AEW's Jeff Jarrett Explains Why He Was 'Half-Crazy' To Pursue TNA In 2002

When WWE bought out WCW and ECW went out of business in 2001, the wrestling world had a huge void that needed to be filled, not just for fans to consume more content, but for wrestlers who could earn a living. One such person who bounced around the world in the wake of WCW's demise was Jeff Jarrett who was convinced he wouldn't get a job in WWE and founded TNA Wrestling in 2002 with his father Jerry and Bob Ryder.

Jarrett admitted on his "My World" podcast that he was taking on a huge task when starting the company in 2002.

"I was half crazy to really pursue that, in so many ways because of the marker conditions I think is the most simplistic term," Jarrett said. "The market conditions, knowing that TV networks would not even take a meeting because of the positioning of professional wrestling in the marketplace coming off the Attitude era, so not sponsor-friendly at all."

Jarrett claimed that trying to start up a wrestling company that could land on TV a year after Time Warner canceled wrestling on its networks, despite "WCW Monday Nitro" and "WCW Thunder" still earning strong ratings every week, was borderline insanity. It didn't help that there was a perceived notion amongst internet message boards and top names in the wrestling media constantly comparing TNA to WWE at the time, but he is still happy that TNA was able to succeed.

Please credit "My World" when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.