In April of 2014, Jeff Jarrett announced plans for his own wrestling promotion and began predicting a boom in wrestling. He was right! Except, he wouldn’t have much to do with it.
It’s time to admit it: Jeff Jarrett was right about the Pro Wrestling Boom. Yes, I am openly saying that Jeff Jarrett, a high-ranking WWE creative official was right about the boom he sensed coming.
Granted, he’s about 5 years off, but he was right! Give Jeff Jarrett the credit he deserves. Yes — Jeff Jarrett got it right!
The unfortunate side of the equation is that Jeff Jarrett’s Global Force Wrestling isn’t going to be part of the boom. Tony Khan’s All Elite Wrestling has taken the role of GFW. Lets go back in time.
Introducing, Global Force Wrestling
In April of 2014, Jeff Jarrett and Global Force Entertainment, the parent company that Jarrett founded to house his wrestling and entertainment ventures, announced Global Force Wrestling. At the time, Jarrett didn’t announce a TV home, tapings, or talent roster. For much of GFW’s time, they were a logo and a website.
A week after the promotion was announced, they announced that they had inked a deal with 25/7 Productions, the company behind NBC’s The Biggest Loser. With this announcement, no TV deal was announced.
Over the next few weeks, GFW would begin to announce partner promotions In which they would have a “talent exchange”, but still no TV home or details of a show. The exchange was…pointless?
The Jarretts then announced that they were going to produce New Japan Pro Wrestling’s flagship event of the year, WrestleKingdom. Essentially NJPW used GFW’s connection to get the show on Pay-Per-View in the US. Still no TV deal.
As things got moving, GFW would announce TV tapings and events, but never actually announced details on where or how you can watch GFW on tv. They went so far as to create a TV show name, Global Force Wrestling: AMPED!, but still no TV deal.
Things got so confusing that Jeff would talk about “non-traditional distribution models”. One would assume the possibility of streaming or Youtube. In the same breath, he would talk about a Pro Wrestling Boom..and what that meant no one knew.
I remember listening to podcasts and the hosts would laugh at Jarrett. When Jarrett returned to IMPACT Wrestling, the dream of GFW and the wrestling boom kinda died. In 2016, Jarrett would join Anthem Wrestling Exhibitions, LLC, the new parent company of IMPACT as a “Chief Creative Officer” and Anthem would “Acquire” Global Force. A few months later, Jeff Jarrett would be fired from his position for personal problems that would lead him into rehab and back into WWE.
Fast Forward To Today…
Lets tlak about where we are today… WWE has 7 hours or programming on major TV Networks. 3 Hours of Monday Night Raw on USA Network, 2 Hours of WWE Smackdown LIVE on the FOX Broadcast Network, and 2 hours of NXT Live on USA Network.
All Elite Wrestling now has 2 hours of live wrestling every Wednesday starting in October on the TNT Network. IMPACT Wrestling has 2 hours or programming coming to AXS TV. MLW has an hour on BeIN Network. Ring of Honor has an hour of programming throughout the country (and possibility of ROH coming to cable as well). Heck, even the NWA is going to be presenting some sort of wrestling in show format!
Pro Wrestling is going to be on almost every night of the week. Monday, Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and whatever day IMPACT ends up on. To say the least, the wrestling boom Jarrett promised us is here…5 and a half years later and without his company…but it’s here.
