WWE Hall of Famer Jeff Jarrett recently shed light on why former WCW stars declined to join TNA, the precursor to Impact Wrestling, in 2003.
In an episode of his My World podcast, Jarrett revealed the reasons behind wrestler Bill Goldberg not having serious talks with TNA.
Was Goldberg Interested In TNA?
When Jarrett was asked if Goldberg had serious talks with TNA back in 2003, he said
“Not at this point. I think what Dixie had lunch with him several years later that I think you could classify on Dixie’s part for sure substantial. I don’t think on Bill’s part and it’s strictly about money. Barry Bloom repped him all these years. Bill made a lot of money at WCW he made a lot of money at WWE. That, you know, Bill’s a businessman first and foremost. So, I never viewed any of the conversations with Bill substantially strictly off of there isn’t enough money there for Bill to come.”
Jarrett also weighed in on whether he ever questioned using Vince Russo, or if it was ‘just wrestling’ when stars didn’t want to come to TNA.
“Essentially just wrestling a nice way to say it. But, in the fact that I think it would be an easy way for — and I’m just using Bill, or plug in any wrestler you want, ‘I’m not coming there.’ I mean, Sean Waltman had a good relationship with my father and he had issues with Vince Russo. So, was it really the money or did he really want to come or not want to come, or was it Vince? But I always looked at it as wrestling in 2002, 2003 we’re talking about,” said Jarrett.
“You know, Vince had his success at WWF and then we’ll say he didn’t have success at WCW. But who did have success at WCW? I was there in ’99, 2000 until the doors shut. So, if you want to put everything on Vince, that’s just not really a reality. Did he make some, I’ll call them mistakes, or flaws or maybe? Bad booking or bad angles, that happens all day, everyday in our industry because creative is subjective,” he added.
Jarrett also spoke about the challenges of bringing together different personalities in the industry, including Jim Cornette and Vince Russo.
“My delusional optimism sometimes was a blessing for me and also sometimes it was a curse. I think to this day sometimes I’m not sure which it was, but yeah those points were always in the back of my mind. Just the fact of getting Jim Cornette and Vince Russo to work together from time to time was maybe a challenge that I just said, ‘I’m gonna get this done one way or another because they’re both valuable to the industry’… I always saw the best, in my mind, out of everybody,” said Jarrett.
Although Goldberg signed with WWE in 2003, he lasted only a year with the company before leaving after WrestleMania XX. The WWE Hall of Famer didn’t return to the ring for 12 years, only rejoining WWE in 2016.
H/t to eWrestlingNews