On the latest episode of My World, Jeff Jarrett was asked about the ongoing debate over the age of the main event scene in both major promotions, and laid out the roster philosophy he built TNA around. You can check out his comments below:
On the cycles:
“If you understand history — this isn’t the first time that’s happened. Not going to be the last time. So I think you can say that about professional wrestling, in that the ebbs and flows and the peaks and the valleys. The Attitude Era is obviously a big peak. But in the early ’80s, Tennessee was on fire, Texas was on fire, the Carolinas were on fire, Florida was on fire. Certainly WWF was on fire. The territory industry was red hot, and then they all died off — not overnight, but over time. It’s like a market correction, up and down, up and down.”
On what he wanted in TNA:
“I don’t know how many times I said this in probably the first five years of TNA. Hey, what are you looking for in a roster? And I was so ingrained, but I really meant it — I wanted as much of a balanced roster, two different ways. I wanted heavyweights, tags, X Division, and females. Once we got the Knockouts going, I really wanted each division to be able to stand on their own and quote unquote main event any given show.”
On the second kind of balance:
“At the exact same time, I wanted the healthy balance of, I’ll call it, veterans — and those are the guys that have certainly lost a step, but man, oh man, can they contribute. And then you have your prime-time players, and then you have your up-and-comers, and then you have the new development that’s coming in. But a real healthy balance. I think when that gets out of balance, business goes down. I just do.”
On whether the young guys are ready:
“Is Oba three years in? And I know you said two years on these guys, but we’re going to say year three and year four. Are they ready to carry the company? We’ll see. I don’t think history would prove out to that. Same with Will. So it’s that healthy balance, and sometimes time takes time.”
On the reality of it:
“You can’t all of a sudden say, man, I wish Will Ospreay had four more years of TV exposure, and I wish Oba had this and that. Sometimes you just have to navigate your way through. You can wake up and be top-heavy on the age side — but man, you’ve got a lot of recognition. And then the other side of that is, who in the hell are these guys? I don’t know half the card. There’s that balance. Not easy.”
On the current rosters:
“When I get asked in doing the rounds of media, I just say right out of the gate — never, ever, ever in the history of the business has there been a more, and I don’t want to just say loaded, but I’m going to say a diverse roster, and they’re all at the highest level. Takeshita, Okada, mega stars from Japan, Místico. We can name three or four other luchadors. Ospreay, British. We can name Germans. I’m talking about from a global presence, male and female. Never.”
On why fans don’t miss anyone:
“People are like, oh, we haven’t seen this guy in months. And you’re right — but it’s not like we missed him, because you’ve got five to 10 to 15 other talents that are super good that are on TV. You can see Tony’s vision and psychology. If you go way back and look at 30, maybe 50,000 feet, and go, okay, he’s got to fill 11 PLEs a year or whatever — how do you do that? You better have a deep, deep roster. There’s no other way. It’s impossible.”
On the math in the writing room:
“I can remember being in the writing rooms — it’s not like I was there for years and years — but in the writing room, okay, we’ve got Raw and this segment, we’ve got to do a three-segment, so let’s do this, go to a break. When you look at the math, and we’ll take a break at two in the morning, and the chairman’s going to eat some sushi, and we’re all going to take a bathroom break, and I’m going to get another cup of coffee. And I look over at good old Ed Koskey and I just go — this is math. We have a piece of paper here, and you have a decided amount of talent. You can’t mix and match much more with 30 names. The math is what you’ve got to go with. When you add the depth of the roster, the equations change.”
