Global Force Wrestling founder and promoter Jeff Jarrett recently spoke with Rolling Stone while promoting GFW.
Jarrett talks about what the company actually is, how they will treat storylines versus pure in-ring product, the roster makeup, and much more. You can read a few excerpts below:
Jeff Jarrett Talks Global Force Wrestling; what is Global Force Wrestling?
It is a professional wrestling organization that we’d like to think will be forward-thinking and innovative. We have formed alliances with other promotions around the world so we can share talent and bring in talent. Every wrestler has a story. They’ve started in some organization. Over the past 15 years, all the organizations have sort of sat on an island. They don’t interact at all. We look at it differently. We want other organizations to thrive. We want them to do as well as they can. It’s a win-win for wrestling if that’s the case. Thirty years ago, it wasn’t uncommon for different promotions to share talent. You would load up a big card with wrestlers from other territories. It is a professional wrestling organization, first and foremost.
What is going to set GFW apart from the rest of the wrestling programming (WWE,TNA,ROH,Lucha Underground) currently on TV?
The short answer is watch and see. I will say, though, that we want to truly focus on who these athletes are. The Bullet Club is legitimately the hottest faction in all of wrestling, and we’ll talk about how they’ve come up through New Japan and continued to grow in popularity. Karl Anderson has a great story behind him, so does Doc Gallows, he’s traveled the world. Chris Mordetzky [formerly Chris Masters] is one of the youngest guys ever signed by the WWE. Quite frankly, he’ll probably admit it; he wasn’t ready for it at the time. Now he’s spent three or four years overseas, and he’s ready to step into a Global Force ring and compete. PJ Black [Justin Gabriel], Lei’D Tapa, some wrestlers that maybe people haven’t heard of. Guys like Andrew Everett and Chuck Taylor, I could go on and on. All these guys are chomping at the bit to get on this bigger stage.
Jarrett on the roster; would he call it an ‘all-star’ lineup from other companies?
I wouldn’t necessarily say that. We’re going to have our core roster. We’ll also have opportunities for wrestlers from around the world to come in and showcase their talents. They could be local stars, they could be regional stars, they could be international stars. We’re going to give them an opportunity to get on the global stage. We’ll have our core roster though. We’ll have different matchups and different looks. As a wrestling fan, that excites me.
It is going to be different from the norm. A lot of people are having trouble understanding our mindset. It’s exciting to me though. One big thing is that we’re not really going to write stories, although that goes into professional wrestling. Instead, we’re going to document stories. Like I said, every wrestler has a story. Why does he want to be in this business? What makes him tick as a human being? What is he competing for? The short answer is that he’s competing to get the best bookings, he’s competing to get the best matches. Maybe he’s competing to sell the most T-shirts. There’s a real competition in this business and we want to bring that to the forefront.
