Dark Side of the Ring’s ‘Jeff Jarrett & The Battle for TNA’ parts 1 & 2 review

The seventh season of Vice’s Dark Side of the Ring debuted on Tuesday with a two-part episode focusing on Jeff Jarrett and his battle of TNA, hence the title of the episodes. Part three will debut next week.

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Per usual, the series was narrated by Chris Jericho who said, “The story of TNA is the story of a thousand ‘What ifs?’” 

There were lots of clips of the early days of TNA, interspersed with the commentary from the folks who will be providing their insights throughout the show. 

“That’s J-E-Double F…”

Jeff Jarrett identified himself as the founder of TNA Wrestling. His parents divorced when he was three years old and he lived with his mother most of the time. He started to spend his summers with his father, Memphis wrestling promotor Jerry Jarrett. At his father’s house, his bedroom was next to the office Jerry worked out of.  Lots of footage of Memphis while Jarrett and Jim Cornette went over the history of Memphis wrestling, going back to Jeff’s grandmother, Teeny. 

Jeff’s first job was running concessions for his grandmother. He made $300 and decided he liked the business. He did all the stuff every promotor’s kid did to learn the business like learning how to set up the ring, and being a referee. He was preparing to go back to school in the fall, but after an angle with Buddy Landell, he didn’t and became a star for the territory as a young, athletic babyface who could “sell his ass off” according to Cornette. 

Scott D’Amore and David Sahadi talked about Jeff Jarrett’s characters in the WWF, first as a country music singer in 1993 who spelled his name and then as a more pissed-off character in 1998. 

Two days after Jeff’s first wrestling match, he went on his first date with Jill, who would become his first wife. Jeff talked about taking care of his daughter while Jill went through her first bout of breast cancer. She recovered and he went back on the road. 

This was around the time that Jeff was working his tag team with Owen Hart which, of course, led to the his tragic death. Jarrett said Owen “died in a work accident.” They wheeled Owen past him in the back as he prepared to go out for the next match on the card. Cornette couldn’t understand how they didn’t stop the show, and Jarrett had to wrestle in the literal crater left by Owen’s body. 

The next night, he had to do a sit-down interview talking about Owen that he couldn’t get through. He openly wondered why Owen (who was the good guy among the wrestlers) had to be the one to die, and he said that was the beginning of what broke him. 

Jarrett Goes to WCW 

Jarrett was a guy in the WWF, but he wasn’t “the guy” in the main events. He decided to go to WCW when his contract expired with WWF. But first, he needed to drop the Intercontinental title to Chyna. He demanded $100,000 to do the job and then, took a walk around the building and decided he actually needed $200,000 to do the job. Vince McMahon handed him a check and said, “I’ve really enjoyed doing business with you.” 

The next night, Jarrett showed up on WCW. Vince Russo made his first meaningful contribution on the show, explaining that he put the WCW World Title on Jarrett because he was a great heel.

Skipping over Jarrett’s year in WCW before McMahon bought the company, Cornette noted that Vince would forgive anyone he needed to make money. But if Vince didn’t need you, he wasn’t going to forgive you. So the night of the Raw/Nitro simulcast (when Vince bought WCW), Vince told Jeff live on Raw that he was “G double O double N double E, gone.” 

Matt Hardy was featured and chimed in that Jarrett wasn’t going to come back to Vince, but he needed to wrestle somewhere. Jarrett didn’t know what was next, but he did know that if Vince bought the #2 company, that wasn’t going to be good for Vince or the industry. Cornette noted without WCW and the territories long gone, there were a lot of wrestlers without a job.  Scott Steiner chimed in that if you couldn’t work independents or go to Japan, there was no place to work. 

The Origins of TNA Wrestling 

So Jeff started to talk to his father, sensing there was a void in the southeast left by WCW. He wanted to tap into the county music market and the NASCAR market. The original seed money came from Jeff and Jerry. James Mitchell laid out the original business plan for TNA Wrestling: running weekly $9.99 pay-per-views in the era of $40 monthly shows. 

Jeff met with the founder and CEO of Healthsouth Richard Scrushy about financial backing. They had a personal relationship, but Jeff gave a real business presentation and got money from Scrushy. 

Jeff knew on pay-per-view, they wouldn’t have to worry about TV-14, and he could definitely push the envelope. Vince Russo took credit for “TNA” name and if you know anything about Russo you know exactly where it came from.  Jarrett thought “Total Nonstop Action” was a name he could work with. 

When James Mitchell told his mother he worked for TNA, she asked him what kind of porno company he’d gotten involved with. 

The First TNA Show 

James Mitchell said the ring broke before the show. Jarrett confirmed they got the ring back together as they were getting on the air. Clips of the first weekly TNA pay-per-view were shown. This was Jeff’s first show as an “executive producer” in charge of everything. 

Jarrett wanted a mix of talent and styles, heavyweights competing for the NWA Title and young wrestlers using the faster Lucha Libre, Japanese and European styles. This was the evolution of X-Division, which featured the “future of the business” AJ Styles. 

Cornette argued that TNA wasn’t going to be “competition” to WWE. But there was money to be made being an alternative. 

Jeff brought Vince Russo in to write the TV for TNA. Russo said his “vision” for TNA was to be “anything goes, no rules, an adult version of GLOW with crazy characters.” He said it was supposed to be nothing like WWE. (Which is hilarious since one of the evergreen criticism of TNA is that it’s trying to be TOO WWE.)

So Mitchell talked about the “Johnsons,” a tag team of wrestling penises.  And a little person pleasuring himself in a trashcan while sexually harassing a young female interviewer.  Jerry Jarrett didn’t like this nonsense. I can’t imagine why he had a problem with his son smashing the little person with a steel chair, who for some reason had drawn a gun. A clip from one of the early TNA weekly pay-per-views showed Russo yelling at Mike Tenay about how no one wants to watch guys flipping around the ring for 40 minutes. 

Jarrett thought it was a healthy balance to have Vince Russo there to “push the envelope” on the creative side and his father to book the wrestling side. James Mitchell said it was an interesting time to be there but they were always teetering on the edge of disaster. 

And then HealthSouth pulled their funding. 

The Carters Enters the Picture

Just weeks after TNA’s launch, the CEO of HealthSouth was embroiled in controversy when a story broke that he’d been overstating the company’s profits for years. With the company in disarray, HealthSouth pulled the funding for TNA and their line of credit. There wasn’t even funding for a show that TNA had run the previous night.

Vince Russo drops in with a story about how Jarrett was drinking before he told Russo about the funding being pulled. I’m not sure why Russo needed to bring up the drinking. 

Jarrett started reaching out to his contractors to let them know about the funding troubles and give them the chance to pull out of working with his upstart company. One of the contractors was Dixie Carter, the president of a public relations company hired by TNA. Dixie put Jeff in contact with her father, Bob Carter, the multi-millionaire owner of Panda Energy. 

“If I won the Powerball for $50 million dollars, I would not start a wrestling company.” — James Mitchell. 

Jeff and Jerry flew to Dallas to meet Bob Carter and go over the financials. Jeff told Bob how much of his money he’d invested in the company. Bob said he’d fly the Jarretts back to Nashville on his private plane, and decided that they could do business. 

That was the beginning of the Jarretts/Carters relationship. 

Spike TV 

In 2005, TNA got on Spike TV (sort of filling the void left by WWE’s Raw moving back to USA). TNA stated with an “off-prime” show (Thursdays at 11pm), but had a dedicated, rabid fanbase who would follow them. TNA delivered good numbers for Spike. 

The move to Spike TV was arguably the biggest turning point in TNA’s young history. Now they were not relying on a weekly pay-per-view model and had a national cable outlet. The move allowed Jeff to highlight the  uniqueness of the six-sided ring. Jeff Hardy though that the six-sided ring looked like “the future.” D’Lo Brown thought the six-sided ring was part of TNA’s identity. 

Fans, however, were critical of TNA’s top star, Jeff Jarrett. The fans wanted somebody else in that spot. Scott D’Amore and Jim Cornette justified Jarrett positioning himself that way because he couldn’t put the belt on someone he couldn’t trust. 

Meanwhile, behind the scenes Jerry Jarrett was having conflicts with Russo, the Carters, and his son. Jerry went to his son and said it was time to get out of the company. Jerry Jarrett engineered a “scandal” where Jerry took a big potential star to WWE (Vladimir Koslov) instead of TNA, and the introduction was photographed (no doubt orchestrated by Vince McMahon, noted Sahadi) and plastered all over the WWE website.That was the end of Jerry Jarrett in TNA. This also ended the relationship between Jerry and Jeff for several years. 

May 23

Jeff was already estranged from his mother, and now he was estranged from his father. And he’d grown up in the wrestling business, (which Jarrett implies isn’t the best upbringing). And on top of all that, his wife’s cancer had returned. 

At this point, Jeff stepped away from the ring and focused on the business side and his family. Creative meetings were moved to Jarrett’s house. Scott D’Amore relayed a story of how Jeff cared for his wife and called him “the most loving, caring husband and human being” he’d ever seen. 

When Jill was really sick, Taylor Swift (who lived around the corner), heard the Jarrett girls liked her music. Swift said she’d come over and play a few songs for the girls, and she wound up playing for them for hours. “She was just Taylor from Hendersonville who was going to be good to three little girls.” 

Vince Russo was especially broken up when talking about Jill.  Scott Steiner couldn’t even finish talking about her, getting up and walking away. The documentary’s most heartbreaking moment came when Jeff said Jill didn’t want to leave her daughters.

This was the hardest part of the documentary to get through. 

Jill died on May 23rd, the same date as Owen Hart. 

Neither of Jeff’s parents came to the funeral, but Cornette did. Cornette diplomatically described Jerry as “not a perfect person” for failing to attend his son’s wife’s funeral, five miles from his house. 

Jeff needed to figure out how to provide for his three girls, and so he didn’t really mourn and went right back to work. 

President Dixie Carter 

When Panda came into the picture, they took financial control of the company and named Dixie Carter the president of the company. Jeff Jarrett was still the single largest shareholder in the company. James Mitchell described Dixie as a very charming southern belle who “didn’t know sh!t about the wrestling business.” 

Jim Cornette called her a money mark: a person who is such a fan they will put up all their money to be involved in the show. Mitchell thought she should stay out of the way and sign the checks. Shockingly, Dixie Carter declined the requests to be interviewed. 

Kurt Angle Becomes Available 

In 2005-2006, TNA was clicking on Spike TV. In 2006, Kurt Angle became available after leaving WWE (no discussion of why Kurt left WWE). Jeff and Dixie talked it over, but Jeff had to get the sign off from Bob Carter for the money to sign Angle. Jeff convinced Bob that Kurt Angle embodied the name “Total Nonstop Action” and got the okay to bring in Kurt. 

Kurt debuted in a huge angle with Samoa Joe on an episode of Impact. David Sahadi passionately described the angle, which was pretty great. The scene of a bloodied Samoa Joe coming up behind Kurt Angle is classic. TNA was off to the races with Kurt. 

Jeff Jarrett though that Kurt defined the brand better than any other single talent. Jeff talked up how the presence of Kurt Angle helped with video games, action figures, licenses and international sales. 

Jarrett focused on four distinct divisions: heavyweights, X-Division, Tags, and the Knockouts Division. According to D’Lo Brown, the cornerstone of the Knockouts division was Awesome Kong. 

Awesome Kong 

James Mitchell explained that TNA was putting on real women’s matches with real main event angles. Kia Stevens, more famously known as Awesome Kong, described herself as someone who “throws b!tches.” David Sahadi recalled that the highest rated segments of the TNA shows were the Knockouts matches. 

Scott D’Amore said that Jeff Jarrett wanted the four distinct division to be so strong and distinct that anyone could main event. 

The show was expanded to two hours, and this was when Jim Cornette came into TNA management as a new producer (this was in 2006). James Mitchell recalled the ratings were doing well and TNA was becoming a viable #2 promotion. 

Jarrett focused on leading the team and keeping the production going. Scott Steiner pointed out that he didn’t really have a choice, since it was his money on the line. Jim Cornette noted that there are no off-days when you’re responsible for a major television production. Jeff kept working, but he wasn’t anticipating that power play was coming. 

Dixie Takes Over 

Jeff Jarrett was told on a video game call that he didn’t need to be on the call; Dixie Carter was going to take over his role. And that was Dixie’s first move in maneuvering Jeff Jarrett out of power. 

While Jeff was distracted with his family tragedies, Dixie started to make herself more known, signing autographs before shows and the like. Kia Stevens wanted Dixie to succeed more than anyone because she was a woman in wrestling. Jeff believed that Dixie got tired of “Jeff and his crew” getting all the credit for TNA’s success. 

D’Lo Brown explained that TNA gave the talent more freedom than the well-rehearsed TNA. Scott D’Amore pointed out that some of the ex-WWE guys were assets, but some of them were just collecting a check (clips of Scott Hall and Kevin Nash was shown as he said this). 

David Sahadi and Jim Cornette told a story of Kevin Nash sucking up to Dixie as his contract was up to get a better a deal. Dixie Carter’s focus was on bringing in ex-WWE stars, which lead to resentment from the homegrown TNA talent. 

Kia Stevens: “Kurt [Angle] was making a little over a million dollars a year… Can you tell me that I’m not worth 1/10 of Kurt Angle?” Stevens went and ask for a raise, and broke it down that she wasn’t making more than a manager at McDonalds. But TNA couldn’t afford to pay her more. 

Stevens detailed how there were two TNA Knockouts who were holding the title that had to work second jobs. One was a bartender, and the customers were recognize her from TV while she was taking drink orders. 

Dixie knew that her homegrown performers were struggling, but still signing ex-WWE talent to big money. 

Who’s the Boss? 

According to D’Lo Brown, Dixie signed the checks, but Jeff Jarret ran things. Kai Stevens didn’t even know that Jeff Jarrett formed TNA, but she knew that Dixie was the boss because Dixie made sure everyone knew. Scott D’Amore called Jeff Jarrett “boss” until Dixie Carter told him on no uncertain terms he was not to call Jeff boss. 

Vince Russo, Dutch Mantel, and Jeff Jarrett were the creative team at this time. According to Russo, things were fine until Dixie started poking her head into creative. Jarrett started to pick up that some of Russo’s suggestions were actually coming from Dixie. 

Dixie and Jeff were butting heads, with Vince Russo and Dutch Mantel in the middle of it. And when the shows were bad, for some reason the fans thought Russo was to blame (a clip of some nonsense with a coffin being lowered into the ring while the fans chanted “Fire Russo!”). 

Scott D’Amore figured that a lot of people were in Dixie’s ear that Jeff Jarrett was holding the company back. And James Mitchell believed that the tension between Jeff and Dixie blew up when Jeff got into a relationship with Karen Angle. 

Karen Angle 

“The word on the street,” according to Kai Stevens, was that Karen Angle and left Kurt for Jeff. Jarrett, the boss, was fraternizing with the top talent’s wife. According to D’Lo Brown, that’s a corporate “no-no.” 

Karen Jarrett was going to set the record straight. . 

First, Karen and Kurt were legally separated in 2006 (Kurt debuted with TNA in 2006).  Karen was pregnant and living with her daughter in a townhouse.  Kurt “needed” Karen to pretend that they were still a family.  And Karen thought that if Kurt got a job with TNA, he would get his life on track. Jim Cornette made it clear that Angle showed up to TNA beat up and he wasn’t doing drugs for fun, but to try and deal with his millions of injuries and still perform at his insanely high level. 

So Karen was “part of the package” to get Kurt to and from the shows. Jeff Jarrett diplomatically describes Kurt as having “more bad days that good days” but looked at Karen as the top talent’s wife who was helping keep Kurt on track. 

Vince Russo claimed that Kurt called him to get Karen on TV. Karen doesn’t know how they managed to talk her into getting on TV. She used it as an opportunity to let out her frustrations. Karen thought that TNA management brought her along to keep Kurt straight. But ultimately, she became angry and resentful and left. But, Karen assured that Jeff Jarrett, Dixie Cartner and Vince Russo all knew the reality: that Karen’s marriage to Kurt Angle was over. 

Jeff Jarrett even called Karen to try and convince her to stay with Kurt, quoting scriptures and telling her about his relationship with his wife Jill. But, Karen was over it and divorce proceedings had begun. But this call had left an impression on Karen. 

Out of the blue, Karen called Jeff. A friendship developed, and when Jeff found out that Kurt was seeing other people, Jeff was willing to see where things could go with Karen. 

Jarrett Moves On 

Karen made it clear the relationship with Jeff was never an affair. It was two people falling in love. Jeff explained that he and Karen never hid their relationship from anyone; there was no sneaking around. The only person who didn’t know was apparently Dixie Carter. 

Jeff and Karen were hosting a party and invited Carter, who outwardly appeared happy that Jeff and Karen were together. But after the party, she called Vince Russo and “cut a promo” on him for not telling her about Jeff and Karen. According to Russo, this was the reason that Dixie needed to “send Jeff home.” 

D’Lo Brown said someone reported the “affair” to the “dirt sheets,” and then a caller on the Bubba the Love Sponge show blew the whole thing up, announcing to the world that Karen Angle and Jeff Jarrett were living together and Dixie was upset about it. 

Vince Russo: “This was her reason, her excuse to put Jeff to the side once and for all and be able to run the company on her own.” Karen described Jeff as a “delusional optimist” who actually thought Dixie Carter would be happy for him. But instead, Dixie “nuked his whole f*cking life.” 

Jeff received documents from Panda Energy removing him from creative and no longer an executive producer. He was sent home with pay until “things calmed down.”  A clip of Dixie Carter aired (likely from a TNA show) where she explained that a personal situation lead to Jeff being sent home. 

For Jeff, it was like the walls were crumbling before his very eyes. 

D’Lo Brown described it as “the heart and soul of the company” being removed. “What’s going to happen now?” 

Frozen Out 

Jeff, despite being the majority stockholder, was frozen out of its operations. Karen apologized profusely, blaming herself and even offered to end the relationship. Jarrett, of course, did not accept that. This was a challenge that ultimately strengthened their relationship. 

Karen Jarrett: “Not many women can say their husband risked everything to be with me. My husband risked absolutely f*cking everything to be with me.” 

The TNA people saw from 2002 to 2009 was Jeff Jarrett’s TNA. According to Jarrett, from January to September of 2009, that was the best ratings run of TNA, ever. September of 2009 when Dixie pulled her power play and decided that she could run TNA, in an attempt  to make her father proud. 

Dixie wasted no time putting her stamp on the company. Her first move was to put Vince Russo firmly in charge of creative. Then she fired Dutch Mantell, who was Jeff’s right hand and the backbone of the wrestling ideas. Scott D’Amore noted there was a “cleansing” of people aligned with Jarrett. 

Vince Russo claimed that things didn’t change much for him. David Sahadi said that Russo didn’t have anyone policing his work. D’Lo Brown noted Russo would have five minutes of wrestling in a 120 minute show. Scott D’Amore, bro, kills with his impression of Vince Russo, bro. 

Cornette and Russo (because these things are always about Cornette and Russo)

So, of course, we have to get into the issues between Jim Cornette and Vince Russo. Cornette thought Russo booked things in the show that made it look like it was  a “g*dd*med hallucination.”  Russo said Cornette didn’t understand he was writing a TV show and not booking a house show in Louisville. Cornette was frustrated watching the guys beating themselves up for Russo, who thought he was writing “daytime television.” 

Dixie Carter didn’t think Cornette was behind the creative direction, and (according to Cornette) fired him for no reason. 

Well, except for the terroristic threats against Vince Russo. 

Cornette wrote a letter and said if he could get away with killing Vince Russo, he would. This was  reported to the FBI. But Cornette said this was more about Vince Russo being in over his head, and the writing was on the wall for TNA Wrestling.

Kia Stevens openly wondered how the company would survive. 

Hulkamania, Brother

A month after being sent home, Jeff Jarrett got a call. Dixie Carter needed Jarrett to go with her to Tampa to meet with Hulk Hogan. Karen, describing Jeff as an “eternal optimist” said Jeff believed Dixie was bringing him back in. Jeff thought that Dixie didn’t want Jeff Jarrett out of TNA, but that she wanted Jeff working *for* her in TNA. 

Dixie Carter and Jeff Jarrett flew down to Tampa to meet with Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff. Bischoff didn’t think much of TNA when he first heard of it, and was only meeting with Carter because of Hogan. Hogan didn’t want to work with people he didn’t trust. He trusted Bischoff and he didn’t trust Vince Russo (stemming from the issues Hogan and Russo had in 2000). Bischoff was confident he could manage Hogan and Russo. 

Jarrett knew immediately that Bischoff and Hogan had a clue about TNA Wrestling. Jarrett thought that Hogan could be an asset as a mouthpiece for TNA Wrestling; but anything else would be a loss for TNA Wrestling. 

The End of the Beginning

Bischoff didn’t understand Jarrett’s role, but could see there was a strained relationship between Carter and Jarrett. 

Jarrett knew once Hogan and Bischoff showed up, it was the end of his time at TNA Wrestling. He knew exactly what Dixie Carter had done to him, his family, and TNA Wrestling. 

Karen laid it out: Jarrett was used to bring in Hogan, and then he was going to be cut loose. 

David Sahadi said that Carter loved that she brought on Hulk Hogan and that he was “her signing.” 

James Mitchell saw it as Dixie Carter being manipulated by “master carnies” Hogan and Bischoff. 

Hogan (in clips from a TNA show in 2010) said on one of his early episodes of Impact that  TNA was going to be the #1 wrestling company. 

Karen thought Dixie Carter would get praised for bringing in Hulk Hogan. “Look what Dixie did! Look what the f*ck Dixie did.”

Jarrett ended the episode with this: “Dixie thought she’d seen the last of Jeff. Well, the games had only just begun.”