During his recent podcast on AdFreeShows.com, Jeff Jarrett talked about the origins of the TNA brand name:
“Me and Vince (Russo) obviously had the conversation. I’m sure J.B. (Jeremy Borash), Disco, I mean there probably could have been multiples, but me and Vince probably had the most extensive conversations. The conversation went back to me and my father that I was ready, willing and able to shoulder the load. I came off WCW and WWF, and the single biggest deciding factor, in my opinion, on the success or failure of a wrestling company is you have to have the buck stop with someone. So, the buck stopped with me. You can point fingers at Vince Russo, or Jerry Jarrett, or a number of folks over the years. If the buck stops with you, you’re ultimately, so it was me…A PPV only company, we were still going with the mindset in Pat Patterson’s words, ‘a little something extra’, so the double entendre with no commercials…This was two hour, commercial free, on PPV and using the double entendre, so the Total Nonstop Action was the commercial free, and the other version of t*ts and a*s, the other version of TNA, was just that.”
“That was a pivot off of ‘We love TNA, the double entendre.’ I say we, but I’m not going to throw people in my bucket unless they are willing. Lots of folks hated on that name, but I didn’t hear anybody say, ‘Oh Jeff, that’s going to put you out of business.’ It was, again context, coming off the Attitude Era, we were strictly a PPV only. We could get away with more stuff, so we were going to have girls dancing in cages. We were going to push the envelope, not go over the line, but go right up to the line. Going back to Tuesday Night Attitude, Tuesday went away. PPV companies were not enamored with that. That was a big replay night. That was a big movie night. They wanted us on Wednesdays. I wasn’t opposed to that. It’s sitting in the middle of the week. Maybe it works a little better, again, my eternal optimism. I can bring talent in on Wednesday and they can work the independents…It rolled off the tongue, TNA Wrestling…You would never say TNA without wrestling. I remember saying, ‘Why would you ever leave it with just TNA?’ People don’t know TNA. You don’t just say that, ever.”
