Jeff Jarrett has made the bold claim that the brand of IMPACT Wrestling is “incredibly tainted” due to the promotion’s troubles prior to being acquired by Anthem.
The now-AEW star made a brief return to IMPACT back in 2017 as an executive behind the scenes. Jarrett didn’t last long however, taking an “indefinite leave of absence” just 8 months after his return and leaving the promotion entirely just one month later.
On the latest edition of his My World podcast, Jeff Jarrett discussed his return and explained why he heavily advocated for the promotion to rebrand. Jarrett claims that the brand of IMPACT, even today, is “tainted” and felt that a new name was needed to detach the identity of the brand from its troubles between 2013 and 2016.
“I believe the brand of Impact, that name is tainted forever. Hence, tying into this episode, that’s why when I sat down with Ed Nordam and I’m saying, ‘Hey, I’ve got Global Force and you’re calling me and what do you wanna do?’ I said, ‘I truly believe’ — and look, I was at the Holiday Inn Vanderbilt when we got down to the nitty-gritty and they said, ‘We have to have the name of the television show at Fox Sports Nets. We’ve gotta start.’ Okay, guys, creative room, let’s all get together.’ We probably had 20, 30 names, whatever it may be. But I said, ‘Ed, I was there when Impact was named. So I’ve got an affinity to this. It’s not that I’m vehemently opposed. And on the flip side, yeah I’ve got money invested in Global Force Wrestling. But throw all that out the door’.
Impact went through a terrible time from 2013 till 2016, 17. Lawsuits, not paying bills, the payables were a mess. AJ Styles is gone, all these different folks, and now this is kind of an entirely new roster as we’re talking about. [Alberto El] Patron and Bobby Lashley, and Eli Drake and Trevor Lee. We could go down this whole roster. I said, ‘We got a whole new roster. I think we need a name change. I believe that the brand is forever tainted. I don’t mean that outta disrespect, I don’t mean that [in] a ‘My way or the highway’ [way].’
I’m saying I believe Impact was a four letter word. Because the four letter word to TNA was X-division, AJ [Styles] and others, Kurt Angle. I mean, just whatever you wanna say in that brand. Then it went the other way, and I just think that entire fanbase it — I mean, look at the numbers. The death spiral happened, they spit in the face of every TNA fan. It eventually, had it not been for Anthem, it’d been out of business. So they bought an asset and a huge library.
But that brand, if you will, I believe [is] incredibly tainted. And that’s why I was so headstrong on, ‘Guys, we gotta rebrand. You gotta rename it.’ You know, car dealerships do it all the time. There are all kinds of things, people that do it, that when you get asset that’s tainted, you gotta give more than a fresh paint.”
Jeff Jarrett Was “Completely To Blame” For Return Of Divisive Gimmick
Suicide continues to be a divisive character for IMPACT fans, from its bizarre video game origins to its sporadic appearances in recent years.
Kaleb Konley, one of many to take on the role of Suicide underneath the mask, claims that Jeff Jarrett was “completely to blame” for the gimmick’s return in early 2017. However, he’s ultimately happy he got to portray the character as it allowed him to compete in countries like Australia, England and India as the character.