WWE Hall of Famer Jeff Jarrett, who is currently the Director of Business Development for All Elite Wrestling (AEW), recently appeared on an episode of his podcast, “My World with Jeff Jarrett.” During this episode, he discussed various topics, including TNA Wrestling’s past issues with covering talent’s medical bills due to the involvement of Panda Energy, the parent company of TNA.
Jarrett said, “I don’t want this to come out [the wrong way], because I’ve said it multiple times: I am very grateful for Bob Carter and all the contributions. And the entire Carter family, and Panda. But when you drill it right down to it, the unfortunate part of that relationship from the beginning — and I think at the very core? Look, my dad and them going their separate ways, and the ugliness that didn’t need to be ugly… it always to me — and look, hindsight is 2020. It always circles back to — and this is where, in a lot of ways, the business should be very very grateful and a lot of folks. In that — you know, the Khan family is in multiple businesses but they are a sports franchise owner. Fulham and Jags. And so they understand kind of that that world that, if you’re going to get injured playing on the franchise’s stop clock, then the bill’s gotta to be paid. Whereas the Carters — and I’m not saying by any stretch they are bad folks — but their mindset was, ‘Hey guys, these are 1099s. If a plumber gets’ you know, I don’t want to make it sound so distasteful. But they just looked its talent as 1099 guys. And if 1099 guys get hurt on the job, they’re not responsible.”
On the disconnect:
“And no matter how many conversations me — and not just me, many others tried to have, they just didn’t look at medical bills the way that they should have. But that was running a small business by the bootstraps, trying to build it month after month and get into profitability… At the end of the day, they were still energy folks running an entertainment business, and therein lies the clash. And so, an unfortunate situation, but that really is the reality, is that they didn’t understand the wrestling business as being truly an entertainment business in that fact, that, ‘Hey, man, it’s TNA Entertainment’s ring, and therefore you got the liability.’ They just didn’t do it that way.”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
