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

by Jerry W. 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

182 pages, Paperback

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.”

[Lucas · Rating 3 out of 5]

There’s definitely some unique stuff here that you’re not going to get in any other book. The format of a daily journal really puts you into the mindset of Jerry during the first year of the company, and gives a lot of insight into the endless amount of things that can go wrong when you’re starting a wrestling company. It definitely reiterated to me what Jim Mitchell said recently on Dark Side of the Ring when he said if he won 50 billion dollars in the lottery he still wouldn’t use any of it to start a wrestling company because it’s the hardest business there is to make money out of.