Former WCW and WWE star Shane Helms spoke with Ryan Satin on the Pro Wrestling Sheet podcast to discuss leaving GFW (formerly TNA/Impact Wrestling) in a role as a backstage agent and why he wasn’t a fan of Jeff Jarrett’s creative pitches.
Why he left GFW:
“I think the technical term is bovine defecation. The street term is bullshit. Of course, financial played a part into it. But the reason there were too many agents or producers is because he brought in his buddies who aren’t qualified to be there. So if you hadn’t brought in unqualified people to put into those positions the situation would never have arisen. I caught some residual heat when the contractual situation with Anthem and the Hardys broke down. I got text messages asking me what did I know. Just a lot weird, angry texts and very unprofessional and inappropriate texts to me. To the point where there had to be a phone call made and then I had to get loud. I’m not putting up with this. And having to tell Jeff, ‘You’re not going to talk to me in-person like you’re talking to me on this phone. At least you better not.’ My reputation for how I handle myself in the business is kind of well-known. Then he seemed to calm down. When we got to TV it was kind of like, ‘Is everything cool?’ And he assured me it was and nothing was going to happen and whatever residual heat that was there wasn’t there. But even when I met Ed (Nordholm) the next time there was some kind of weird standoffishness towards him.”
On Anthem and GFW claiming the “Broken” trademark with The Hardys:
“Creatively, especially in the initial launch, it was a hundred percent Matt. Jeff started helping, and of course Jeremy Borash helped them with his part of it. People that got involved, we all chipped in a little bit. I was making airport runs to go pick up talent. I booked Hornswoggle for the thing. I facilitated his booking. That’s not my job to do, I don’t get paid to do that. But I was doing it to help out. There were so many people that were chiming in because Impact didn’t have the money and the financial backing to do it so we all chipped in. So there’s a lot of really personal pride that’s attached to this. And Anthem had shit to do with it. And Jarrett, Jarrett don’t have a creative bone in his damn body.”
His issues with Jeff Jarrett’s early creative pitches:
“His first creative idea in Impact, to ‘Make Impact Great Again,’ was literally to steal a slogan from Donald Trump. That was his first creative idea. The first one (while) he was there. And I was like, ‘Well number one that’s not creative at all. Number two, do you realize half the country hates this guy?’ And that’s why they took off the ‘Again’ part to say ‘Make Impact Great.’ Okay, we’ll change it up a little bit and nobody will know the difference. But that was literally his first creative idea was to steal somebody else’s slogan.”
Source: Prowrestling.net