Jeff Jarrett Says He Was Lucky To Sign AJ Styles And Samoa Joe In TNA, Compares AEW To TNA

Jeff Jarrett did an interview with Shakiel Mahjouri of Cageside Seats. The following highlights were sent to us:

TNA signs AJ Styles and Samoa Joe:

“There are many different ways to look at that and I have discussed it with Joe and AJ. It’s really easy for me to sit here and think or say, ‘Oh, man. Opportunity and TNA. ‘ In fact, I’ve been very fortunate, very fortunate, very grateful for the time spent working with those people. AJ actually drove from his home in North Georgia to Nashville, Tennessee. As he evolved through the product, he was literally the face of TNA from about 2002 to 2010,” Jarrett told Shakiel Mahjouri of Cageside Seats. “AJ and Joe are really the foundation of not just X Division, but the entire company.

“They are here all these years later and the performers they are, I really believe we got lucky. Joe and I had a chat and AJ and I had a conversation. I’m really grateful for those times, but as a promoter, how lucky am I to have both of them? I really think if it weren’t for us in TNA, it would be somewhere else. I am a big fan of ice cream that always rises to the top. They are great talents. With or without TNA and I sincerely mean it. ”

Compare AEW with TNA:

“Definitely low throat. Jarrett says the simplest are alternatives. “The analogy is the alternative, at the end of the day I really believe – and I think Vince McMahon would agree – that it’s best for a business to always have an alternative. It’s just what makes business go around. If you are the only game in town, you are not number one because there is no number two.

“The time when TNA started, after the Era of Attitude, and the time when AEW started are two completely different worlds. Before the social media world appeared in the Attitude Era. When TBS and TNT canceled wrestling, I couldn’t even get a call from the network. In the quick, big royalty fees with NBC and Fox and the Peacock and Sony situation around the world in India and all the different markets – it was a completely different playing field of 2002 and 2019 in the launch phase. The climate is completely different. TV ratings are completely different. We started Saturday night on Spike TV on ’05 or ’06. Not prime, not prime. 11 east, we got 700,000 or 800,000 viewers. On a Saturday night at late peak. The numbers were different. It was a world before streaming, a world before social media. When you get into all of that, it’s a completely different media market.”