WWE Hall of Famer Jeff Jarrett, who is also All Elite Wrestling’s Director of Business Development, appeared on an episode of his “My World with Jeff Jarrett” podcast. In it, he discussed various topics, including TNA Wrestling trying to make AJ Styles the new version of Ric Flair in 2010.
Jarrett said, “Let’s remove AJ from the homegrown, Georgia boy — I mean, in so many ways by 2010, he was the heart and soul of the promotion. I mean, a day oner that had risen up to the ranks in his interview skills. And look, his in-ring skills are always great, but just as a complete performer had really started to mature. And it goes without saying, Ric doesn’t need anybody. And whoever he’s around — I don’t care if it’s a 15-second pre-tape or a 25-minute match, and Ric is just at ringside. Ric is going to be the focal point, no doubt about it. So from a booking standpoint, a creative standpoint, from an overall promoter skillset standpoint, it was destined to fail because you negated any reason to either hate or like AJ. At this point, I think he was going down the heel route, but you just completely sweep that under the rug. And then all of a sudden you’ve got Ric who — again, didn’t need to be whatever it was. It was just a mess, dude. It was a complete mess. And I’ll say this, I thought Hogan’s debut couldn’t have gone any worse, and I think Ric’s kind of casually showing up, just — nothing really bit. Nothing, not memorable, not a moment where you go, ‘Holy crap, Ric Flair is in TNA.’”
On the state of TNA in 2010:
“Really looking at TNA through a lens of looking back on — you know, I don’t say just hindsight’s 20/20. But being able to get to a 30,000 [foot] viewpoint is, 2010 not only had — we’ll call it a lot of Jeff’s roster, but it had a lot of Hulk and Eric’s roster, and too many bodies. And we were still quote-unquote ‘only doing a two-hour show.’ The Xplosion show that went around the world was a one-hour that — look, not a huge budget. And it always ebbs and flows. Way too many pieces of talent, and so when you have too many pieces of talent it’s — a lot of ways people can get lost in the shuffle like that. And that’s the reality is, Desmond [Nigel McGuinness] was pushed to the moon, October, November and December. Hogan comes in. Essentially, that was over.”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
