Jeff Jarrett Has No Regrets Over How He Booked Himself in TNA: ‘Our Track Record Speaks for Itself’

AEW’s Jeff Jarrett recently sat down with Insight with Chris Van Vliet to discuss his career, his time running TNA Wrestling, as the promotion’s history will be featured on Dark Side of the Ring Season 7, and more. During the conversation, Van Vliet asked if Jarrett had any regrets over how he booked himself in TNA, which was a recurring point of criticism during the promotion’s earlier years.

Jarrett said he had none, adding, “Our track record speaks for itself.” Additionally, Jarrett claimed that the notion that he was making himself become the champion for his own personal glory is laughable, as his money and business were also at stake. Below are some highlights from Insight:

On If He Thinks He’s Misunderstood

“You know, one of the things in sobriety that you really have to drill down on is that I can’t control how other people perceive me, whether they understand me or not. But I will say this: my podcast partner, Conrad Thompson, who obviously I’ve done a podcast every week for five years. When he first approached me, he said, ‘Jeff, you are the most misunderstood wrestling personality I believe in the history of the business.’ That kind of hit me, that’s interesting. For better or worse, I see the wrestling business, or I see life, through Jeff’s eyes, obviously, but the misunderstood part kind of struck me, in that I can see where Conrad, or you, or others would say that. It started before I went national and going to the WWF. In the territory days, there’s some folks that knew back then he’s the promoter’s kid, he’s got everything easy, if you talk to the ones that were really around, they would tell you different, and me and my father’s relationship paid for that, and he went out of his way. As I sit here today, I’m very grateful, but he made it a point to make it harder on me than any of the other boys, and I know now why, it was based on the promoter he worked for, Nick Gulas. Nick Gulas had a son named George, and Nick gave his son George any and everything he wanted, and kind of saw how that wasn’t good for George, and certainly wasn’t good for the promotion. So that’s part of me being misunderstood started kind of from day one, and so it’s a part of my makeup that I just know you got to roll with it, and it is what it is.”

Jeff Jarrett on Whether He Has Any Regrets Over How He Booked Himself in TNA

“None. My track record, I’ll say this: our track record speaks for itself. We went from a Wednesday night pay-per-view only, to Fox Sports Net, to one hour on a Saturday night off prime on Spike TV, to a one hour on Thursday nights off prime, to a one hour prime time, to a two hour of prime time under my leadership. So during that build, and this is what Conrad always gets fascinated by, like, the numbers and the budgets that we worked under. We worked under shoestring budgets. Whether it’s a Conrad Thompson or a Jim Cornette or Dutch or others that work in the middle of it, they understood that the only person that I can guarantee will not walk out and go to the WWE is myself. Also, my philosophy in booking is the babyface chase. I think you have to look at the landscape, and WWE has always had, for the most part, that babyface champion, a touring champion that’s a babyface. I didn’t necessarily think that it fit our model. We had four distinct divisions, and I wanted a heel champion where the babyfaces were chasing, namely an AJ Styles, as we were developing talent.”

On the Balance of Being Part Owner of the Company and Being the Top Guy, If He Booked Himself To Become Champion

“That is something that internally, even Dixie weighed in as we got going along in that I would always stop folks when it really got into a discussion, Dutch Mantel, Vince Russo, Jeremy Borash, Scott D’Amore, folks that were in the room, they were well aware. But when I had to really have that conversation when I knew that it probably needed to be said, I would look at somebody and say, Do you really think that Jeff Jarrett, who has the most money at risk, is going to make a decision based on ego rather than dollars and cents? My money’s at stake. I’m the single largest shareholder of the promotion. I have a fiduciary responsibility to my investors. It was such nonsense and the thought process that he is making himself champion for glory is laughable, especially me being a third-generation guy, and being around the business since a little kid, and it was always so laughable. But again it was something I couldn’t control, so it was what it was.”

Jeff Jarrett resigned from TNA in late 2013. He would briefly return to the promotion in 2017. However, TNA (formerly Impact Wrestling) and parent company Anthem Sports & Entertainment would sever ties later that year.

After being cancelled by multiple networks, undergoing a change in ownership to Anthem, and being rebranded as Impact Wrestling for several years, the TNA Wrestling name was restored in January 2024. TNA iMPACT!, which originally debuted in June 2004 on Fox Sports Net, still airs to this day on AMC and AMC+.

Jarrett currently works in AEW as an on-air talent.