411’s Dark Side of The Ring Report: “Jeff Jarrett and The Battle for TNA – Part II”

-Written: 7.7.26
-Source: Vice

-Chris Jericho is our narrator once again!

-We discuss Dixie Carter as she is the President of TNA as Panda took financial control. Jeff says Dixie was the face of the company, but Jeff still had the most to lose. Minister calls her a money mark, who didn’t know shit about wrestling. Jim Cornette gives is a history lesson on what makes a money mark and I will piss my pants laughing if he mentions Tony Khan. He somehow resisted or they cut it out if he did. We get a graphic telling is Dixie declined to be interviewed. I can understand that.

-Jeff says the brand was picking up momentum in 2004-05 and then Kurt Angle has a falling out with the WWF. Old audio of Kurt saying he had nothing else to prove in WWE and saw this new company on the rise. Bob asked Jeff to sell him on Kurt Angle. That was easy obviously. Jeff says this was his way of handing off the baton as they had their guy.

-Kurt makes his debut in the ring with Samoa Joe and we get THE HEADBUTT HEARD ROUND THE (WRESTLING) WORLD. That was so awesome. Cornette: “Kurt Angle came in to beat the shit out of the whole world.” Kurt Angle in TNA was a different animal. Jeff puts over Kurt’s ability and how he identified the brand more than any other talent. They discuss the video game (I own that game and it was fine).

-Jeff says they had four distinct divisions and they mention before the women’s revolution in WWE there was the Knockouts Division. To be fair, WWE was doing some of that as well with Trish, Lita, etc, but then took a step back when they went to Divas. No fault of those women. We discuss Awesome Kong and she sums up what she did: “I throw bitches.” No lies! The KO had the highest rated segments and they couldn’t hide from that, so put them in the Main Event. Jeff wanted each division to have stars and be able to headline a show.

-Impact gets expanded to two hours and Jeff calls Cornette to come in as a producer. The ratings were doing well and they were a viable #2. Jeff says personally he was not doing well. He says he has hid times where his personal would hit highs while professional was low and vice versa. He talks about about being able to put on a mask and go to work. The talking heads mention Jeff didn’t take time off and never went through the grieving process. Jeff just wanted to keep working and didn’t know a power play was happening. He same fame doesn’t change people, it reveals people. Jeff says he had a video game call and was told he didn’t need to come as Dixie said she was taking his place. That caught Jeff off guard and he knew Dixie had begun her strategy.

-Commercials!

-Dixie is gaining more influence in TNA. Jim says Dixie wanted more people to recognize her. Scott D says Dixie was a woman in a male dominated profession. Matt Hardy and Awesome Kong seem to be Team Dixie as they loved her. It became Dixie crew vs. Jeff crew.

-TNA was now viewed as WWE’s main competition and we see a list of ex WWE guys coming into the company. Some were viewed as assets and others came in as a paid vacation (they show Kevin Nash). SHOTS FIRED! Sahadi tells the story of Dixie and Nash at a bar and Nash is pouring her wine because his contract was coming up. He was telling Dixie he couldn’t wait until their were #1 and could tell Vince off. Oh man, I can’t wait for Nash’s response.

-Scott D. says bringing in the ex WWE guys made the homegrown talent feel neglected. Kong says Angle was being paid over a million a year and felt he deserved more than that. She felt she deserved 1/10th of that and was being paid less than a manager at McDonald’s. They told her she had a point, but they could not pay her more. She says more than two KO Champions that had to moonlight in blue collar jobs. One had to work in a bar and she would be on TV and the customers would recognize her. Dixie was still hiring people as this was happening.

-Nobody was sure who was in charge. Awesome says they only thing she knew about Jeff was he carried a guitar and worked with Chyna, her hero. She didn’t even know Jeff started TNA. Dixie apparently had issues with Scott D calling JJ, “boss.” Russo says there was no jealousy or fighting when it was him, Jeff, and Dutch. Dixie started throwing ideas for creative and Jeff started giving her the attitude of she didn’t know anything about wrestling and needs to be quiet.

-Russo says he and Dutch were in the middle of the Jeff/Dixie problems. Scott D says Russo became a lightning rod and took the blame for things. We see the casket being lowered in the ring as the crowd chants, “Fire Russo.” The man just admitted he wanted a midget masturbating in a garbage can, so I agree with the fans. Russo says his critics can blow him.

-Karen Angle was Kurt Angle’s wife. Russo said there was parties after the shows and Jeff and Karen were there while Kurt wasn’t. Everyone wondered what was happening and the perception was it was an affair. That is a no-no as office mixed with personal. Kong says Karen doesn’t hide anything and she will tell you.

-That brings Karen Angle, who is going to talk about it for the first time. I met Karen once briefly at a TNA House Show in Chesswick, PA and she was very nice. She was watching the show in the seat in front of me and my cousin. She dropped something and didn’t realize it, so we tapped her on the shoulder and handed it to her. She thanked us and as the show ended told us she hoped we had a good time and to have a good night. She is also a Western PA girl. Graduate of Hempfield High School in Greensburg, PA. Hempfield Spartans!

-Commercials!

-Karen says she is the wife of Jeff Jarrett and that her and Kurt were legally separated in 2006. She was pregnant and living in a townhouse with her daughter. She had to pretend they were the perfect family so he could get to TNA. She thought he would get his life on track, but that wasn’t the reality. Cornette says Kurt wasn’t a rock star wanting to get high. It was due to breaking his neck and the years of killing himself in pro-wrestling. He would be covered in ice packs and then when the red light hit, he was flipping off the stage onto Abyss. PERC ANGLE! Karen was there to get Jeff through each show. Russo says Kurt wanted to get Karen on the show.

-Karen says she has no idea how they convinced her to get on camera. She says she let a lot of frustration out. The idea was that if Karen was there, she could keep Kurt straight. She tried but became angry and resentful. She can assure us that Jeff, Dixie, and Russo all knew the reality of the marriage. Jeff offered scripture to Karen and that was the first conversation they had. “They don’t make men like this.” Jeff says Karen went home and started the divorce ball rolling. Months later she messaged Jeff and she says she wasn’t looking for anything, but just wanted to live. They became friends and when Jeff saw Kurt dating others, he wanted to see where things would go with him and Karen.

-Commercials!

-Karen says it was never an affair. It was two people falling in love and bettering their lives. Jeff says he was a lucky man and got to fall in love twice. He says the sneaking around nonsense was ever in the equation. Everyone knew including Kurt and the creative team. Then there’s Dixie Carter. She was the only one that didn’t know and thinks Dixie was embarrassed. Jeff invited Dixie to a party and that’s where she learned Jeff and Karen were together. Jeff thought she was happy for them. Dixie calls Russo and “cuts a hellacious promo on me.” Russo says Dixie was looking for a reason to fire Jeff.

-The word of what happened gets leaked to the sheets and we get someone calling Bubba The Love Sponge in 2009. The caller says Karen is living with Jeff and Dixie is upset. That’s kind of wild as I missed that. Jeff says he gave Dixie the rope and she snatched it. Karen: “She nuked his whole fucking life.” Jeff was given documents from Panda that had him removed as EVP, Head of Creative and the lawyers calls to say he is being sent home with pay. We get the footage of Dixie explaining it was a personal situation that put all of them in a tough situation. Jeff says it didn’t have to happen, but “that’s what ego will do.” They wondered what would happen to TNA without the heat and soul of the company.

-Commercials!

-Jeff was still a major stakeholder, but was frozen out of the day to day operations. Karen says he was crushed as it was his whole life in the company he started. Karen says she still feels responsible. She told him they needed to end it, but he told her absolutely not. He had already thought all that through and their relationship only became stronger. She says her husband risked everything to be with her.

-Jarrett says from Summer 2002 until Sept 2009, those were his vision of TNA. He says the most successful ratings run for TNA was Jan 2009 until September. I think the highest rated show ever is still the first Monday Night episode in Jan of 2010.

-Dixie gave full creative power to Vince Russo and fired Dutch Mantell. Russo had nobody to govern him and D-Lo Brown says Russo would have 5 minutes of wrestling in a show if he could. Cornette gets to rail on Russo some more which is always entertaining. Russo says Cornette doesn’t understand this is a TV show and not a house show in Louisville. Cornette gets fired. “What the fuck did I do?” The producer asks Cornette if he ever made a terroristic threat towards Russo. Cornette: “It depends how you define terroristic.” Russo says the letter had “if I could kill Vince Russo and get away with it, I would.” Russo is stunned someone would do that over wrestling. I think Cornette recently read the letter he wrote to Dixie on his podcast. They can do a whole show just with Russo and Cornette and I would be so happy to watch.

-Jeff says he got a call that Dixie wanted him to go to Tampa to meet with Hulk Hogan. He thinks she needed Jeff because she didn’t have the confidence. Jeff says Dixie never wanted her out of TNA, but she wanted Jeff to work for her. Karen says Jeff is an optimist and he had support three daughters so he grabbed the carrot she dangled.

-Commercials!

-Part III is next week! Russo saying Hogan was doing what’s best for him and not TNA is hilarious!

-Dixie and Jeff get on a plane and fly to Tampa. Hogan is there and so is Eric Bischoff. Eric is here as a talking head and says he didn’t have a lot of high hopes. He says he only met with Dixie because of Hulk Hogan. He saw parallels between TNA and WCW in 1994. He thinks Dixie would rather not deal with Eric, but Hogan had his group that he trusted. Hogan also had beef with Russo, which was covered by Dark Side. Hogan wanted Bischoff to keep Russo away. Eric calls Russo a fraud. Dixie really wanted Hulk. Jeff says he worked with Eric and knew Hulk for 25-30 years. He knew Hogan didn’t know anything about TNA, but knew Hogan could help as a mouthpiece for the brand. Anything else to him it would be a loss. Eric could tell there was a strained relationship between Dixie and Jeff. Eric got the feeling that Dixie was in charge.

-Jeff says bringing in Eric and Hogan meant the end of his time in TNA. He says Dixie was nervous because she knows that he knows what she did. He knows what she did to him and what she did to his three girls. Karen says Jeff was used for a meeting and then sent back home.

-We see footage from the press conference with Eric, Hogan, and Dixie. Sinister Minister thought it was going to be a disaster and that Dixie was being manipulated by master carnies. Karen says Russo and Jeff protected Dixie from herself for years.

-Preview for next time. Russo: “Eric is dead to me.” We also get into Jeff’s personal issues with alcoholism.

-As noted in the last part, I will have final thoughts at the end of next week’s part III. Thanks for reading!