WWE Hall of Famer Jeff Jarrett appeared on “Insight With Chris Van Vliet,” where he discussed various topics, including the origin of TNA Wrestling’s famous six-sided ring.
Jarrett said, “Antonio Peña is a big Double J fan, God bless him, God rest his soul. But we had done a talent exchange, X-Division in the Asylum days, and he came up and he kind of laid out, ‘Jeff, I want to bring you to Mexico and obviously be the antagonist, be a big heel, the American businessman.’ I could remember him explaining, and someone there that was completely bilingual, he went into ‘Jeff, we want to portray you as not only the King of the Mountain wrestler, but also an American businessman that is coming to take over.’ So he really laid the ground floor. So brought me down there, became red hot as a heel, but I can remember showing up for one of the big shows, and there sits the six-sided ring, and this is where timing in our industry sounds so cliché, but timing is everything. I was down there, and I knew that we were in a transition period, about to go to Orlando, just all the different moving parts. Again, the MMA world, we’re now 20-plus years in. If you go back to those days where MMA sat, it was red hot, really hot, and really coming on the scene. So the Octagon was this cool-looking vibe, and these warriors get in there and battle it out, and then I just looked at the six-sided ring and said, okay, this is going to differentiate us from the WWE. It’s going to differentiate us from every other promotion, certainly WCW back in the day, it’s going to be different. And so, when I looked at that from that perspective, I immediately knew I’m taking this back home.”
On if there was any talk of bringing back the Six-Sided Ring when TNA was revived in 2024:
“I have no idea. I’ve told multiple people this story. ‘Hey, what do you think about that?’ I immediately said, about damn time. Yes, it is something that I believe in. This is where kind of a confirmation in that, and look, no need to debate it, but when they went from TNA wrestling and the name of the television show to call it iMPACT to iMPACT Wrestling. As a promoter or a marketer, you talk about the old adage, confuse them, you lose them. It just went south there. So 2017 going back, I had longer term plans, obviously that didn’t work out, but when they finally went back, my gut told me, and who knows. I don’t think I’ve even asked about this, but bringing the name back, I thought for sure the next thing that would follow would be a six-sided ring.”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
