, on Dark Side of the Ring...
When the wrestling business became a
one-company industry, Jeff and Jerry Jarrett
bet everything on a new promotion,
Total Nonstop Action, better known as TNA.
Some people called me stupid,
naive, an idiot.
He had the guts and the nuts to start
his own promotion, and TNA was born.
Crowd Chanting: TNA! TNA!
It really had that feeling of anything can happen.
They had a strong roster.
They had great production.
They were a serious number two
contender to the WWE.
What began as a family business
quickly spiraled beyond the Jarretts' control.
Dixie Carter is smarter than
what people give her credit for.
She wanted the power.
Dixie pulled me aside and said,
"You are not to call Jeff boss."
I get a call from Dixie.
"How did you not tell me Jeff and Karen are together?
I had no idea!"
She was gonna try anything to get him out.
Then she finally got her wish.
The whole thing is nonsense.
She nuked his whole fucking life.
With Jeff Jarrett sidelined,
Dixie Carter places her faith in Hulk Hogan
and Eric Bischoff,
reshaping the balance of power within TNA.
It revealed to me immediately,
he doesn't have a clue about TNA wrestling.
Like, zero clue or context of who or what we are.
I think she thought, "Oh,
I'm gonna bring Hulk Hogan in here
and everybody's gonna love me."
"Oh, look what Dixie did."
Look what the fuck Dixie did.
Ladies and gentlemen,
please welcome
Dixie Carter!
It's really hard to put into words how I felt
watching the product while I was sitting at home.
How's my little baby?
How's it gonna be?
Is it gonna turn out all right?
But Hogan was on the way.
And so for the brand, I was excited about that.
I'd like to introduce you to
my new business partner, Dixie Carter.
This is the company that's gonna lead the way
in the future. I guarantee that.
Hogan! Hogan! Hogan!
Hulk Hogan believed passionately
until the day he died-
It's still hard for me to say that-
that there was a tremendous amount of power
and value in the Hulk Hogan brand.
And he was right.
And I believe that Hulk believed that
he could bring that value to TNA and help
the little engine that couldn't achieve.
With Hulk Hogan now in the fold,
Dixie Carter moves to consolidate her power,
issuing the roster a stark ultimatum.
We get this notice that there's this
big meeting and there's gonna be cameras there.
So you know you kind of have to have your face on
and whatnot and Dixie comes out.
It's time for a change.
You can choose to support me
or you can choose not to.
But you'll need to find another place to work.
"And if you don't like it,
it's my way or the highway.
And if you're starving, 'Let them eat cake'."
We didn't appreciate that because we've been
working our asses off for you
and we're not asking for anything
we have not earned.
And you wanna reprimand us for that?
It was one of those meetings that single-handedly
pulled a lot of the morale out of the room.
It turns out that not only was it recorded,
but we played that back later in the show.
That's when she lost the absolute complete respect
from the entire locker room.
It was not about anything
other than her ego.
I expect you to support me 100%.
And you can go back and look at the faces.
Talent really understood
this is who we're working for.
But I think a lot of them- and including myself-
Where do things go now?
And then all of a sudden, I had a phone call
from an attorney that worked for Panda.
"Hey, Jeff, we want you to come back."
At that time, that just rocked my world.
I was just like, wow.
You could see clearly what her strategy was.
Dixie wanted a thumb on me
to really know what I was doing.
I've been around a long time,
and I knew the cards they were playing,
but I still was a little skeptical.
And I said, "What all do you have in mind?"
Jeff...
Jaaa-rr-ett!
I was brought back doing live events
and international.
When I returned, you put on a game face.
I wasn't exactly sure about the different chess pieces,
but my best strategy is, let's let this play out.
With Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff joining
TNA's creative team, they found themselves
once again working with head writer Vince Russo.
It was a partnership carrying years of baggage.
Russo, I think, told Jarrett to lie down.
Over a decade earlier,
in a shocking moment, backstage tensions erupted
in front of a live audience, blurring the line
between reality and fiction.
I don't think anybody agreed to that.
Now, the same trio was together again in TNA.
Hogan, you big, bald son of a bitch!
Kiss my ass!
At the time, the creative team is myself,
Ed Ferrara, and Matt Conway.
And what we are told by Dixie is,
"Guys, Eric is only involved
in the Hulk Hogan creative.
He's gonna come and he's gonna sit with you guys
creatively and just talk about
what's going on with Hulk."
Hulk Hogan had real issues with Vince Russo,
professionally, creatively.
Was not interested in working anywhere near Vince Russo.
I had to have a sit down with Vince Russo
to kind of clear the air, so to speak.
And we both shook hands and agreed,
let's try to make it work.
Eric's entire plan,
entire mindset was to somehow,
someway get power in the company.
I knew what he was doing.
We're starting over!
I knew his game, and that's-
the rest is history.
I mean, creatively, I was leading the charge.
I just kind of evolved into that,
partly because I have a pretty strong personality.
And what we're going to do is turn this company
upside down, starting...
I don't know, right now!
It took a few months for me to understand
the role that Hulk was gonna play in TNA.
And I thought he was coming in as brand ambassador.
I quickly learned he's literally gonna be
handed the keys to the brand.
And the change starts tonight!
I didn't know that he was gonna be
completely revamping the roster.
Mr. Anderson is in TNA!
Thank you, Hulk Hogan!
It was like, if you're a personal friend of
Hulk Hogan's that works at the grocery store,
oh, come on, you can be on the TV show!
They let some people who was famous in the 80s
that did some stuff and made an impact come in
and tell us that the things we were doing
were wrong and unprofessional.
And I felt like that was bullshit.
I'm sure there was a lot of money,
you know, going, you know, in different directions.
And egos, a lot of egos coming to the surface.
They weren't going to add to the product.
They kind of came in and they got a spot
and they got paid.
It became real clear what Hulk's vision was.
And that was complete rebranding
of the entire product.
And I knew what a massive failure it was gonna be.
They didn't know the TNA audience.
Welcome to the brand new Impact Zone, guys!
I think the single biggest thing he did that was
totally ego-driven was get rid of the six-sided ring.
I got one thing to say about six sides.
You had it, and it only got you so far.
That was a staple, that was a-
one of the hallmarks of being TNA.
The hardcore TNA fans, they wanted a six-sided ring.
We want six sides!
I thought it was stupid, frankly.
Like, if you're gonna have a six-sided ring,
use the damn thing!
Create something inside of that ring that happens
as a result of the fact that you're in a six-sided ring.
Otherwise, it doesn't affect anything
that happens on the mat.
Then it's just stupid.
Now do you understand
why I have problems and issues?
You are doing what's best for Hulk,
not what's best for TNA!
And what, we're all supposed to sit there and say,
oh yeah, bro, that's a great, oh yeah, bro?
No, bro, it's bullshit!
It's bullshit. We work for TNA.
You work for Hulk Hogan. That's the difference.
Determined to put TNA on the map,
Eric Bischoff turns to the past,
reviving a strategy that had
worked for him decades earlier.
WCW kicked WWE's ass for two solid years,
going head-to-head on Monday night.
I went back to, I won't say a bag of tricks necessarily,
but I went back to a strategy.
This is the biggest night in the history of TNA.
Going head-to-head with WWE
was gonna make so much noise.
It was about creating awareness.
I thought it was the dumbest thing.
Trying to go Monday night live with a company that
spends more on pyro than we spend on production.
When you put our show next to their show
at the same time,
they are gonna look like a million bucks and
we are gonna look like trailer trash.
We didn't have the money
to compete with them.
Countless amount of people came up to me and
would say, "How long are you gonna let this go on,
Jeff?" And I would say, "I'm powerless."
Seven years ago, I founded TNA.
You know something, Jeff?
So what? Nobody cares.
With Hulk Hogan and Dixie Carter,
TNA is going all the way, brother, to the top.
From the day Hulk came in,
it was less than 12 months that we went from
profitability to a financial death spiral.
Bischoff calling the shots, ith d
TNA takes its biggest gamble yet,
moving Impact head-to-head with
WWE's Monday Night Raw.
I don't remember what the viewership was,
but I think the most watched Impact episode in history
was some of that head-to-head competition,
at least the first night.
TNA had never had that big of an audience before.
I was realistic.
I knew why I was doing it and I was pretty convinced
that it wasn't going to work long-term.
I don't even remember how long it lasted,
but yeah, it did not work well.
You had one that was a major league product
and then you had another one, which was like
a smaller product, up and coming.
Unless you both have that major look,
you can't really go head-to-head
with the giant in the industry.
It killed momentum.
It made us look like amateurs
trying to play in the big boy pond.
Our house show attendance dropped.
Our Nielsen numbers dropped.
We were the fly on the ass of a rhino.
To this day, this is what I believe.
Hulk wanted to come in and move some chess pieces
to create his next race.
And I'm in a bad place here in that I can't voice
my opinion because it will sound self-serving.
With declining ratings and the failed
attempt to reignite the Monday Night Wars
hanging over the company,
the creative team turns to one of wrestling's
oldest formulas, turning real-life conflict
into compelling television.
Just months after Jeff Jarrett returns to TNA,
he's asked to step back into the ring.
I will never forget this conversation.
And if I could do a good Vince Russo impersonation,
I would, but I get this, "Bro?"
"What do you got, Vince?" "We need this story."
My job is to get as many eyeballs
on that show as possible.
That is my job.
Without a shadow of a doubt,
I was gonna pitch the angle to them.
If they weren't good with it, fine.
I was asked to be in a storyline
with Jeff and with my ex-husband.
In the storyline of Jeff took me from Kurt.
And I said, "Okay, Vince..."
"I know you and your crazy ideas,
but you gotta get some sign-off."
"I've already done it."
That's what turned my head.
I said, "Do what?" "Yeah."
I said, "So Dixie signed off?"
"Yep."
It was obvious to me that there was a
tremendous amount of strain between Dixie and Jeff.
And now we're gonna add, oh, I don't know,
a love triangle with Kurt's ex-wife
and Jeff Jarrett
on top of that stress.
Kurt Angle, the 1996 Olympic gold medalist,
the father, the husband, well, the ex-husband.
Whoa!
I just sat back and chuckled.
Jeff's the bad guy.
And Kurt's this American gold medalist
that lost his wife.
And here's this evil bitch.
You will not steal the joy from our lives
for one more day!
Boo!
People wanted to root for Kurt.
It was easy for them to hate us.
It was only a matter of time before the
whole world saw Karen and Jeff for who they truly are.
You add the story to it and just start
stirring the pot.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!
I can say I watched two men
put their differences aside
and work for the betterment of TNA.
And by doing that,
they stepped in that ring for me, too.
And I have mad respect for both of them.
It, by far, to me, was the most
productive storyline TNA ever had.
I'm sick of you!
Oh my God!
The downfall is people believed it.
They thought it was real.
To this day, I get comments online, like,
"Are you and Kurt okay?" And I'm like- ha-
"You do realize that we
co-parent kids and have since 2010."
Oh!
Jeff wasn't screwing Kurt's wife.
Jeff didn't take Kurt's wife.
Do you think if that was the case,
Kurt Angle would go through with that storyline?
No.
You may kiss your bride.
That's not what happened.
It was a fucking storyline.
Get the axe! Get the axe!
! What the hell?! God!
Less than 12 months ago,
we're gonna send Jeff home because of
the dastardly deed he did.
And now, all of a sudden, we're gonna bring him back.
And only, not only bring him back,
we're gonna create a storyline on this tragic
situation that I was such a horrible person.
Dixie's power play was never about
her compassion for Kurt, never about
her concern for the brand or the company.
It was always about herself-
putting herself in power.
As chaos grows behind the scenes,
TNA's pursuit of star power culminates in
one of the most infamous nights in company history,
Victory Road, 2011.
In 2010, coming back to TNA,
I mean, Dixie was totally involved then, right?
It seemed like things were different.
And that was a real dark time in my personal life.
I always go back to that night, you know?
I'm like, oh my God,
because it was such an embarrassing thing.
Everybody backstage pretty much knew
that Jeff was involved in drugs.
For the most part, he had it under control.
I'm in the truck, I'm directing,
and it's the main event, it's the last match.
And I tell D'Lo Brown,
he's the agent on the match,
he's on headsets by the go position.
What I need to know about this match, he goes,
"Hold on a second, hold on, hold on."
Jeff comes up, and within seconds of
being around him,
I know he's not in his right state of mind.
I can just tell.
I had wrestled earlier,
and I remember being so excited for Jeff to be
in the main event against Sting,
the guy that he looked up to,
and it was a very high profile match, obviously.
Jeff was getting ready to go out,
and someone had buzzed me and said,
"Jeff is not in a good state."
And I just remember my heart dropped.
I'm like, oh my God.
That's when Eric Bischoff popped up,
and you know, he's starting to ask what's going on.
And then somehow,
we agreed to let him go to the ring
to see if he could walk it off,
or when he got in front of the crowd,
maybe he would pop back into normal Jeff.
And he comes out,
and I can see that he's staggering. I'm like,
oh my God, Jeff is fucked up on something.
Jeff Hardy, the moment of truth
has arrived.
And he's doing all this weird stuff,
like taking his shirt off and teasing the crowd.
What the hell is Jeff Hardy doing here?
Everybody was kind of looking at each other,
including Dixie, and it's like, what do we do?
What next?
iew,
what should have been the biggest match of the night
quickly descended into confusion and panic
as Jeff Hardy made his way to the ring.
Backstage, it became painfully clear that Hardy
was in no condition to compete.
I had seen Jeff earlier, and, and seemed okay,
but, but, you know, I was not
in tune with anything going on that day.
And I got a call, Russo:
"Bro, get over here now."
Eric Bischoff comes out right before
they ring the bell at the introduction.
Slight change in plans.
So I got close to Jeff, and I told him,
"Turn around and get the fuck out of this ring.
Walk back to the locker room.
Just leave now."
Nothing. Didn't register.
It's all pretty much a blur,
but I remember Eric Bischoff saying,
just like it was like,
get rid of that piece of trash.
I can't believe he would do this to these people that
have paid to watch this pay-per-view
and these people that have worked so hard
to put this show on.
So I went over to Sting and just said,
"Hit him with your finish."
Oh, right now... Sting!
Right off the bat!
It's gonna be a death drop.
Got him!
Wow!
What you saw, that Jeff Hardy that was
in that ring, I mean, complete, you know,
just drug addict that had given up on him, himself,
to be that irresponsible and that dangerous to
go out there with somebody else's life, you know,
that's in your hands and that you have to protect.
It was just so careless and reckless.
I'll never forget
coming back from the hotel.
I went straight to the truck, went to play back,
and just said, "Hey man, what actually happened?"
They just showed me 15 seconds,
and I'm like, "I got it."
I got real angry... at first.
How in the world could you
let him walk through that curtain?
And then I began to hear a few different versions.
I knew the reality that was,
I can only make things worse, so I left.
It was embarrassing for everybody involved.
There's a million right choices and
one wrong one, and we did the wrong one.
At that time, I felt confused in that,
how did Jeff get himself to a spot that
he couldn't go perform?
I had no comprehension of
what the disease of addiction is.
It's cunning, it's baffling,
and it's powerful.
I hope that people have forgiven me,
you know.
Forgiveness is such a huge thing in recovery, man,
and forgiving yourself can be super hard,
you know, when it comes- and took me a long time
to forgive myself for that night,
but ultimately, that was me,
but it's not me, you know.
That's what I was, but not what I am.
It was like the drug addict Jeff Hardy
died that night because, in a way, I kind of,
I needed that to realize how bad I was.
That was the wake-up call that it took for him to
totally stop taking pills altogether,
so that is the only positive that I can say
came out of it when it was all said and done.
I hate that it happened for Jeff.
I hate that it happened for the brand.
I hate that it happened on Dixie's watch.
She moved me out, and she's in,
so no matter who you put under her,
she's ultimately responsible,
and this happened on her watch.
By the end of 2011,
a sober Jeff Hardy redeems himself by defeating
Jeff Jarrett in a loser leaves TNA match,
allowing Jarrett to step away from the ring and
focus on new ventures, including Ring Ka King,
a TNA offshoot based in India.
By this time, the financial situation
was beginning to get bad,
and it was going from bad to worse.
With the company's financials trending downward,
Hulk Hogan's time in TNA comes to an end
less than four years after it began.
I know that a lot of you are not happy with
some of the decisions I've made lately.
I just remember when Hulk made up his mind
that it was time for him to leave.
We wanted to do it within the context
of a storyline, as opposed to Hulk just leaving.
Hulk Hogan, we have some business
in the ring now.
It was probably my idea to have Dixie go
as far as she did, trying to get Hulk Hogan to stay.
It's an amazing offer for somebody else,
not me, because I quit.
Oh!
What? What?!
All angles, it's embarrassing.
Just let me go.
Just brutal, man.
But, you know, Dixie probably thought it was great,
because she was on TV.
That's Eric Bischoff's character.
I- I don't even want to know
the amount of those checks
that she wrote to both of them. And then,
because Hogan's got "creative control",
they're going to write him out that way to
completely 1,000% humiliate her.
Humiliate her.
That shows you his character.
That is disgusting.
What an incredible masterpiece of a job that
Hulk and Eric and whoever else was involved
convinced her to do that. You are fired!
I would have never done that if I was Dixie.
It said everything
about her knowledge of the industry.
As the company slips deeper into
financial trouble, Jeff Jarrett turns to
a legendary country music artist for help.
My old buddy, Toby Keith.
You know, Toby saw the little engine that could in TNA
month after month and year after year
grow to heights.
I saw him at a show,
and he asked how things were going, and I said,
"Toby, it's a financial death spiral."
He's like, "Damn, and you don't have no power?"
I said, "Zero." He said, "Let's get it back."
And I said, "You're serious?"
He said, "I am dead effing serious."
The attorneys met Toby at his golf course and
went into their song and dance about, "Mr. Keith,
we sure would like to get you on board."
He said, "Folks, there's no doubt I know
what Toby Keith's brand can do,
but are we talking about with or without Jeff?"
They hemmed and hawed and stammered around
and said, "Well, we can kind of talk about it."
He said, "We have nothing to talk about.
Jeff's my guy, and if Jeff's not running the show,
I'm out."
And he got up and walked to the tee box.
So that's when I knew
that the nose wasn't coming up.
So I said, "Yeah, I've spent enough time on this,"
and that's when I hit send on the email
that I resigned from the company.
Jeff Jarrett departs TNA,
he remains determined to make his mark on the
wrestling business, launching a new promotion,
Global Force Wrestling.
I kind of got my head together and
named the company in 2014.
I ran the Grand Slam Tour,
the 20-something baseball shows,
and... and my old Canadian buddies
from Anthem acquired TNA.
Dixie was essentially
reduced to a few points, if you will.
There came a point where Bob and Janice Carter,
Dixie's parents, had had enough.
"We've spent enough money."
So Dixie was out, and Anthem took the company over.
And they had wanted to change the TNA name for years,
and they changed it to Impact,
because at least that was less offensive
than the childishness.
The new owners of TNA
get together with Global Force Wrestling.
I'll never forget Ed Nordholm from
Anthem Sports and Entertainment.
He said, "Oh, I know you got Global Force,
but is there a way to take the old brand and
merge them together?" Karen was very skeptical.
I get PTSD from hearing that.
I think Jeff thought, "Hey, I did this once.
I can do it again."
A lot changed in the world of wrestling
and network TV.
I'm like, "Man...
we can make this thing run again."
I'm taking the joint back over.
The place that I built.
When Jeff came back with Anthem,
it's probably the
darkest I ever saw of Jeff Jarrett.
And I think one of the mistakes Jeff made
when he came back was that
he was kind of like on a revenge tour.
He wanted to stick it to Dixie.
He wanted to stick it to everybody who he felt
was not on his side when he left.
I kind of knew in my heart of hearts
that I was, I was struggling.
In less than two months,
the realities became crystal clear.
I was fed a bunch of bullshit.
That here I am now merging the brands
and there is no money.
And so if people thought I was angry or upset,
they were right.
He was a shell of the human being
that he was before.
It wasn't the same Jeff.
He was so broken. I felt sorry for him.
He was worried about taking care of me,
taking care of our kids.
Part of me justified his drinking.
He was battling some substance issues
and he was trying though.
We didn't say anything because it's Jeff Jarrett,
he's the boss, but we kind of knew and it saddened us
because we felt he wasn't making the best decisions
for the company in that moment.
I pass no judgment. I come from,
I come from a family that's had a lot of addiction
problems, but clearly at that point in time,
Jeff was not in a great space.
A cardinal rule that I had for years is I would
never drink until I knew
not only that my match was over,
is that I would not be really in public.
And I started breaking that rule and having
a little bit here and a little bit there.
I tried to get him to get help several times,
but he just, "I don't have a problem.
I don't have a problem." He def- he had a problem.
And you know, I'll never forget that, uh-
man...
I was at a pool party
in my backyard
and I looked down at my gut
and I go,
not on my watch.
I'm never gonna have a beer gut.
And that day I switched to vodka,
literally that day.
That was not a good decision.
He would start drinking at 10 a.m.
or he would drink all day.
I wasn't just watching from the outside.
I was living it.
He was killing himself.
With his drinking problem worsening,
Jeff leaves Karen behind and
travels to Mexico for AAA's Triplemania,
one of the country's biggest wrestling events.
I mean, I have processed this scene
so many different times.
Flew down on a Friday morning,
show on the Saturday.
That entire Friday I was called to the building:
"Hang out in the dressing room,
and we'll come get you for rehearsals."
Well, I had the bottle in my bag and noon came along
and had one drink and two came along
and another drink and another drink
and another drink and another drink.
And it got 9 or 10 o'clock at night on the Friday
and I'd never done a rehearsal
and it was time for me to go to the hotel.
So we loaded up and so that's when
that drunk started, on the Friday midday.
And I woke up the next day,
like any active alcoholic,
get up, have a good breakfast,
and I'm gonna have me a drink
before I go to the building.
And one thing led to another.
Jeff, you gotta go in the ring.
- Come on. - No!
It was, you know, very obvious to folks
that I was in no condition to perform.
Before I knew it, I went out,
had no business going to the ring.
He's throwing some promotional-
Wait a minute.
Is that what I think it is?
He's throwing out tortillas.
Amazing that Jeff Jarrett would travel all the way
to Mexico City from Hendersonville, Tennessee
to disrespect and mock this crowd.
It's fucking bullshit is what it is.
Get the fuck out of here.
Fuck you, motherfucker!
No, no, no, no!
It was an ugly situation.
Come here, you little cunt!
Come and get me!
Flew home on Labor Day,
came into the office on that Tuesday and
Lynn Asper and Ed were at the office.
And then Ed just said, "Hey, we want you
to go to outpatient treatment."
And that really caught me off guard.
When the decision was made to
send Jeff to rehab,
at that point, I think Jeff was pretty mad at me.
And I said, if Jeff never talks to me again,
but gets clean, I'll be okay with that.
Him being sent home that second time,
disastrous for him. Absolutely disastrous.
The canoe tipped
and completely fucking capsized.
Once again, sent home from
the company he helped build,
Jeff Jarrett enters outpatient treatment
for alcoholism.
I cleaned my office out.
They said, "You got six weeks
and let's get this thing under control."
I went to outpatient treatment for
four hours a day for six weeks.
I sat at the front of the class,
took the best notes,
put on the mask of Jeff,
the outpatient that's gonna kick this
drinking problem's ass.
And there was a double shot in Calgary and Edmonton.
The following Friday's when I got on the plane,
sit down in first class, the stewardess came by
and she's got her little notepad.
And she said, "Mr. Jarrett, can I get you
anything to drink?" And I literally said,
"I'll take a double rum and Coke."
At the time I had no idea how much of a denial
I was in. I drank all the way to Calgary.
And after it was over,
get on the plane, continue to drink.
Went home, woke up on Sunday,
continue to drink.
The scariest thing about like
places like that, the rock bottom places is,
man, it's just like, how am I gonna survive this?
How am I gonna get through this?
So I'm sure Jeff was in that spots where like, oh my God,
how am I gonna come back from this?
There were two different times that
I had to call 911
because I couldn't get him awake
and was worried that he was dying.
Just, it got so bad.
I was out of my mind.
And on that Monday morning, I woke up,
she had gotten the kids to school and
I was sitting in my recliner, TV on.
She walked back in and she just said,
"Jeff, what are you going to do?"
And you can call it a moment of clarity.
I call it God speaking through me.
I said, "I'm going to treatment."
And she just kind of looked at me
and she said, "Are you serious?"
I said, "Yes."
I couldn't really believe
how things had transpired.
Like how in the hell did I get myself in this position?
She started making the calls and finally she got
the WWE Wellness folks on the phone.
Then we got on a plane and we flew to Tampa.
I was scared and
I was worried just leaving him there
and not being able to be there with him.
I didn't want to leave him.
I didn't even know what an alcoholic truly was
before I got to treatment.
For me, it all started
as the little, scared 5-year-old boy
who was sent to go to private school.
The only one there that the dad never showed up.
The dad was on TV wrestling.
When I came to the realization
that I had resentment
at my dad,
estrangement on any relationship is painful.
And I liken it to dragging a massive ball
around on your ankle.
You're pulling that anger.
You're pulling that resentment.
You're pulling that bad relationship.
But we knew that wrestling had,
specifically TNA had really driven a wedge.
And you know, since that, we had time to reconnect
and he knew that I had a problem.
When Jeff reconciled with his dad,
it was definitely a tough thing.
I'm grateful that it happened.
Understanding that when Owen fell 82 feet
to his death and I was in the ring
and walked through the crater
that his body left
and me sensing it,
but stuffing it and
putting on an emotional mask that
I had no idea I had on...
Dealing with
the passing of my first wife with three kids
and knowing that I've got to run an organization.
I gotta be a dad.
I've gotta wear these different masks.
I didn't even know who I was at this point.
In those 56 days, I finally got really
rigorous, honest with myself.
Got out a few days before Christmas.
I was super grateful
just to be home and alive.
To see him, like, you know, go to treatment
and just be the greatest human being
he possibly can be, it's just so inspirational.
The first Sunday of 2018,
the phone rang
and it was WWE.
Went into the bathroom.
"Karen, I just got a phone call,"
and she just stopped in her tracks and
we connected eyes through her looking in her mirror.
"Vince wants to put me in the Hall of Fame."
I was completely overwhelmed with emotion.
The journey that I had traveled since 1993.
WWF runs and the WCW runs
and the IC title and the world title
and the TNA years
and treatment, and this is how 2018 started.
I was blown away.
Karen and the kids,
we've been through a lot.
You guys are my rock.
And to my dad, we've had our ups and downs,
but I thank the good Lord that we're on a up.
Thank you for what you've done for me in this business.
Without those valleys,
it's impossible to have the mountaintops.
Jeff Jarrett is at in 2026,
I work for AEW, and AEW is founded
by a guy who at the very end of the day,
we're so aligned in one thing.
And that's the passion of professional wrestling.
Jeff has so much experience in pro wrestling.
He's been involved in thousands of
wrestling live events all over the world.
And so I love having Jeff in the office.
I don't even really know how to put it into words
because when I started at AEW, I was a heel.
Watch out!
And then all of a sudden,
I'm asked to be in the
Owen Hart Invitational Tournament.
Producer sat me down.
Much like the camera in front of me now.
They ask,
"Hey Jeff, what does Owen mean to you?"
And to this day, I'm getting emotional.
It's hard for me to imagine.
It's been 25 years...
but there's so many things about Owen
that I remember
like it was yesterday.
And there was no wrestling storyline.
There was no angle.
There was none of that.
And that resonated somehow, someway.
Enter the tournament and quote-unquote,
I was walking through the curtain as a heel.
But the people that night in Chicago,
I'll never forget that.
They accepted me as a babyface.
There was a massive
full circle moment for myself that...
the kid from Hendersonville...
It was special.
I think Jeff Jarrett is in a great place.
He's sober. He's healthy.
He's happy. He looks great.
For all the hard hitting action and wrestling
he's been through and the great matches,
Jeff still moves around like a young, young man,
whether it's competing in the ring or helping
train the young wrestlers where Jeff has
great ideas and great insights.
I think Jeff's greatest joy is
working with younger talent.
He loves teaching.
He loves watching
people grow, become stars.
There's a certain gratification in
contributing to the making of a talent.
I'm more excited and engaged and passionate
about professional wrestling today
than I ever have been.
Jeff will never retire.
He will be 90 years old and somehow
still contributing to this business.
I'm very grateful for Jeff Jarrett
taking the chance, rolling the dice,
starting TNA himself and making that into a place.
Like, it's- He's changed the business.
I mean, there's no doubt about it.
And he has been heavily influential in the business.
And I think he will be for a long time to come.
Between Jeff's understanding
of the business, Jeff's eye for talent,
Jeff's dedication,
Jeff's commitment, Jeff's hard work-
If Jeff would have never
lost control of that company,
God knows where TNA would be right now.
I mean that from the bottom of my heart.
Nashville, Tennessee has been the
home of TNA Wrestling for more than two decades.
It should have died a thousand deaths already.
But it's, yeah, it's still kicking.
To be a pro wrestler in TNA
here in 2026 and the last couple of years
has been so great for my brother and I.
Whoever said that they wouldn't last, I mean,
they are proven wrong.
I hope the fact that TNA is still
alive and kicking makes Jeff feel proud.
The entity that's called TNA today,
although it is a completely different company,
wouldn't exist had it not been
for Jeff and Jerry Jarrett.
TNA is absolutely thriving today with
everything it's gone through.
It feels like TNA is just a microcosm of
Jeff Jarrett's life...
still standing somehow.
The story of TNA is the story of Jeff Jarrett
because TNA is Jeff Jarrett.
If Jeff Jarrett would have disappeared
when Jill got sick and passed,
if Jeff Jarrett would have disappeared
with all the drama with him and Karen,
if Jeff would have disappeared in 2017 and
wouldn't have kept just fighting and coming back and
believing when there's no rational reason to believe,
then we don't have one of the greatest success stories
that's ever transpired.
It's not how many times you get knocked down
it's how many times you can back up.
And a lot of people get knocked down in life.
Everybody has setbacks,
but every time he's gotten knocked down,
he's gotten back up and coming back stronger, so...
Some people called me stupid, naive,
an idiot, but I bet on myself.
And that is something that
I can look my children in their eyes:
Get up to bat, get in the game.
It makes life so rewarding.