Jeff Jarrett Recalls Having Talks About Bringing In Brock Lesnar To TNA

On the latest episode of My World With Jeff Jarrett, the WWE Hall of Famer talked about the rumor that Brock Lesnar was interested in joining TNA Wrestling in 2007. Jarrett confirmed the talks happened but revealed the two major factors that ultimately prevented the deal – Lesnar wanting to do MMA and the money he wanted. You can check out some highlights below:

On both Kurt Angle and Scott D’Amore approaching him and Dixie Carter about Brock Lesnar’s interest: “It was absolutely brought to me. I’m almost positive Scott brought it to me first. And then I think Scott took it to Dixie. Kurt came to me and to Dixie. And really gave it the hard sell and everything, Dixie came to me. And look, we had just started making a profit and all this kind of stuff. And I said, ‘Okay, Dixie. I mean, it’s great. I would absolutely love to have him. But I want you to make sure you’re hearing what you’re hearing. He’s still going to UFC. It ain’t either or it’s not an option.'”

On laying out the financial reality to Carter: “I know he was dead serious about this [MMA]. And Kurt giving me — and this is what Kurt won’t tell. And so look, we had just started making money. And I said, ‘Dixie, this is very simple to me. Hell, you don’t have to ask me once. I’d love to have Brock Lesnar. Do you think your dad is willing to stroke a check of seven figures?’ She just looked at me like, ‘You’re out of your freak [ing mind].’ I said, ‘Then what are we even talking about?’ And she goes, ‘I know.’

“And I’m like, ‘Look, by design, Kurt has committed–‘ And we had a lot of dates on Kurt. Kurt to his credit, all due respect — I mean, there’s nothing Kurt wouldn’t do. He dove in, worked his ass off. I think some of his very, very best matches of his entire career where in TNA. And he kept hard selling me and kept hard selling me, and Scott a little bit. And I said, ‘Hey, Kurt, here’s the reality. Are you willing to take a pay cut? If you want him this bad — and you know we have finite — are you willing to take a pay cut to get him in here?’ I never heard another freaking word about Brock Lesnar from that point forward.”

On Bob Carter’s reaction: “It’s the truth. Where are we gonna — Bob Carter, not only no. We just started making money; hell no!”

On whether Spike TV was willing to cover Lesnar’s cost: “Nope [they weren’t yet covering part of Sting’s contract], no. So, we’d have to really look at the months, but we — you know, the one hour on Saturday night, Conrad, was, ‘Hey, man, just prove yourself. Let’s see if you can do the deliverables.’ That’s a big part of getting a network to endorse you is, ‘Hey, they’re going to pay you. You got to deliver, what kind of number are you going to get?’ So that’s Saturday night off prime. And that’s why I just think people don’t really understand — look, it was a different time and a different place. AEW came on the air in prime time. It was a different landscape. You go back and look at Raw in the early days, they came on with a one-hour show, Monday Night Raw and they started kicking ass, kind of from day one. Same with Nitro, but they had had 30 years of NWA.

“We were a startup product, and they gave us a shot, thank God. But the timing of everything, we’ve talked about it ad nauseam. But that one hour on Saturday delivered, And immediately when they started seeing — I’m not saying show one, but, ‘Oh man, these guys can deliver.’ We went to Thursday nights, still not in prime. Kevin Kay — and I totally respect it, like, ‘Let’s see if they improve themselves.’ When we went into prime time, that’s when — I’m not saying we took a big exhale, but the conversations between me and Dallas and just in me and Dixie, it completely changed. Because I said, ‘Hey, we’re on the way now, we’re going to start creating that revenue to one hour to two hours.’ But it depends on the timeline here. I don’t even think we were at two hours. So anyway, I don’t know where you’re going with that, but we as a company, from ‘02, as you know, to ‘06, It was a straight up investment.”

On knowing what they were getting: “We knew it was a per-date deal. Like you said, kind of the drawing all this, we would have loved to have him. Kevin Kay would have loved to have had him, but we were still such a new and fresh product, and everything that went with it, in that man, hell yeah, he’d be a hell of an addition. But you know, this takes me back to the conversation — Conrad, the family, we were at The Rudder which is a restaurant on the lake. I had to take the call. I went up in the parking lot because there was lots of people in a restaurant and all that kind of stuff. Walked way up the parking lot talking to Bob Carter. And I’ll never forget the words, ‘Jeff, what do you think?’ I said, ‘Bob — Kurt, there’s nothing he can’t do. He can talk, he can work. He can be a good guy, he could be a bad guy. He can walk into business meetings and we can prep him, and he is going to become the face of the company.’

“And so I knew the kind of conversation that that had. And so in my mind, ‘Dixie, do you think?’ And she’s just like, ‘hell no. We’re just starting to make money.’ And in my mind, it’s a per-date deal, probably much more than Sting’s per-date deal at the time. It just wasn’t going to make sense mathematically. I remember the pitches, and I’m like, ‘Hey, if you’re so enamored with it…’ ‘Oh no, not that much.’”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit My World With Jeff Jarrett with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.