Chael Sonnen Says He Won't Work For GFW Unless They Get A U.S. TV Deal, Thinks GFW Will Absorb TNA

On episode 250 of the Steve Austin Show, 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin welcomed former MMA fighter and current GFW expert analyst Chael Sonnen to the podcast. During the interview, Sonnen discussed his experience thus far with GFW and shared his thoughts on TNA.

Sonnen suggested to Austin that either GFW was unprepared at the first production meeting Sonnen attended or Jeff Jarrett has a great deal of faith in Sonnen, as he was not a part of the original script for the first GFW show. Sonnen indicated that he was informed about the first production meeting secondhand, though he was flown out to Las Vegas first class, his hotel room was paid for by GFW, and he was paid to be there. During the meeting, the crew went through the entire first show and Sonnen realized that he was not on the show at all.

"I said to [Jarrett] after this meeting, I said, 'Jeff, I'm not in the show'," Sonnen said. "And he says, 'did you want to be?' And I said, 'well, yeah! Yeah, I wanted to be!' So he opens up the script and he thumbs to, like, page three and he sticks his big old finger on the page and says, 'why don't you come in right here?' That's all he said. He doesn't say, 'you're going face [or] you're going heel; you're going to be edited in, edited out; promote the next show.' He tells me absolutely nothing."

With respect to Sonnen's role as expert analyst for GFW, Sonnen acknowledged that "unless [Jarrett] gets a television deal, there's nothing for me to commentate."

"If he [Jarrett] goes and signs a deal in Turkey, which he's actually being offered one, that isn't going to be my voice," Sonnen said. "I don't speak Turkish. That's going to be someone else, so for me to participate, he [has] got to get an American deal. I trust that he will, but it's a gamble and unless he does, I'm really not part of the show."

As for Jarrett's current relationship with TNA, Sonnen stated that Jarrett owns more than 11% of TNA, but that Jarrett told him that he does not own enough of the company to go in and control the board. Sonnen admitted that he thinks TNA is going to go under, but that Jarrett is going to absorb TNA's talent and that it will all be rebranded as GFW.

In addition to talking about GFW and TNA, Sonnen shared his thoughts on Ronda Rousey, he talked about whether he might become a professional wrestler, and he told a story about pitching a ridiculous gimmick to Sheamus. Click here to listen to the rest of the podcast.

Source: The Steve Austin Show