Hello and welcome to the WrestleTalk News - I’m Oli Davis.
Jeff Jarrett Leaves TNA / GFW Back in 2001 when Vince McMahon purchased
WCW, his first act was to fire Jeff Jarrett live on TV, auto-correcting Jeff’s last
name from J A double R E double T to G double O double N double E: which is pronounced ‘goon’,
but probably means ‘gone’. Now, over 15 years later, Jeff appears to be ‘goon’
from a wrestling promotion once again. Jarrett founded TNA in 2002, but left in 2014
to start up a new company Global Force Wrestling. He found himself back in TNA at the start
of this year when Anthem Sports & Entertainment acquired the promotion from Dixie Carter,
becoming its Executive Producer, and quickly rebranded the company as GFW.
As of yesterday, he was looking forward to the promotion’s plans for the month, tweeting:
“Tuesday morning, let’s go, super excited about September for Impact Wrestling and GFW
Wrestling.” But shortly after that tweet was posted, GFW’s
published an announcement of its own: “Effective immediately, Jeff Jarrett is
taking an indefinite leave of absence from his position as Chief Creative Officer to
focus on personal matters. Jeff will be available on a consultative basis as needed.”
Jarrett’s tweet and GFW’s statement being so close together implies Jeff’s “indefinite
leave” was a sudden decision, and PWInsider report the it was made less because of the
company's creative direction, and more about Jarrett’s “erratic behaviour”.
Apparently this had been building for months, beginning in April when Jarrett screamed at
a colleague backstage over an incorrect hotel booking, which is said to be “much ‘uglier’
than anyone realises.” And the last straw coming when Jarrett represented GFW at Triplemania
several weeks ago. “He had put on weight and seemingly stumbled down the ring steps
before wrestling for just a few short minutes before journeying around ringside for an extended
period.” - all in front of Anthem President Ed Nordholm, who was in the audience. Although
F4WOnline do note this is Jarrett’s usual gimmick when he wrestles in Mexico, “heckling
fans and throwing tortillas to the crowd.” PWInsider note that Jarrett isn’t the clear-cut
heel here, with him receiving a lot of flack for the Broken Hardys fiasco when he was just
towing the company line to keep GFW and Anthem’s relationship strong, and he “desperately
wanted his company back and wanted to prove to everyone he was right all along with his
vision.” A vision that might include the promotion’s latest rebrand.
The report also points out that the GFW/Anthem merger is "nowhere near as completed" as first
thought, and there’s a possibility that if Jarrett exits the company, he could take
the rebranded GFW name with him. New authority figure Jim Cornette and former
Heavyweight Champion Alberto El Patron are also reportedly close with the Jarrett family
- with the latter reportedly slated for a Bound For Glory match against Jeff - putting
their Impact Wrestling, TNA or whatever it’s going to be called’s future in doubt.
Headline: Donovan Dijak Signs With WWE Keeping with wrestlers who have alliteration
in their names, WWE have announced the signing of the literally enormous 6’7” Donovan
Dijak, and he’ll be heading to the Performance Center.
Dijak competed at last weekend’s Battle of Los Angeles tournament for PWG, wrestling
Keith Lee in a match Dave Meltzer called one of the best big man matches he’s ever seen.
Dijak is also the winner of Ring of Honor’s 2015 Top Prospect tournament.
He’ll join fellow former ROH alumni Lio Rush, Kyle O’Reilly, Bobby Fish and Adam
Cole, who’ve all signed with WWE in recent months - after their moves were reportedly
postponed from the start of this year because of contract tampering allegations from Ring
of Honor. Shane McMahon has been suspended from Smackdown!
And are Smark Fans really killing wrestling? Click the videos to the left to find out,
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I've been Oli Davis and that was wrestling.