Original subtitles

[Narrator] Previously, on Dark Side of the Ring...

When the wrestling business became a

one-company industry, Jeff and Jerry Jarrett

bet everything on a new promotion,

Total Nonstop Action, better known as TNA.

[Jeff] Some people called me stupid,

naive, an idiot.

[Matt] He had the guts and the nuts to start

his own promotion, and TNA was born.

Crowd Chanting: TNA! TNA!

It really had that feeling of anything can happen.

They had a strong roster.

They had great production.

They were a serious number two

contender to the WWE.

[Narrator] What began as a family business

quickly spiraled beyond the Jarretts' control.

[Karen] Dixie Carter is smarter than

what people give her credit for.

She wanted the power.

[Scott] Dixie pulled me aside and said,

"You are not to call Jeff boss."

[Vince] I get a call from Dixie.

"How did you not tell me Jeff and Karen are together?

I had no idea!"

[Steiner] She was gonna try anything to get him out.

Then she finally got her wish.

[Jeff] The whole thing is nonsense.

[Karen] She nuked his whole fucking life.

[Narrator] With Jeff Jarrett sidelined,

Dixie Carter places her faith in Hulk Hogan

and Eric Bischoff,

reshaping the balance of power within TNA.

[Jeff] It revealed to me immediately,

he doesn't have a clue about TNA wrestling.

Like, zero clue or context of who or what we are.

[Karen] I think she thought, "Oh,

I'm gonna bring Hulk Hogan in here

and everybody's gonna love me."

"Oh, look what Dixie did."

Look what the fuck Dixie did.

?

[Announcer] Ladies and gentlemen,

please welcome

Dixie Carter!

[Jeff] It's really hard to put into words how I felt

watching the product while I was sitting at home.

How's my little baby? [Laughing]

How's it gonna be?

Is it gonna turn out all right?

But Hogan was on the way.

And so for the brand, I was excited about that.

[Hulk] I'd like to introduce you to

my new business partner, Dixie Carter.

This is the company that's gonna lead the way

in the future. I guarantee that.

[Crowd] Hogan! Hogan! Hogan!

[Eric] Hulk Hogan believed passionately

until the day he died-

It's still hard for me to say that-

that there was a tremendous amount of power

and value in the Hulk Hogan brand.

And he was right.

And I believe that Hulk believed that

he could bring that value to TNA and help

the little engine that couldn't achieve.

[Narrator] With Hulk Hogan now in the fold,

Dixie Carter moves to consolidate her power,

issuing the roster a stark ultimatum.

[Awesome Kong] We get this notice that there's this

big meeting and there's gonna be cameras there.

So you know you kind of have to have your face on

and whatnot and Dixie comes out.

[Dixie] It's time for a change.

You can choose to support me

or you can choose not to.

But you'll need to find another place to work.

[Dixie] "And if you don't like it,

it's my way or the highway.

And if you're starving, 'Let them eat cake'."

We didn't appreciate that because we've been

working our asses off for you

and we're not asking for anything

we have not earned.

And you wanna reprimand us for that?

[D'Lo] It was one of those meetings that single-handedly

pulled a lot of the morale out of the room.

[David] It turns out that not only was it recorded,

but we played that back later in the show.

That's when she lost the absolute complete respect

from the entire locker room.

[Jeff] It was not about anything

other than her ego.

[Dixie] I expect you to support me 100%.

[Jeff] And you can go back and look at the faces.

Talent really understood

this is who we're working for.

But I think a lot of them- and including myself-

Where do things go now?

And then all of a sudden, I had a phone call

from an attorney that worked for Panda.

"Hey, Jeff, we want you to come back."

At that time, that just rocked my world.

I was just like, wow.

You could see clearly what her strategy was.

Dixie wanted a thumb on me

to really know what I was doing.

I've been around a long time,

and I knew the cards they were playing,

but I still was a little skeptical.

And I said, "What all do you have in mind?"

[Announcer] Jeff...

Jaaa-rr-ett!

[Jeff] I was brought back doing live events

and international.

When I returned, you put on a game face.

I wasn't exactly sure about the different chess pieces,

but my best strategy is, let's let this play out.

[Narrator] With Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff joining

TNA's creative team, they found themselves

once again working with head writer Vince Russo.

It was a partnership carrying years of baggage.

[Crowd cheering]

[Announcer] Russo, I think, told Jarrett to lie down.

[Narrator] Over a decade earlier,

in a shocking moment, backstage tensions erupted

in front of a live audience, blurring the line

between reality and fiction.

[Announcer] I don't think anybody agreed to that.

[Narrator] Now, the same trio was together again in TNA.

[Vince] Hogan, you big, bald son of a bitch!

Kiss my ass!

At the time, the creative team is myself,

Ed Ferrara, and Matt Conway.

And what we are told by Dixie is,

"Guys, Eric is only involved

in the Hulk Hogan creative.

He's gonna come and he's gonna sit with you guys

creatively and just talk about

what's going on with Hulk."

[Eric] Hulk Hogan had real issues with Vince Russo,

professionally, creatively.

Was not interested in working anywhere near Vince Russo.

I had to have a sit down with Vince Russo

to kind of clear the air, so to speak.

And we both shook hands and agreed,

let's try to make it work.

[Vince] Eric's entire plan,

entire mindset was to somehow,

someway get power in the company.

I knew what he was doing.

[Eric] We're starting over!

[Vince] I knew his game, and that's-

the rest is history.

[Eric] I mean, creatively, I was leading the charge.

I just kind of evolved into that,

partly because I have a pretty strong personality.

And what we're going to do is turn this company

upside down, starting...

I don't know, right now!

[Jeff] It took a few months for me to understand

the role that Hulk was gonna play in TNA.

And I thought he was coming in as brand ambassador.

I quickly learned he's literally gonna be

handed the keys to the brand.

[Hulk] And the change starts tonight!

[Jeff] I didn't know that he was gonna be

completely revamping the roster.

[Announcer] Mr. Anderson is in TNA!

Thank you, Hulk Hogan!

[Jim] It was like, if you're a personal friend of

Hulk Hogan's that works at the grocery store,

oh, come on, you can be on the TV show!

[Kong] They let some people who was famous in the 80s

that did some stuff and made an impact come in

and tell us that the things we were doing

were wrong and unprofessional.

And I felt like that was bullshit.

[Jeff Hardy] I'm sure there was a lot of money,

you know, going, you know, in different directions.

And egos, a lot of egos coming to the surface.

[Matt] They weren't going to add to the product.

They kind of came in and they got a spot

and they got paid.

[Jeff] It became real clear what Hulk's vision was.

And that was complete rebranding

of the entire product.

And I knew what a massive failure it was gonna be.

They didn't know the TNA audience.

[Hulk] Welcome to the brand new Impact Zone, guys!

[Jeff] I think the single biggest thing he did that was

totally ego-driven was get rid of the six-sided ring.

[Hulk] I got one thing to say about six sides.

You had it, and it only got you so far.

[Steiner] That was a staple, that was a-

one of the hallmarks of being TNA.

The hardcore TNA fans, they wanted a six-sided ring.

[Fans] We want six sides! [Clapping]

We want six sides! We want six sides!

[Eric] I thought it was stupid, frankly.

Like, if you're gonna have a six-sided ring,

use the damn thing!

Create something inside of that ring that happens

as a result of the fact that you're in a six-sided ring.

Otherwise, it doesn't affect anything

that happens on the mat.

Then it's just stupid.

[Vince] Now do you understand

why I have problems and issues?

You are doing what's best for Hulk,

not what's best for TNA!

And what, we're all supposed to sit there and say,

oh yeah, bro, that's a great, oh yeah, bro?

No, bro, it's bullshit!

It's bullshit. We work for TNA.

You work for Hulk Hogan. That's the difference.

[Narrator] Determined to put TNA on the map,

Eric Bischoff turns to the past,

reviving a strategy that had

worked for him decades earlier.

[Eric] WCW kicked WWE's ass for two solid years,

going head-to-head on Monday night.

I went back to, I won't say a bag of tricks necessarily,

but I went back to a strategy.

[Hulk] This is the biggest night in the history of TNA.

[Eric] Going head-to-head with WWE

was gonna make so much noise.

It was about creating awareness.

[D'Lo] I thought it was the dumbest thing.

[Pyrotechnics booming]

Trying to go Monday night live with a company that

spends more on pyro than we spend on production.

[Vince] When you put our show next to their show

at the same time,

they are gonna look like a million bucks and

we are gonna look like trailer trash.

We didn't have the money

to compete with them.

[Jeff] Countless amount of people came up to me and

would say, "How long are you gonna let this go on,

Jeff?" And I would say, "I'm powerless."

Seven years ago, I founded TNA.

[Hulk] You know something, Jeff?

So what? Nobody cares.

With Hulk Hogan and Dixie Carter,

TNA is going all the way, brother, to the top.

[Jeff] From the day Hulk came in,

it was less than 12 months that we went from

profitability to a financial death spiral.

Bischoff calling the shots, ith d

TNA takes its biggest gamble yet,

moving Impact head-to-head with

WWE's Monday Night Raw.

[Eric] I don't remember what the viewership was,

but I think the most watched Impact episode in history

was some of that head-to-head competition,

at least the first night.

TNA had never had that big of an audience before.

I was realistic.

I knew why I was doing it and I was pretty convinced

that it wasn't going to work long-term.

[Vince] [Laughs] I don't even remember how long it lasted,

but yeah, it did not work well.

[Matt] You had one that was a major league product

and then you had another one, which was like

a smaller product, up and coming.

Unless you both have that major look,

you can't really go head-to-head

with the giant in the industry.

[D'Lo] It killed momentum.

It made us look like amateurs

trying to play in the big boy pond.

Our house show attendance dropped.

Our Nielsen numbers dropped.

We were the fly on the ass of a rhino.

[Jeff] To this day, this is what I believe.

Hulk wanted to come in and move some chess pieces

to create his next race.

And I'm in a bad place here in that I can't voice

my opinion because it will sound self-serving.

[Narrator] With declining ratings and the failed

attempt to reignite the Monday Night Wars

hanging over the company,

the creative team turns to one of wrestling's

oldest formulas, turning real-life conflict

into compelling television.

Just months after Jeff Jarrett returns to TNA,

he's asked to step back into the ring.

[Jeff] I will never forget this conversation.

And if I could do a good Vince Russo impersonation,

I would, but I get this, "Bro?"

[Producer laughing]

"What do you got, Vince?" "We need this story."

[Vince] My job is to get as many eyeballs

on that show as possible.

That is my job.

Without a shadow of a doubt,

I was gonna pitch the angle to them.

If they weren't good with it, fine.

[Karen] I was asked to be in a storyline

with Jeff and with my ex-husband.

In the storyline of Jeff took me from Kurt.

[Jeff] And I said, "Okay, Vince..."

[Laughing]

"I know you and your crazy ideas,

but you gotta get some sign-off."

"I've already done it."

That's what turned my head.

I said, "Do what?" "Yeah."

I said, "So Dixie signed off?"

"Yep."

[Eric] It was obvious to me that there was a

tremendous amount of strain between Dixie and Jeff.

And now we're gonna add, oh, I don't know,

a love triangle with Kurt's ex-wife

and Jeff Jarrett

on top of that stress.

[Jeff] Kurt Angle, the 1996 Olympic gold medalist,

the father, the husband, well, the ex-husband.

[Crowd] Whoa!

[Jeff] I just sat back and chuckled.

Jeff's the bad guy.

And Kurt's this American gold medalist

that lost his wife.

And here's this evil bitch.

[Karen] You will not steal the joy from our lives

for one more day!

[Crowd] Boo!

[Karen] People wanted to root for Kurt.

It was easy for them to hate us.

[Kurt] It was only a matter of time before the

whole world saw Karen and Jeff for who they truly are.

[Karen] You add the story to it and just start

stirring the pot.

[Karen] [Screaming]

[Jeff] Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!

[Kong] I can say I watched two men

put their differences aside

and work for the betterment of TNA.

And by doing that,

they stepped in that ring for me, too.

And I have mad respect for both of them.

[D'Lo] It, by far, to me, was the most

productive storyline TNA ever had.

[Karen] I'm sick of you! [Screaming]

[Announcer] Oh my God!

[Karen] The downfall is people believed it.

They thought it was real.

[Jeff] To this day, I get comments online, like,

"Are you and Kurt okay?" And I'm like- ha-

"You do realize that we

co-parent kids and have since 2010."

[Announcer] Oh!

[Karen] Jeff wasn't screwing Kurt's wife.

Jeff didn't take Kurt's wife.

Do you think if that was the case,

Kurt Angle would go through with that storyline?

No.

[Officiant] You may kiss your bride.

[Crowd booing]

[Karen] That's not what happened.

It was a fucking storyline.

[Crowd] Get the axe! Get the axe!

[Announcer] [Beep]! What the hell?! God!

[Jeff] Less than 12 months ago,

we're gonna send Jeff home because of

the dastardly deed he did.

And now, all of a sudden, we're gonna bring him back.

And only, not only bring him back,

we're gonna create a storyline on this tragic

situation that I was such a horrible person.

Dixie's power play was never about

her compassion for Kurt, never about

her concern for the brand or the company.

It was always about herself-

putting herself in power.

[Narrator] As chaos grows behind the scenes,

TNA's pursuit of star power culminates in

one of the most infamous nights in company history,

Victory Road, 2011.

[Crowd] [Cheering] [Fireworks popping]

[Jeff Hardy] In 2010, coming back to TNA,

I mean, Dixie was totally involved then, right?

It seemed like things were different.

And that was a real dark time in my personal life.

I always go back to that night, you know?

I'm like, oh my God,

because it was such an embarrassing thing.

[Eric] Everybody backstage pretty much knew

that Jeff was involved in drugs.

For the most part, he had it under control.

[David] I'm in the truck, I'm directing,

and it's the main event, it's the last match.

And I tell D'Lo Brown,

he's the agent on the match,

he's on headsets by the go position.

What I need to know about this match, he goes,

"Hold on a second, hold on, hold on."

[D'Lo] Jeff comes up, and within seconds of

being around him,

I know he's not in his right state of mind.

I can just tell.

[Matt] I had wrestled earlier,

and I remember being so excited for Jeff to be

in the main event against Sting,

the guy that he looked up to,

and it was a very high profile match, obviously.

Jeff was getting ready to go out,

and someone had buzzed me and said,

"Jeff is not in a good state."

And I just remember my heart dropped.

I'm like, oh my God.

[D'Lo] That's when Eric Bischoff popped up,

and you know, he's starting to ask what's going on.

?

And then somehow,

we agreed to let him go to the ring

to see if he could walk it off,

or when he got in front of the crowd,

maybe he would pop back into normal Jeff.

[David] And he comes out,

and I can see that he's staggering. I'm like,

oh my God, Jeff is fucked up on something.

[Announcer] Jeff Hardy, the moment of truth

has arrived.

[David] And he's doing all this weird stuff,

like taking his shirt off and teasing the crowd.

[Announcer] What the hell is Jeff Hardy doing here?

[Eric] Everybody was kind of looking at each other,

including Dixie, and it's like, what do we do?

What next?

iew,

what should have been the biggest match of the night

quickly descended into confusion and panic

as Jeff Hardy made his way to the ring.

Backstage, it became painfully clear that Hardy

was in no condition to compete.

[Jeff] I had seen Jeff earlier, and, and seemed okay,

but, but, you know, I was not

in tune with anything going on that day.

And I got a call, Russo:

"Bro, get over here now."

[David] Eric Bischoff comes out right before

they ring the bell at the introduction.

[Eric] Slight change in plans.

So I got close to Jeff, and I told him,

"Turn around and get the fuck out of this ring.

Walk back to the locker room.

Just leave now."

Nothing. Didn't register.

[Jeff Hardy] It's all pretty much a blur,

but I remember Eric Bischoff saying,

just like it was like,

get rid of that piece of trash.

I can't believe he would do this to these people that

have paid to watch this pay-per-view

and these people that have worked so hard

to put this show on.

[Eric] So I went over to Sting and just said,

"Hit him with your finish."

[Announcer] Oh, right now... Sting!

Right off the bat!

It's gonna be a death drop.

Got him! [Match bell ringing]

[Announcer] Wow!

[Jeff Hardy] What you saw, that Jeff Hardy that was

in that ring, I mean, complete, you know,

just drug addict that had given up on him, himself,

to be that irresponsible and that dangerous to

go out there with somebody else's life, you know,

that's in your hands and that you have to protect.

It was just so careless and reckless.

[Jeff] I'll never forget

coming back from the hotel.

I went straight to the truck, went to play back,

and just said, "Hey man, what actually happened?"

They just showed me 15 seconds,

and I'm like, "I got it."

I got real angry... at first.

How in the world could you

let him walk through that curtain?

And then I began to hear a few different versions.

I knew the reality that was,

I can only make things worse, so I left.

[Eric] It was embarrassing for everybody involved.

[D'Lo] There's a million right choices and

one wrong one, and we did the wrong one.

[Jeff] At that time, I felt confused in that,

how did Jeff get himself to a spot that

he couldn't go perform?

I had no comprehension of

what the disease of addiction is.

It's cunning, it's baffling,

and it's powerful.

[Jeff Hardy] I hope that people have forgiven me,

you know.

Forgiveness is such a huge thing in recovery, man,

and forgiving yourself can be super hard,

you know, when it comes- and took me a long time

to forgive myself for that night,

but ultimately, that was me,

but it's not me, you know.

That's what I was, but not what I am.

It was like the drug addict Jeff Hardy

died that night because, in a way, I kind of,

I needed that to realize how bad I was.

[Matt] That was the wake-up call that it took for him to

totally stop taking pills altogether,

so that is the only positive that I can say

came out of it when it was all said and done.

[Jeff] I hate that it happened for Jeff.

I hate that it happened for the brand.

I hate that it happened on Dixie's watch.

She moved me out, and she's in,

so no matter who you put under her,

she's ultimately responsible,

and this happened on her watch.

[Narrator] By the end of 2011,

a sober Jeff Hardy redeems himself by defeating

Jeff Jarrett in a loser leaves TNA match,

allowing Jarrett to step away from the ring and

focus on new ventures, including Ring Ka King,

a TNA offshoot based in India.

[Announcer] [Indistinct commentary]

[Jeff] By this time, the financial situation

was beginning to get bad,

and it was going from bad to worse.

[Narrator] With the company's financials trending downward,

Hulk Hogan's time in TNA comes to an end

less than four years after it began.

[Dixie] I know that a lot of you are not happy with

some of the decisions I've made lately.

[Eric] I just remember when Hulk made up his mind

that it was time for him to leave.

We wanted to do it within the context

of a storyline, as opposed to Hulk just leaving.

[Dixie] Hulk Hogan, we have some business

in the ring now.

[Eric] It was probably my idea to have Dixie go

as far as she did, trying to get Hulk Hogan to stay.

[Hulk] It's an amazing offer for somebody else,

not me, because I quit.

[Crowd] Oh! [Microphone dropping]

[Announcer] What? What?!

?

[Steiner] All angles, it's embarrassing.

[Hulk] Just let me go.

[Steiner] Just brutal, man.

But, you know, Dixie probably thought it was great,

because she was on TV.

[Vince] That's Eric Bischoff's character.

I- [stammering] I don't even want to know

the amount of those checks

that she wrote to both of them. And then,

because Hogan's got "creative control",

they're going to write him out that way to

completely 1,000% humiliate her.

Humiliate her.

That shows you his character.

That is disgusting.

[Jeff] What an incredible masterpiece of a job that

Hulk and Eric and whoever else was involved

convinced her to do that. [Dixie] You are fired!

[Jeff] I would have never done that if I was Dixie.

It said everything

about her knowledge of the industry.

[Narrator] As the company slips deeper into

financial trouble, Jeff Jarrett turns to

a legendary country music artist for help.

[Jeff] My old buddy, Toby Keith.

You know, Toby saw the little engine that could in TNA

month after month and year after year

grow to heights.

I saw him at a show,

and he asked how things were going, and I said,

"Toby, it's a financial death spiral."

He's like, "Damn, and you don't have no power?"

I said, "Zero." He said, "Let's get it back."

And I said, "You're serious?"

He said, "I am dead effing serious."

The attorneys met Toby at his golf course and

went into their song and dance about, "Mr. Keith,

we sure would like to get you on board."

He said, "Folks, there's no doubt I know

what Toby Keith's brand can do,

but are we talking about with or without Jeff?"

They hemmed and hawed and stammered around

and said, "Well, we can kind of talk about it."

He said, "We have nothing to talk about.

Jeff's my guy, and if Jeff's not running the show,

I'm out."

And he got up and walked to the tee box.

So that's when I knew

that the nose wasn't coming up.

So I said, "Yeah, I've spent enough time on this,"

and that's when I hit send on the email

that I resigned from the company.

Jeff Jarrett departs TNA,

he remains determined to make his mark on the

wrestling business, launching a new promotion,

Global Force Wrestling.

[Jeff] I kind of got my head together and

named the company in 2014.

I ran the Grand Slam Tour,

the 20-something baseball shows,

and... and my old Canadian buddies

from Anthem acquired TNA.

Dixie was essentially

reduced to a few points, if you will.

[Jim] There came a point where Bob and Janice Carter,

Dixie's parents, had had enough.

"We've spent enough money."

So Dixie was out, and Anthem took the company over.

And they had wanted to change the TNA name for years,

and they changed it to Impact,

because at least that was less offensive

than the childishness.

The new owners of TNA

get together with Global Force Wrestling.

[Jeff] I'll never forget Ed Nordholm from

Anthem Sports and Entertainment.

He said, "Oh, I know you got Global Force,

but is there a way to take the old brand and

merge them together?" Karen was very skeptical.

[Karen] [Scoffing]

I get PTSD from hearing that.

I think Jeff thought, "Hey, I did this once.

I can do it again."

A lot changed in the world of wrestling

and network TV.

[Jeff] I'm like, "Man...

we can make this thing run again."

I'm taking the joint back over.

The place that I built.

[David] When Jeff came back with Anthem,

it's probably the

darkest I ever saw of Jeff Jarrett.

And I think one of the mistakes Jeff made

when he came back was that

he was kind of like on a revenge tour.

He wanted to stick it to Dixie.

He wanted to stick it to everybody who he felt

was not on his side when he left.

[Jeff] I kind of knew in my heart of hearts

that I was, I was struggling.

In less than two months,

the realities became crystal clear.

I was fed a bunch of bullshit.

That here I am now merging the brands

and there is no money.

And so if people thought I was angry or upset,

they were right.

[Karen] He was a shell of the human being

that he was before.

It wasn't the same Jeff.

He was so broken. I felt sorry for him.

He was worried about taking care of me,

taking care of our kids.

Part of me justified his drinking.

[David] He was battling some substance issues

and he was trying though.

We didn't say anything because it's Jeff Jarrett,

he's the boss, but we kind of knew and it saddened us

because we felt he wasn't making the best decisions

for the company in that moment.

[Scott] I pass no judgment. I come from,

I come from a family that's had a lot of addiction

problems, but clearly at that point in time,

Jeff was not in a great space.

[Jeff] A cardinal rule that I had for years is I would

never drink until I knew

not only that my match was over,

is that I would not be really in public.

And I started breaking that rule and having

a little bit here and a little bit there.

[Karen] I tried to get him to get help several times,

but he just, "I don't have a problem.

I don't have a problem." He def- he had a problem.

[Jeff] And you know, I'll never forget that, uh-

man...

I was at a pool party

in my backyard

and I looked down at my gut

and I go,

not on my watch.

I'm never gonna have a beer gut.

?

And that day I switched to vodka,

literally that day.

That was not a good decision.

[Karen] He would start drinking at 10 a.m.

or he would drink all day.

I wasn't just watching from the outside.

I was living it.

He was killing himself.

[Narrator] With his drinking problem worsening,

Jeff leaves Karen behind and

travels to Mexico for AAA's Triplemania,

one of the country's biggest wrestling events.

[Jeff] I mean, I have processed this scene

so many different times.

Flew down on a Friday morning,

show on the Saturday.

That entire Friday I was called to the building:

"Hang out in the dressing room,

and we'll come get you for rehearsals."

Well, I had the bottle in my bag and noon came along

and had one drink and two came along

and another drink and another drink

and another drink and another drink.

And it got 9 or 10 o'clock at night on the Friday

and I'd never done a rehearsal

and it was time for me to go to the hotel.

So we loaded up and so that's when

that drunk started, on the Friday midday.

And I woke up the next day,

like any active alcoholic,

get up, have a good breakfast,

and I'm gonna have me a drink

before I go to the building.

And one thing led to another.

Jeff, you gotta go in the ring.

- Come on. - No! [Laughing]

[Jeff] It was, you know, very obvious to folks

that I was in no condition to perform.

[Blowing a raspberry]

Before I knew it, I went out,

had no business going to the ring.

[Announcer] He's throwing some promotional-

Wait a minute.

Is that what I think it is?

He's throwing out tortillas.

Amazing that Jeff Jarrett would travel all the way

to Mexico City from Hendersonville, Tennessee

to disrespect and mock this crowd.

[Jeff] It's fucking bullshit is what it is.

Get the fuck out of here.

Fuck you, motherfucker!

[Staff & Wrestlers] No, no, no, no!

[Indistinct shouting]

[Jeff] It was an ugly situation.

[Jeff] Come here, you little cunt!

Come and get me!

[Jeff] Flew home on Labor Day,

came into the office on that Tuesday and

Lynn Asper and Ed were at the office.

And then Ed just said, "Hey, we want you

to go to outpatient treatment."

And that really caught me off guard.

[Scott] When the decision was made to

send Jeff to rehab,

at that point, I think Jeff was pretty mad at me.

And I said, if Jeff never talks to me again,

but gets clean, I'll be okay with that.

?

[Karen] Him being sent home that second time,

disastrous for him. Absolutely disastrous.

The canoe tipped

and completely fucking capsized.

[Narrator] Once again, sent home from

the company he helped build,

Jeff Jarrett enters outpatient treatment

for alcoholism.

[Jeff] I cleaned my office out.

They said, "You got six weeks

and let's get this thing under control."

I went to outpatient treatment for

four hours a day for six weeks.

I sat at the front of the class,

took the best notes,

put on the mask of Jeff,

the outpatient that's gonna kick this

drinking problem's ass.

And there was a double shot in Calgary and Edmonton.

The following Friday's when I got on the plane,

sit down in first class, the stewardess came by

and she's got her little notepad.

And she said, "Mr. Jarrett, can I get you

anything to drink?" And I literally said,

"I'll take a double rum and Coke."

At the time I had no idea how much of a denial

I was in. I drank all the way to Calgary.

And after it was over,

get on the plane, continue to drink.

Went home, woke up on Sunday,

continue to drink.

[Jeff Hardy] The scariest thing about like

places like that, the rock bottom places is,

man, it's just like, how am I gonna survive this?

How am I gonna get through this?

So I'm sure Jeff was in that spots where like, oh my God,

how am I gonna come back from this?

[Karen] There were two different times that

I had to call 911

because I couldn't get him awake

and was worried that he was dying.

Just, it got so bad.

[Jeff] I was out of my mind.

And on that Monday morning, I woke up,

she had gotten the kids to school and

I was sitting in my recliner, TV on.

She walked back in and she just said,

"Jeff, what are you going to do?"

?

And you can call it a moment of clarity.

I call it God speaking through me.

I said, "I'm going to treatment."

And she just kind of looked at me

and she said, "Are you serious?"

I said, "Yes."

I couldn't really believe

how things had transpired.

Like how in the hell did I get myself in this position?

She started making the calls and finally she got

the WWE Wellness folks on the phone.

[Karen] Then we got on a plane and we flew to Tampa.

I was scared and

I was worried just leaving him there

and not being able to be there with him.

I didn't want to leave him.

[Jeff] I didn't even know what an alcoholic truly was

before I got to treatment.

For me, it all started

as the little, scared 5-year-old boy

who was sent to go to private school.

The only one there that the dad never showed up.

The dad was on TV wrestling.

When I came to the realization

that I had resentment

at my dad,

estrangement on any relationship is painful.

And I liken it to dragging a massive ball

around on your ankle.

You're pulling that anger.

You're pulling that resentment.

You're pulling that bad relationship.

But we knew that wrestling had,

specifically TNA had really driven a wedge.

And you know, since that, we had time to reconnect

and he knew that I had a problem.

[Karen] When Jeff reconciled with his dad,

it was definitely a tough thing.

I'm grateful that it happened.

[Jeff] Understanding that when Owen fell 82 feet

to his death and I was in the ring

and walked through the crater

that his body left

and me sensing it,

but stuffing it and

putting on an emotional mask that

I had no idea I had on...

[Cheering crowd]

Dealing with

the passing of my first wife with three kids

and knowing that I've got to run an organization.

I gotta be a dad.

I've gotta wear these different masks.

I didn't even know who I was at this point.

?

In those 56 days, I finally got really

rigorous, honest with myself.

Got out a few days before Christmas.

I was super grateful

just to be home and alive.

[Jeff Hardy] To see him, like, you know, go to treatment

and just be the greatest human being

he possibly can be, it's just so inspirational.

[Jeff] The first Sunday of 2018,

the phone rang

and it was WWE.

?

Went into the bathroom.

"Karen, I just got a phone call,"

and she just stopped in her tracks and

we connected eyes through her looking in her mirror.

"Vince wants to put me in the Hall of Fame."

I was completely overwhelmed with emotion.

The journey that I had traveled since 1993.

WWF runs and the WCW runs

and the IC title and the world title

and the TNA years

and treatment, and this is how 2018 started.

I was blown away.

Karen and the kids,

we've been through a lot.

You guys are my rock. - [Applause]

And to my dad, we've had our ups and downs,

but I thank the good Lord that we're on a up.

Thank you for what you've done for me in this business.

Without those valleys,

it's impossible to have the mountaintops.

Jeff Jarrett is at in 2026,

I work for AEW, and AEW is founded

by a guy who at the very end of the day,

we're so aligned in one thing.

And that's the passion of professional wrestling.

[Tony] Jeff has so much experience in pro wrestling.

He's been involved in thousands of

wrestling live events all over the world.

And so I love having Jeff in the office.

[Jeff] I don't even really know how to put it into words

because when I started at AEW, I was a heel.

[Announcer] Watch out!

[Jeff] And then all of a sudden,

I'm asked to be in the

Owen Hart Invitational Tournament.

Producer sat me down.

Much like the camera in front of me now.

They ask,

"Hey Jeff, what does Owen mean to you?"

?

And to this day, I'm getting emotional.

It's hard for me to imagine.

It's been 25 years... [Sniffling]

but there's so many things about Owen

that I remember

like it was yesterday.

And there was no wrestling storyline.

There was no angle.

There was none of that.

And that resonated somehow, someway.

Enter the tournament and quote-unquote,

I was walking through the curtain as a heel.

But the people that night in Chicago,

I'll never forget that.

They accepted me as a babyface.

There was a massive

full circle moment for myself that...

the kid from Hendersonville...

[Clearing throat] It was special.

[Tony] I think Jeff Jarrett is in a great place.

He's sober. He's healthy.

He's happy. He looks great.

For all the hard hitting action and wrestling

he's been through and the great matches,

Jeff still moves around like a young, young man,

whether it's competing in the ring or helping

train the young wrestlers where Jeff has

great ideas and great insights.

[Karen] I think Jeff's greatest joy is

working with younger talent.

He loves teaching.

He loves watching

people grow, become stars.

There's a certain gratification in

contributing to the making of a talent.

[Jeff] I'm more excited and engaged and passionate

about professional wrestling today

than I ever have been.

[Karen] Jeff will never retire.

He will be 90 years old and somehow

still contributing to this business.

[Matt] I'm very grateful for Jeff Jarrett

taking the chance, rolling the dice,

starting TNA himself and making that into a place.

Like, it's- He's changed the business.

I mean, there's no doubt about it.

And he has been heavily influential in the business.

And I think he will be for a long time to come.

[Vince] Between Jeff's understanding

of the business, Jeff's eye for talent,

Jeff's dedication,

Jeff's commitment, Jeff's hard work-

If Jeff would have never

lost control of that company,

God knows where TNA would be right now.

I mean that from the bottom of my heart.

[Announcer] Nashville, Tennessee has been the

home of TNA Wrestling for more than two decades.

[Steiner] It should have died a thousand deaths already.

But it's, yeah, it's still kicking.

[Jeff Hardy] To be a pro wrestler in TNA

here in 2026 and the last couple of years

has been so great for my brother and I.

Whoever said that they wouldn't last, I mean,

they are proven wrong.

[Eric] I hope the fact that TNA is still

alive and kicking makes Jeff feel proud.

The entity that's called TNA today,

although it is a completely different company,

wouldn't exist had it not been

for Jeff and Jerry Jarrett.

[D'Lo] TNA is absolutely thriving today with

everything it's gone through.

It feels like TNA is just a microcosm of

Jeff Jarrett's life...

still standing somehow.

[Jeff Hardy] The story of TNA is the story of Jeff Jarrett

because TNA is Jeff Jarrett.

[Scott] If Jeff Jarrett would have disappeared

when Jill got sick and passed,

if Jeff Jarrett would have disappeared

with all the drama with him and Karen,

if Jeff would have disappeared in 2017 and

wouldn't have kept just fighting and coming back and

believing when there's no rational reason to believe,

then we don't have one of the greatest success stories

that's ever transpired.

[Steiner] It's not how many times you get knocked down

it's how many times you can back up.

And a lot of people get knocked down in life.

Everybody has setbacks,

but every time he's gotten knocked down,

he's gotten back up and coming back stronger, so...

[Jeff] Some people called me stupid, naive,

an idiot, but I bet on myself.

And that is something that

I can look my children in their eyes:

Get up to bat, get in the game.

It makes life so rewarding.

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