TNA Impact Wrestling Is No More: Jeff Jarrett Rebrands Company As Global Force Wrestling
This Sunday night, Impact Wrestling will hold their annual Slammiversary pay-per-event and the company has made a huge announcement concerning the show. Once Slammiversary ends, Impact Wrestling will cease to exist. Immediately after the show, the company will officially change their name to Global Force Wrestling and rebrand the entire company.
Jeff Jarrett spoke to The Tennessean about the move and revealed what happened to lead to this. When Anthem Sports bought TNA Impact Wrestling from Dixie Carter, they eliminated the TNA from the name and then brought back Jeff Jarrett, who was let go by Carter.
Jeff Jarrett Retakes Control Of Impact Wrestling
Jeff Jarrett founded TNA Impact Wrestling 15 years ago and built it into a legitimate secondary professional wrestling company behind only the WWE. When Dixie Carter took control, she tried to push it to a bigger level and failed. At this point, there are some who might argue that Ring of Honor has surpassed Impact Wrestling when it comes to importance in the American wrestling scene.
When Dixie Carter finally pushed Jeff Jarrett out of the company he created, he tried to start his own company called Global Force Wrestling. He brought in some former Impact Wrestling stars like Sonjay Dutt and Magnus and created his own titles. Jarrett ran small shows, but struggled to find a TV deal.
When Anthem Sports took over Impact Wrestling and brought back Jeff Jarrett, he himself brought back legends like Dutch Mantel (Zeb Colter from the WWE) and Bruce Pritchard (Brother Love from the WWE) to work with him on creative and then pulled off a huge move this past week.
Jeff Jarrett said that Anthem Sports bought Global Force Wrestling from him earlier this week. The plan following Slammiversary is to use the name Global Force Wrestling (GFW) going forward, effectively killing the TNA Impact Wrestling brand after 15 years.
According to Impact Wrestling president Ed Nordholm, the original move to eliminate the name TNA was due to concerns over its sexual connotations. He then said that the Impact Wrestling name was damaged over the years due to negative media attention.
The Rise of Global Force Wrestling
While Jeff Jarrett couldn’t get a TV deal for Global Force Wrestling, there is already a deal in place for Impact Wrestling and the show will just change names starting next week with no other changes. The titles from the two companies will merge at Slammiversary.
Jeff Jarrett also said that changing the name from Impact Wrestling to Global Force Wrestling is also about creating the awareness that they are a global brand, with partnerships in Mexico, Japan, India, the U.K., and other countries. The company is also working on a streaming on-demand service similar to the WWE Network.
[Featured Image by WWE]
