Jeff Jarrett recently participated in an interview with RVA Magazine while promoting this weekend’s GFW live event in Richmond, Virginia.When will GFW Amped air; are they close to a TV deal?
We are making moves. It’s been a real challenge for us to line up a domestic situation as well as international deals. I’m heading over to London in a couple of weeks to further those moves. The first set of tapings were great. We got plenty of one hour episodes and we’ve got the crowning of the champions in October. With that and the Grand Slam tour as well, it’s been no rest for the weary, but it’s exciting time in the still the very early days of Global Force Wrestling.
Can GFW compete with the rest of the competition in today’s wrestling world?
People say to me, “Jeff, you came out just with the name of the company and then went step by step” and it’s because I realized back then that creating brand awareness is always at the top of priorities. WWE is north of 90% in the marketplace. Put NXT under that umbrella and they’re by far the leader for wrestling. Then you got Ring Of Honor, TNA, Lucha Underground. You’ve got several alternatives and Global Force is taken the necessary steps to get there. Patience has never been in my DNA, but you got to take it one step at a time to create that. We’re looking to break in and have a very diverse style of wrestling and style of wrestlers.
Is there any hesitation to work with TNA after how things went the last time?
You know, it’s a business. My family’s been in this business for over 70 years so I’ve seen a lot of situations where you’d say those folks would never work together again and they did. Business is business and when it’s a win-win-win–a win for our promotion, a win for their promotion, and more importantly, a win for the wrestling fans–it’s really hard not to do a deal. So we put a lot of things in the past and in our rear view mirrors on both sides and moved forward. It’s a pretty exciting time. All the positive momentum that’s coming from the working relationship between TNA and GFW is just a great thing.
How is the relationship with New Japan; is it stronger now?
Definitely. Those guys are great. Obviously, we had a very rewarding and great experience with Wrestle Kingdom 9. It was a great way to really kick off that relationship. New Japan came out a couple of weeks ago and sort of released their new – well not new, but they broadcasted that they’re working with us and Ring Of Honor and independent promotions in the UK. I think that’s very, very healthy. That’s certainly what I set out to do from day one. Have handshake agreements, working relations, working agreements – at GFW, we want to bring so many different styles under one umbrella and connect the fan bases so it’s a win for the wrestling fan for sure.
