My World w/ Jeff Jarrett - How Dixie Got Control [Show Notes] (Patreon)

Last time we left off discussing TNA 20 years ago Raven had just come into the Asylum. What did he bring to the table early on in TNA?

From the Torch

“Vince Russo has resumed his former role of producing backstage segments. Russo is popular in most locker room circles, with just about everyone saying he is easy to work with. When he’s not producing segments, Russo spends most of his time in the SEX locker room hanging out with Road Dogg, and Disco, and Raven now that they’ve returned/arrived...

In general, the TNA locker room is being praised and labeled as a positive place to work. Even indy wrestlers who have worked WWE dark matches say they prefer the relaxed atmosphere of TNA, where they are made to feel more at home and are allowed to approach the wrestlers.

TNA regulars especially praise the Jarretts and others in management for not going out of their way to remind the crew that they are in charge. At this point, wrestlers say the only TNA office worker who seems to be trying too hard to let the wrestlers know that he has some pull is Mortimer Plumtree. “Morty comes off like he’s trying to show us he’s important,” one wrestler said…”

Let’s talk about Russo and his role in the early days of TNA - and at this point - his actual role of being a backstage producer, on-air talent and was he writing?

Were there issues with Mortimer at any point?

Zach Gowen does a dark match over Truth Martini. How did Zach Gowen come to be and did you see a lot of potential in him?

There’s also some interesting creative going on with AJ Styles working with Larry Zybysko - was that a styles clash - no pun intended?

After working with Larry Z - Styles would move into your feud with Raven all based around the NWA Title. With bringing in Raven - why did you feel the need to include AJ in the top angle?

You do three angles on one episode with you three. You destroying Raven until Russo saved him and it would end with Raven superplexing you through a table. The second angle…well I’ll let the Torch say it…

From the Torch

The second angle saw Raven confront Styles when asking for a title shot. which people were into (and they weren't into a lot on this show). Styles actually made references to Raven having a syringe and implied he was a heroin addict (a scripted line for him, hardly something he came up with on his own) to lead to a pull-apart which ended when Jarrett showed back up and cleaned house on both guys. Jarrett left Styles laying with the stroke and got his belt back.

The syringe line - too much?

The third angle, at the end of the show, saw them tease a Jarrett-Raven title match as the main event. It never happened, but they brawled and teased Raven superplexing Jarrett through a table once again after Russo cut off Jarrett.

However, Jarrett reversed it and shoved Raven off the ropes backwards through the table. Jarrett laid Raven out with a belt shot and wanted a title match to start. However, Styles came out and gave Jarrett a stroke on the belt and took the belt and the show ended with him standing over both guys. . .

What was the thought process in running all these angles on one episode?

Coming in for this episode as well - was our man Tony Schiavone! What did you think of his performance and why do you think it only happened once?

Also the Rock ‘n’ Roll Express would come in - to save America’s Most Wanted - before the swerve bro and they turned heel on them. Did anyone want to see the Rock n Rolls as heels?

One of the other things on the show was BG James doing an interview where he tried to portray Vince McMahon as a vindictive guy who gave him a terrible Double J gimmick because McMahon was mad at Jarrett. James implied that Russo's DX turned him into the most entertaining personality in pro wrestling and that he sold out Madison Square Garden 20 straight weeks. There’s a lot of TNA sucks - and harken back to the old days type of talk with the Attitude Era. Does any of this help anyone get over?

From the Observer

People within the company are marveling at the job Jeff Jarrett does backstage. He basically runs the wrestling end, which means plays agent, helping the young guys lay out their matches, takes care of everyone's problems, and is constantly on the go from about 10 a.m until the last person leaves because the company is so understaffed...

From the Torch:

The widespread speculation is that Jeff Jarrett now has the final say on all booking matters, and accepts input from his father and Vince Russo. It’s assumed by most in TNA that Russo is actually formatting the scripts. Russo does not attend production meetings, perhaps in part because Jerry Jarrett does. More than one TNA source felt Russo’s recent promo line about Jerry living vicariously through Jeff was a shoot.

Unless Jerry and Russo are working everyone around them, there is still heat between the two of them...

Was it time for you to take control - or had this already happened and it’s just now being reported…did your Dad & Vince have legit heat?

“Andrew McManus has been talking with Jeff Jarrett about the idea of promoting TNA’s overseas tours. Although there were some suspicions that McManus was out to sabotage TNA’s pay–per–view deal in Australia, he has actually been helping the group in those efforts…”

What was your relationship like with Andrew at this time? Was this close to a reality at any point?

It’s also reported that there’s a better chance than ever that Sting would be on a TNA show sometime this year. How much were you talking with Sting about coming in and how long did it take? Was it just about money?

On one episode in the main event the tag team titles would end up being held up between XXX and the New Church. Was it an issue trying to book Elix Skipper, Christopher Daniels & Low Ki with their outside commitments - Daniels & Low Ki especially being in Japan often?

You would get kidnapped on the show…which the Torch would say it’s Russo writing based off an old Steve Austin angle…”the Russo group, all wearing masks and army fatigues, kidnaped Jarrett. Rhodes did his cameo, doing one promo and then leaving to find Jarrett.

Show ended with Russo in the ring talking to a masked guy wearing Glen Gilbertti’s clothes and apparently him, but then Gilbertti crawled down the ramp in his underwear. Jarrett unmasked to attack Russo as the show went off the air.

After the show went off the air, the heels massacred Jarrett as Raven tied him to the ringpost and they all whipped his back with a belt, leaving cuts and welts”

Well…it seems you weren’t happy about it according to the Torch:

“Jeff Jarrett was said to be hot over the beatdown angle that was taped for the Feb. 12 show. The attack was said to be violent to the point that Jarrett had major welts left on his back, but that wasn’t the reason Jarrett was upset. Multiple sources report that Jarrett felt the SEX wrestlers didn’t work him over enough. He was said to be so mad that he didn’t even talk with Vince Russo after the show... “

What can you tell us about this - why you were upset - and how bad did it hurt?

What was the miscommunication here?

In the post-match brawl, which went about ten minutes, after the tag title match, the stage manager was momentarily knocked cold when Lee landed on her

Jeff - who was the stage manager who got knocked out? What do you remember of this?

It’s reported in the Observer that Amazing Red was slated to win the X title but at some point due to his All Japan tour that was shelved and the plan was to get the belt to Kid Kash from Sonny Siaki. How difficult is it to book around everyone’s schedules?

Tenay is starting to be shuffled out of the angle with Russo and being used as a straight announcer in the next few weeks. Was that the right move?

Konnan debuts with the company and the Torch would say this:

“Konnan did what was described as the most well prepared interview in the history of the company, as he was studying notes all day. Apparently he cut a first interview, which was said to be even better than the one that aired, but Jerry Jarrett felt at about 7:00, was too long.

He did a second shorter but similar one.

He brought up racism against Latinos, but his delivery almost made him a babyface doing so, while claiming Jarrett, Vince McMahon and Eric Bischoff were racist promoters and there were a lack of Latinos in power, then bringing up that boxing is largely carried by Latinos on PPV noting most of the big draws behind Tyson are Latinos.”

The irony of this angle happening here - and then later on Konnan using TNA over racial discrimination - is that something that you would think about later on?

How good was Konnan though?

After his dark match it’s decided to put Zach Gowen on TV and he gets a win over Road Dogg. Did you think it was prudent to sign him before the WWE did or did you want to take a wait and see approach on him?

Raven would attack him after the win to really kill his heat…

The Torch had a lot of news and notes about people coming in, including Dale Torberg and Paul London. Did you think Torberg would be someone who would help with mainstream press because of his relationship with baseball?

Don West was very upset during the broadcast when Russo threw water all over him off camera…do you remember Don being hot about this?

Curt Hennig passes away on February 9th. Were you shocked by this?

A big moment in TNA history takes place on February 12th…

From the Torch:

The Carter family, which owns Panda Energy and the majority share of TNA, introduced themselves to the talent prior to the Feb. 12 event.

The meeting opened with Don Harris reminding wrestlers that they are not supposed to wrestle on or around the announcers’ table because the company is worried that wrestlers may accidentally cause problems with the show’s audio.

Meanwhile, sources report that Vince Russo is the person who has given the company its biggest scares when it comes to the announcers’ table. Russo has ignored the warnings about the audio by brawling around it, and even spitting water on the announcers.

At the meeting, Harris also complained that some of the wrestlers were showing too much light in the ring. He asked the wrestlers to work tighter, and also warned that doing so may result in wrestlers occasionally taking accidental stiff shots from their opponents. Harris asked the wrestlers to keep their cool if that should happen, saying that any problems should be dealt with backstage rather than wrestlers feeling they have to give each other in–ring receipts.

Jeff - you have told us before - that you were not a fan of the group meetings…why did they keep happening?

What was it like having the whole Carter family at the show?

From the Observer:

In what turned out to be one of the strangest stories of contract negotiations in recent times, Tenacious Z (Zachary Gowen) verbally agreed to a three-year contract with WWE on 2/14, reportedly for a $52,000 per year downside guarantee.

Gowen had been offered a 26-date contract by TNA at $500 per shot on 2/12 by Bob Ryder, but hadn’t signed it when he left the arena that night, likely because he had gotten word that day of WWE’s interest.

This is example No. 5,526 of why a promotion needs to have its talent signed before putting them on television. TNA had never been raided before so they hadn’t learned the lesson the hard way, but 20 years of history should have told them this from day one. This is a lot bigger blow to TNA than it appears on the surface, even though the guy wasn’t a drawing card, in a main program nor had any kind of potential to be either.

TNA was starting to market Gowen and had already gotten confirmations from USA Today, People Magazine and Best Damn Sports Show Period as well as interest but not a confirmation from the David Letterman show.

The guy who probably deserves much of the credit for this is really Jeremy Borash, since Borash had been pushing TNA for a long time to bring him in, and the marketing possibilities once he appeared on the show (for positive mainstream pub, which WWE doesn’t get a lot of), were clearly the impetus to bring him in.

Jeff - are you pissed about this? Is this just a communication failure?

Vader has signed a long-term deal. The knee injury story from the last NOAH tour was a cover story and it appears he’s lost his Japan gig under what can only be called mysterious circumstances.

Was Vader interested in signing a deal?

It’s reported that your dad isn’t at this show due to a vacation that his wife insisted upon. Was he not there because of Panda?

Steve Corino & The Sandman both debut on the show - why the influx of former ECW talent all of a sudden? Were the numbers starting to go up and you had budget free up?

JJ Dillon and Vince Russo go out and well…it doesn’t go well. Dillon is the new babyface type commissioner role - and supposedly Russo shot on Dillon saying things he wasn’t ready for. What do you remember of all this?

There’s talk of luchadores coming in including Juventud Guerrera, Psicosis and Super Crazy - but it’s said you weren’t hot on bringing Juventud in because of his issues in WCW. Was that the real reason?

From the Torch

The first show that aired in Australia on 1/22 did between 3,000 and 4,000 buys (around an 0.3 buy rate). The Australian PPV system is such that the company gets an exact figure within a week or so, unlike In Demand, where they still don’t even have final figures for shows six months ago.

How much was that revenue bringing in for the company?

More people are being talked about coming in…including Sean Waltman returning, New Jack cutting a promo on TNA, and with Tough Enough ending even a contestant named Jonah.

What are you going to do with more people on this roster? Was it starting to balloon out of control again?

Head of State is due to come out on March 28th. How did the deal come together for Chris Rock to film movie scenes at TNA?

From the Torch:

“With American PPV sales still not at the level they need to be for TNA to be profitable, company officials are attempting to secure as many overseas television deals as possible to cover the domestic losses. Ideally, TNA officials would prefer to find a network television home and run traditional monthly pay–per–view events, but they’ve been shut out by every major network they’ve approached. There is some talk that Fox Sports Network and other companies that would require a programming fee are interested, but cable industry analysts don’t believe those types of deals would be economically feasible.”

Not only are buyrates disappointing for TNA, but their future on PPV in general is far from secure. DirecTV was said to be on the verge of cancelling their deal with TNA a while back, but the Jarretts and InDemand officials met with DirecTV officials and convinced them to give the promotion a strong marketing push before giving up on it. Meanwhile, TNA’s deal with InDemand expires in June.

Was this one of those times where there’s worry about what might happen with the company? What can you tell us about that DirecTV meeting?

Here’s this for a match recap Jeff…from the Observer:

Main event saw Jarrett over Styles in 16:04 with the stroke off the middle rope in a ***3/4 match.

Both guys worked well with each other. It was like a Raw match from about a year ago with all the ref bumps and outside interference spots. Jarrett was hit with everything under the sun and kicked out of all of it, including a Knux shot by Larry Zbyszko and the Styles clash, as well as the H-Bomb by the Harris Twins. Twins were chased out by Rhodes & Vader, and the refs chased Zbyszko away.

Finish saw Sonny Siaki give Jarrett two Siakalypse (while Desire distracted the ref) to hand the title to Styles, but Styles turned on Siaki and left him laying with a Styles clash, but this allowed Jarrett to get the win.

There’s so much going on Jeff…did you & AJ really need all that? Or was this just how we’re going to keep the story going…

Vader & Dusty Rhodes as a tag team against the Harris Brothers…that had to be a thrill for Ron & Don didn’t it?

From the Torch

Low point of the show was the debut of Disgraceland (former WCW wrestler Luther Biggs, who for those into obscure trivia, was the guy who Kevin Nash stole the “Big Sexy” name from).

The gimmick is that Glen Gilbertti is introducing stupid gimmicks as entertainment. So he was horribly out of shape and his gimmick was he was the real Elvis, and kept eating peanut butter sandwiches while missing moves. He beat Shark Boy, who has gotten over every time I’ve ever seen him except in TNA

Jeff - what in the hell is this?

Also coming into the company was Erik Watts - where did the idea for Erik coming in come from?

From the Observer

Bob Armstrong quit the promotion because he asked for a raise from $300 a show to $350 and was turned down. Brian (B.G. James) and Scott may have also quit, but it wasn’t related to that. They were at the show on 2/19, but walked out together in the afternoon and went home

What do you remember of all the Armstrongs leaving?

From the Torch:

“TNA officials are growing increasingly frustrated with the way cable companies are treating the product as second–rate compared to other wrestling pay–per–view events. Because TNA is priced at $9.95, a number of cable company officials have been overlooking it in favor of other PPVs, such as the recent World Wrestling All–Stars PPV, which was priced at $19.95.

Apparently, these cable companies don’t realize that TNA is weekly programming, and are simply looking at the amount being charged when they decide which events to dedicate commercial time to. “Every day this thing survives is a step closer to this working because the cable companies will have to catch up eventually,” one TNA official says. Meanwhile, the company is more satisfied with the way DirecTV has been marketing the events.”

How frustrating was the business end of things for you at this point?

It’s pointed out in the Torch that you & Borash went to the Mike Tyson fight in Memphis on February 22nd and you were seated near Jay-Z. How was the fight?

It’s reported that Jimmy Yang was sent home because he refused to sign a one-night contract, because he thought it had a no-compete in the contract. Was this something that changed after the Zach Gowen situation?

As March begins it’s almost like faction warfare in TNA. Debuting was Erik Watts to form a stable with Brian Lawler & David Flair - the disgruntled sons of wrestling legends, the ex-ECW crew of Sandman, Simon Diamond & Johnny Swinger, Russo’s SEX, and the people defending the NWA. This…is quite interesting. Just too much talent at the time?

From the Torch

Main event on the show with Vader & Dusty Rhodes over Ron & Don Harris went 5:41 to a DQ finish. Rhodes juiced and sold, setting Vader up for the hot tag. Rhodes, who is 57, is physically broken down and moves very slow. That’s been hidden in previous bouts since he just tags in for the finish. He’s still the most over wrestler in the building except for maybe Jeff Jarrett, but they build the whole show around Jarrett and he’s a home town boy.

It made no sense to put the two legends together and not give them a pinfall, but the Twins are Jeff’s friends and the feeling was that since they lost to Chris Harris & James Storm the previous week, they didn’t want them losing via pinfall two straight weeks.

To make up for the DQ, they had Dusty whip Desire with a belt after Sonny Siaki ran into his elbow. Nikita Koloff also appeared, and took an elbow from Dusty so he took his first bump in something like 12 years. They did note the trivia that Koloff’s last pro match was against Vader (he suffered a hernia in the match, collected on his Lloyd’s of London total disability policy, legally changed his name to Nikita Koloff, and has worked in the religion business ever since).

Is that how it all went down? You wanted to protect the Harris Boys against Vader & Dusty?

There was a scheduled tag match for the show with XXX vs. Harris & Storm that didn’t happen because Christopher Daniels was in Louisville at the OVW camp for the WWE and Low Ki was in Japan for Zero-One. Were you surprised to hear Daniels was at the OVW camp?

It had to be frustrating dealing with all the undercard guys who had outside deals - as Paul London comes in - gets kind of over - and then he has to go for 3 weeks to Zero One. Who was in charge of keeping all this on hand so that you knew who was free when they were free?

From the Observer

For an estimated look at how the company is doing, the weekly expenses have been cut down to $80,000 per week on the shows. If they are doing 7,000 to 10,000 buys, being nice, they are taking in $40,000 a week, plus let’s be nice and add another $16,000 per month coming from Australia and a few thousand at the live gate.

So weekly losses are probably ranging from $30,000 to $45,000 per week. The key thing is that contractually with InDemand, if they don’t continue through June and fulfill their one-year deal, they will be docked 13 weeks of payment, which is probably in the $500,000 range. Now they will likely lose more than that if they were to shut down today and things don’t change, but once they get to the 3/12 show, it becomes in their financial best interest to at least continue through June because they’d be losing more by shutting down

Are those numbers accurate Jeff? Losing $30,000-$45,000 per week?

“In a pretaped segment, Tenay interviewed Vince Russo at a desk. Russo announced he was retiring because wrestling took too big of a toll on his family—life. He said between WCW and now having to deal with Jerry Jarrett, he can't handle it anymore. "I'm 41 years old and I look at a guy like Curt Hennig," he said. "I don't want to not be here tomorrow and have lost all my time with my kids. This is not an angle. This is me doing the right thing, stepping up to the plate, and living up to my role as a father."

When you use Curt in this - and then the week before you had a video of Russo’s son…is it all too much?

Raven defeats Sandman in a Clockwork Orange match when he throws Sandman off the rafters through six tables and then calls you out. You come out - Styles comes out and jumps you but hits Raven by mistake.

Then Erik Watts comes out, Brian Lawler and David Flair and it’s a beat down on you but the real story is what took place with a fan.

The story is that Sandman accidently knocked the “Raven’s Nest” sign on top of a young fan during the brawl and really cut him open - and supposedly Sandman felt really bad about it. What were the potential repercussions with this?

From the Torch

During an interview on the “No Holds Barred” radio show, Jeff Jarrett said he has spoken with promoters in Eastern Canada, Texas, and Arkansas about the possibility of running house shows in those markets. Jarrett also said he is interested in finding a television deal, but won’t commit to one until the time is right. What Jarrett probably meant but couldn’t say is that he would love to move the show to cable television and run monthly pay–per–views, but he’s been unable to find a deal that won’t cost the company millions of dollars in programming fees…

Is that what you meant to say?

Although TNA officials have been boasting about turning away fans at the Nashville Fairgrounds for their pay–per–view events, the company is still handing out stacks of comp tickets. “They are everywhere,” one wrestler said. “You go to a gas station and there will be piles of free tickets just sitting on the counter for the taking”…

I mean you had to do this but was there any worry about too many freebies? How many were you really selling a week?

D’Lo Brown makes his debut with a promo - were you just taking everyone released by the WWE at this point?

But seriously…there was a lot of potential for D’Lo in the company was there not?

From the Torch

Dusty Rhodes walked to the ring and said Jerry Jarrett asked him to speak about the new generation of wrestlers, the “Sons of Famous Daddies.” He asked David Flair, Brian Lawler, and Erik Watts to come to the ring. Flair and Lawler came out. Dusty told David that he once called his father an “asshole.” He said David is like his father in one way, because he too is now an “asshole.” As Dusty talked to Lawler, Lawler returned fire with some hilarious facial expressions. He said Lawler is an embarrassment to his family by always acting like a fool. Lawler took off his ring jacket. Dusty warned him “not to get naked on me.” Lawler celebrated, though, when Dusty patronized him by saying he could be really good. Lawler asked him to give him five. Dusty then slapped him . He threw a series of bionic elbows at Flair and Lawler, but they soon double-teamed him. D-Lo made the save. Erik Watts then came out and attacked Dusty as Lawler and Flair beat up D-Lo. Jeff “Von Erich” charged the ring and cleared it of the heels single-handedly and stood side-by-side with D-Lo “Parsons” and Dusty “Adidas.”

It tickled me to hear Wade call you Jeff Von Erich - but this is straight out of Texas isn’t it?

Also from the Torch

Hacksaw Duggan pinned Mike Sanders at 6:01. Sanders’s eyes bulged out when he saw his “enhancement talent opponent” was Duggan. West popped out of his chair and acted like the biggest Hacksaw Duggan mark in history.

How good is this?

In the main event Raven and AJ were in the main event - with you at ringside. How good was Raven in helping elevate AJ?

From the Torch

Jarrett got involved at ringside, punching Raven and then Styles when both got in his face. Security came out to try to keep Jarrett away from the action. Styles came off the top rope with a dropkick aimed at Raven, but Raven moved and the ref took it square on the chin. A second ref came. Raven splashed that ref in the corner when Styles moved out of his path. Styles gave Raven the Styles Clash and the original ref made a groggy two count. Styles threw a jump roundhouse kick at Raven, but Raven simultaneously gave Styles a chairshot. Both fell onto their backs with their arms draped over each other. Both refs counted three at the same time on both men. Jarrett from the rampway asked, “Who won?” as the show went off the air. Bad finish for a PPV. (***)

Was it a bad finish for a PPV? Would it had been easier on TV to get away with this?

Also on that show…there’s a brawl between Lolly Pop and Holly Wood…and you know where I’m going with this Jeff.

Lolly Pop has her top ripped off by Holly Wood - and they keep going and no one covers them up. The Torch would report that the company had long talked about exposing breasts on one of their events and well…it happened.

Jeff - was it planned? How did this come to be? Was there any blowback? Do you regret it? What was your dad’s reaction?

Russo was still working backstage after his “retirement” but that he didn’t want to be on camera as a character any longer. What was the real plan behind this? Were you trying to work all the boys?

From the Torch

Chris Sobol, who was placed in charge of the company by Panda Energy, was relieved of his duties recently. Not only was he removed from overseeing TNA’s day to day business operation, but he is no longer working for Panda. Dixie Carter, the daughter of the owners, has unofficially assumed Sobol’s old position.

The Jarrett family is thrilled with the move as they often butted heads with Sobol over budget matters…

Jeff - what can you tell us about Chris Sobol? Why was he fired? How did this all come to be?

The next week would feature Duggan being back and teaming with Moondog Spot to defeat Glen Gilberti & Mike Sanders. Moondog Spot - chat me up Jeff.

Also that week you would team with D’Lo & Dusty to beat the sons of Flair, Watts & Lawler - and after the match Ron Killings would turn heel on you. Did you think he was your next big contender?

Raven and AJ were in the main event ladder match and Raven would get the win to earn the NWA Title match - but there’s a bigger issue after…

From the Torch

Raven spent the night in an Atlanta emergency room following his match against A.J. Styles last week. Raven drove back to Atlanta after the show, but immediately sought medical treatment at a local emergency room for a pair of cuts on his head. The first cut was actually a self–inflicted cut from a blade, which Raven used during his first match with Styles on Mar. 12. Raven cut himself so deep that the cut wouldn’t close, which caused him to bleed excessively during recent indy appearances. Because the cut won’t close, Raven will need to see a plastic surgeon to cosmetically repair it. The second cut opened during the Mar. 19 match when Styles hit Raven with the handle side of a trash can cover, which opened a hard–way cut on the top of Raven’s head. TNA color commentator Don West actually pointed out that Styles was using the handle side of the trash can cover during the broadcast. Raven is not expected to miss any ring time because of the cuts.

How bad was this on Raven’s side of things?

From the Torch

TNA officials are boasting that the pay–per–view buyrates have been increasing based on the early returns from DirecTV. The Mar. 12 show was the highest drawing TNA event to date, and at least the DirecTV numbers are said to be encouraging. Because of the lengthy InDemand pay–per–view process, TNA officials have little idea how they are doing on cable…

How happy are you when you get these numbers from DirecTV?

Well the March 19th show is killed when President Bush’s time limit on Saddam Hussein to leave Iraq expired and the news was heavily featured that night. Why did it have to be Wednesday Jeff?

From the Torch

Vince Russo continues to produce backstage vignettes and offer his booking suggestions despite not appearing on television. The actual creative process is said to involve Jeff Jarrett meeting with Russo on Mondays. Russo takes his own ideas to Jarrett, along with the ideas given to him by Raven, Glen Gilbertti, and Mike Sanders during their weekly car ride from Atlanta to Nashville. Jeff takes the ideas and formulates a basic show, which company officials still maintain is written by Jerry Jarrett, although the same TNA officials now admit that Jeff has the final say on all booking matters. Jarrett also listens to the advice of those who sit in on the production meetings on Wednesdays, as he has been known to make changes in the script just hours before the show…

Was that the creative process at that point in time?

The final pay-per-view of March would feature a sitdown interview aired with Mike Tenay and Jeff Jarrett. Tenay said they were taping the interview in the afternoon because Jarrett had a charity appearance that would prevent him from being at the live event. Jarrett talked about various title challengers including D-Lo, David Flair, Erik Watts, and A.J. Styles. He dismissed each of them rather flippantly. When it came to Vince Russo, though, Jarrett got emotional...

Was this the story you were going for?

From the Torch

Erik Watts stood in the ring with Brian Lawler and David Flair. He said he just wanted to be Jeff's friend, at which point the lights went out. When they came back on, Jarrett hit Watts with a chair. The charity event must've ended early. Lawler, when the lights came on, was cowering in the corner as if he were scared to death of being in darkness. Funny. Jarrett then cut a promo on Killings, Gilbertti, Raven, and Styles. D-Lo then came out and asked for his title shot. Gilbertti came out and offered D-Lo a chance to join SEX in exchange for a title shot (somehow he tried to explain that Raven becoming no. 1 contender gave him power to dictate who gets a title shot before Raven). D-Lo accepted.

D’Lo in SEX - didn’t really work did it?

Were you excited to work with D’Lo?

Dusty Rhodes beat David Flair at 2:25 after a cowbell shot. Lawler attacked Dusty and took back the NWA Title belt David had "stolen from his dad." (* 1/4)

Who’s NWA title belt was this? Where did it come from?

Perry Saturn comes in to debut to be alongside the New Church and Sandman to take on XXX & the Harris Brothers. Why Perry here?

After the match Ron Killings and the debuting Mabel comes in. It’s so many people coming in - did any of them have an impact?

From the Torch

Jeremy Borash claimed in his weekly column that the company wouldn't stray from its weekly pay per view format even if a cable television deal comes along. "Doors are opening for TNA to get a cable television spot on a weekly basis," Borash wrote in his Mar. 28 website commentary. "Just to squash any rumors or speculation (because this is far from being a done deal), the show, like any other wrestling show today, would be used to help build to our PPV events. This show would also be used as a revenue generating venture... For this to actually happen, it would have to make complete business sense, as we do not have a business model that requires this as the basis for our existence."

The word going around in cable industry circles is that TNA has been talking with Fox Sports Network about a potential television deal. There was also some talk at one point about discussions between TNA and the WB Network, although the company has not confirmed or denied those rumors. Despite Borash's claim, one cable industry analyst feels that if TNA were to score the right deal with a prominent cable network, they would abandon their PPV—only approach as quickly as contractually possible in favor of a traditional monthly PPV approach and house show tours.

Did that ever enter your mind - that TV would build to the PPVs and still it would be two weekly shows?

From the Torch

D-Lo Brown and Don Harris needed stitches after taking chairshots from Jeff Jarrett at the end of the pay per view. One observer said it appeared that D-Lo lowered his head at the last second, causing him to take the chairshot on top of his head. Wrestlers are taught to take chair shots on their foreheads, as if they were heading a soccer ball. One backstage witness says Jarrett was so concerned that D-Lo had suffered a serious injury that he had a trainer standing by to treat D-Lo. Once D-Lo returned backstage, he looked at Jarrett with a straight face and said, "Well, now I'm upset." After he had everyone's attention, D-Lo added, "I'm just pissed that my white shirt got messed up," which drew laughs from everyone in the area. Jarrett vs. D-Lo is being advertised for the main event of the Apr. 2

You had that relationship with D’Lo to where you were worried about him right?

Mike "Bart Gunn" Barton was backstage at the show and turned off a number of wrestlers with his "arrogance." Apparently, Barton only said hello to a few of the wrestlers, which others took as a sign of him thinking he's too good to talk to everyone...

Is that something you remember?

Jeff - this time period - was this the most successful the company had been since the launch? What do you attribute that to?