Jeff Jarrett took part in a conference call with media on Wednesday afternoon. Jarrett, whose official title is now Chief Creative Officer with Anthem and GFW, addressed a series of topics including the suspension of GFW Champion Alberto El Patron, the transition to Global Force Wrestling, Bound for Glory this year and more.
Here are some highlights courtesy of Sean Ross Sapp at Fightful.com.
* Ross Forman, who is back working with the company, noted on the call that no questions were to be asked about Alberto El Patron and his suspension from the company.
* Jarrett described the situation with Patron as “unfortunate” and that there is never a right or wrong decision to make in cases like this one.
* At one point a media member asked of Patron would be edited off upcoming episodes of Impact Wrestling on Pop TV. The media member was cut off and Jarrett said it would “damage the brand” to edit him out with all of the television filmed. Jarrett noted that he has been in “constant contact” with Patron’s representatives. He would not commit to any comments about stripping Patron of the championship at this time.
* Jarrett said 200 people are getting paychecks from GFW at the moment and was aware that the TNA name would be going away as far back as December. He made it clear the company’s name going forward would be GFW and that the weekly television show would be known as Impact. Jarrett said the transition will be step-by-step including new championship titles being revealed during a “live” episode in August.
* Regarding live events, Jarrett showed an interest in returning to the west coast. He emphasized pending deals with AAA to bring talent to the upcoming Northeast events.
* Jarrett noted the Impact Grand Championship would continue along with the X-Division, Knockouts, Tag Team and GFW Championship divisions.
* Bound for Glory will be taking place on November 5. A fanfest is planned for the day before on November 4. Orlando is likely to be the location.
* When asked about Matt and Jeff Hardy, Jarrett said he recently exchanged nice text messages with Jeff. He described the legal battle with The Hardys being an “intellectual property issue.” He noted that while lots of creative things took place involving The Hardys, David Lagana, Billy Corgan and Matt Conway, Anthem and GFW retain the rights and that “ownership lies with the publisher.”
* He described the releases of Al Snow and Shane Helms in roles as agents/producers as being strictly financial decisions.
* Jarrett said they are exploring PPV events outside of Orlando, but that it had to make sense financially for the company. He said they were looking at adding another live PPV event to the schedule starting with 2018.
* He said that retaining talent is a top priority for GFW. Jarrett also said they had a “long term deal” going forward with Pop TV. He talked about wanting to develop video games and action figures for the GFW brand.