The Story of the Development of NWATNA - A New Concept in Pay-Per-View Programming

by Jerry Jarrett

When the WWE bought WCW from Turner/Time Warner, they were basically the only professional wrestling company in the US. Jerry and Jeff Jarrett knew the needed capitol to begin a traditional wrestling company was beyond their resources. the father and son r=team realized that a new concept would be necessary to accomplish the task of starting a national wrestling company. Against great odds, the largest time allotment contract with the pay-per-view providers, InDemand and Direct TV was negotiated. With the seed money (1,000,000.00.) and a boat load of optimism, the Jarrett's set out to form a start up International wrestling company.

After bankers promised loans and then withdrew at the last minute, Health South came in as the financing partner in the venture. Health South was forced to pull out without notice because of international problems and with a window of only 30 days, a replacement for Health South was found when Panda Energy bought into the project.

The road was never an easy one. From discovering that a key man who handled the PPV end of the business was on the payroll of the company that handles WWE PPV's at the same time, to receiving forged documents form InDemand, to wrestlers that had verbally committed to NWATNA suddenly getting attractive contracts with WWE, the venture has survived.

Today, two years after the launch, this company that insiders gave no chance of survival, has produced 90 weeks of pay-per-view programs, and is seen around the world on international television. NWATNA has secured a deal with a major television network.

184 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 5, 2004

Reviews

[Colin Wheatley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jerry Jarrett is right about one thing—wrestlers like him are extremely insecure. Having read Vince Russo’s highly enjoyable Rope Opera, I found Jarrett’s book to be an interesting, albeit less cohesive, wholly unpolished (the book is filled with typos), counterpoint that reveals as much about the early days of TNA as it does the author’s combined sense of insecurity and superiority. Jarrett feels the need to continually run down everyone in the wrestling business, from Vince McMahon to Vince Russo, all while running his family’s fledgling promotion into the ground. Jerry Jarrett simply knows more about, and is more successful in, the wrestling business than anyone else. My favorite quote is when he explains to Panda Energy, the company that saved TNA and the Jarrett family from bankruptcy after only a few months in operation, how the wrestling business is beyond their comprehension and that only he is qualified to direct the company: “This wrestling business is so much more complicated than they are used to in electrical power business.”