TNA Ownership Timeline, With Comments By Former Employee

What follows is a TNA "Ownership Timeline" that was created by Marcus Cygy at http://www.cygy.com/ , with comments in bold type by former TNA Prodsuction Manager, Randy Ricci http://nawf.com/blog/?p=1005 . The timetable is informative, and Mr. Ricci's comments are his opinion clearly, but interesting. Randy Ricci sent this to me...

Enjoy..........

For me this is good info. It’s nothing I didn’t know but, the timelines they provide are good as I just haven’t had the time or brain power of late to dig it up. It’s well written and unbiased. I’m sorry but, I can’t acchieve that as I am emotionally involved.
Either way, look for my comments in bold because I have some good stuff on the topics as I was talking with Jeff, Jerry, etc. for some of it.

By Marcus Cygy
As many wrestling critics will tell you right now, the privately traded TNA Entertainment wrestling promotion is going through backstage turmoil of sorts.

Since the day TNA Wrestling was first founded in 2002, to the immediate days of when Panda Energy became a majority owner, co-founder Jeff Jarrett has remained atop the political ladder of business in TNA. Well now the legitimate woman in power, TNA President and Chairwoman Dixie Carter, has begun flexing her muscles upon progressing a political power shift.

If memory serves, Dixie was working somehow with WCW or Jeff personally selling WCW merchandise. I can’t confirm but, I was lead to believe that she was such a fan of wrestling that she was offering her services for nothing. I mean that was the “word” anyway.

For those unclear of TNA Wrestling’s ownership details, I have written up a timeline that will highlight the business moves that have occurred between the Jarrett and Carter family over the years.

Here is the TNA Wrestling ownership timeline:

May 10, 2002: Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, traded as J Sports and Entertainment, is founded by father and son, Jerry and Jeff Jarrett.

Jeff actually planned on starting the company with his own $1 million investment. I had always kept in touch with Jerry Jarrett over the years. Jerry is a creative cat. There have been some really good ideas he had asked me to get involved with that were “NEAR SUCCESS’S”!
Years back, I started a wrestling school and I asked Jerry to endorse it. Here’s what he had to say:

“Rockin’ Randy worked for me on and off for 5 years. He is a charismatic personality and premiere athlete who is most proficient in ring skills. In the right setting, Randy will be a premiere player in our industry.”

(not sure if he’d say it today though). The timeline says May of ‘02.

I would say then, in May of 01, I had been communicating with Jerry with ideas in regard to the wrestling business. He told me that Jeff had been talking to him as well and that we were both “nuts” and “marks” because the industry was DEAD! Jerry may have even coined the phrase “deader than Kelseys nuts” when he said it. He told me “I’m going to tell you the same thing I told Jeff…give it up! Its over!! You are both smart and young and if you want to, come work for me. I’m now a developer and the smartest thing I ever did was giving up wrestling for this!”

At the time, I held Jerry in a very high regard (I still do but, I have a bit of an axe to grind). So, hearing this from what I considered, “the horse’s mouth” sucked!

You know Jeff had his run and saved his money. I never had that run and I only knew (so I believed) the industry I was currently in and wrestling. And I had blown a few really good opportunities with WWF around this time to build my business and to be a husband and father that was home. (I wish I had a crystal ball sometimes not that I regret anything because of my kids but, I knew this girl would’ve never met me half way. I should have grabbed more out of my life than I have given to her. As much as this hurts to say, I have a right to be pissed at her but, I’m the one that did what I did and let her take advantage and then
allowed her to get used to that).

While the company was still in begining stages, I got a call from Jerry asking If I would make the trip to Nashville and bring some talent with for him to take a look at as he and Jeff were going to start a wrestling company?
I said “what happened to Jeff and I being marks and idiots? I thought you were done with the business??” To Jerry’s credit, he owned the statements and even knew that this could very well be a “mistake” but, he did his homework in regard to Pay Per View revenue at this time. And he felt that he had better help Jeff because he had a partner but, had already put up $1 million of his own money. Bottom line was Jerry knew Jeff was serious and saw the potential in PPV.

His original plan was not to use ex-WCW/WWE fallouts. He planned on using guys that there was current mystique with, international talent, unsung hero’s with talent, and the one thing that Jerry and Jeff agreed upon and knew they would build their company around was A.J. Styles! They knew the guy was special and saw him as a “break out star”! There’s a hell of a lot more to go with this story but, I’m sure you get the “gist” of the scenario.

June 2002: The president of Monterey Peninsula Talent (a booking agency) contacts Dixie Carter and informs her that TNA Wrestling, a newly up started wrestling promotion, is seeking a marketing and publicity outlet employee. TNA Wrestling hires Dixie Carter, the daughter of Panda Energy International owner, Robert W. Carter.

I want to say that this guys name is James Yelich. Im not exactly sure how important it is to the story or how Yelich and Monterey knew the Jarrett’s but, in the Nashville entertainment circles both Jeff and Jerry were well known.

Monterey, Yelich, Andy Barton, and Dixie knew each other from the country music social circle. Old timer’s that I know from those circles see Andy and Yelich as DO-DO’S that have somehow been able to hang on in that industry because of the fact they have degrees. Which, they are probably part of the first wave in that industry to have the “wall mounts”.

I’m sure this is the “time line” but, I am also sure there is more to the “reported” story than Dixie handling Jeff and Jerry’s company’s P.R.!

Jeff already knew Dixie as the Jarrett’s condo in Dallas (I think N. Dallas) neighbors Dixies. I also know that the Jarretts had planned for the worst with HealthSouth. I also just happened to call Jerry as he was landing in Dallas to speak with a potential “MAJORITY INVESTOR”.

To give you an example of the statements I make about Monterey, they get a percentage of the TNA live event gates (house shows only) and are not penciled in for any tv or TNA profits (not there are any) so, that kind of proves my friends, the “old timers” in the music industry’s theories.

And if they contacted Dixie just to do P.R. for their company, why would that entitle Monterey to a touring percentage??? Yelich, Barton, and Dixie all went to college together and are “thick as thieves” since then! Yelich and Barton are basically Dixies advisors. Odd eh?

I had also talked to Jerry after his meeting (on other items) and his meeting went well!

June 19, 2002: TNA Wrestling produces their first live pay-per-view event in Huntsville, Alabama with their key financial backer, the HealthSouth Corporation out of Birmingham, Alabama.

Like i said above, strange things were already afoot with HealthSouth and Jerry has a “great nose” for danger! He can’t be faulted for being a smart businessman. So the Jarrett’s “ducks were in a row”.

August 2002: Suffering from its own financial problems due to an on-going investigation against them for accounting irregularities, HealthSouth Corporation pulls out as a financial backer of TNA Wrestling.

This really sucked because HealthSouth did NOT want to “play live wrestling dolls” or book the wrestling angles. They saw this as an opportunity to get there name out there worst case scenario. I personally believe the wanted to go national with a fitness campaign that went way beyond just re-hab or physical therapy.

You may say here “that the Jarretts couldn’t have done much better”. This is NOT true! Once Jerry knew there was a solid business model in place, he would have deligated creative power to quilified peopl that he knew were good and that they could trust. Jerry will tell you himself that many folks think he was a “booking genius”. He claims that he was only genius enough to HIRE PEOPLE SMARTER THAN HIM that knew what they were doing!

Walt Disney shared this philosophy as well. Dixie, Yelich, and Barton don’t get that.

September 2002: TNA Wrestling at this point is about to suffer a quick demise. With little financial aid from the Jarrett family alone, TNA President Jeff Jarrett meets with TNA employee Dixie Carter to discuss a possible sale of the promotion to her father’s company, Panda Energy.

Kind of. See above.

October 31, 2002: Panda Energy, a Dallas, Texas-based energy company, purchases a controlling interest of 72% from the Nashville, Tennessee-Based professional wrestling promotion, TNA Wrestling, from founder and CEO Jerry Jarrett along with co-founder and TNA President Jeff Jarrett for $250,000 USD. All interests owned by HealthSouth Corporation were also swept up by Panda Energy in the sale. The now former “J Sports and Entertainment” that was founded by Jerry and Jeff Jarrett is renamed “TNA Entertainment” by Panda Energy. The Jarrett’s own the remaining 28% of TNA Wrestling.

Here’s where it get’s EXTREMELY HAIRY and (pardon my French) FUCKED UP! The only way Jerry would focus his energy on this business risk was if Jeff gave him controlling interest. This wasn’t stupid on Jeffs part because Jerry knew how to get investors and how those relationships worked, Jeff was smart enough and has a degree as well but, the “old man” wrote the book on this!

Jerry wasn’t out of line either as he had a multi million dollar development company he built from the ground up! And was already grooming his other son Jason to take that over. (incidently, Jason is doing very well with the company. Smart kid!).

Even though this was about as calculated a risk as someone could take, it was a risk AND… Jerry had already comitted to this as he also signed a HUGE “make over” deal with BP (British Petroleum).

BP filed bankruptcy on Jerry. This put him for the first time in his adult life in financial peril as well. He had to file for person bankruptcy and so did his development company. I think of this much like Vince turning his focus to the XFL and WWE suffering because of it. One simply can’t balance both because these ventures are too big and it would way too long to find the “right people” for all that!

I can’t say for sure but, Jerry was too smart to put himself behind the “8 BALL” with BP or anyone. I’ve always thought it was because his focus was on TNA. His company is doing well (a heart attack and the split of a family later).

May 2003: Dixie Carter is appointed TNA President and Chairwoman, while former TNA President Jeff Jarrett is moved to the Vice President position. Other Panda executives were hired, such as Chris Sobal, the Panda Manager of Business Development, to the TNA Vice President of Operations position, and Frank Dickerson was appointed TNA Chief Executive Officer. Panda’s Kevin Day later took Dickerson’s position in TNA.

The way I hear it, Day and Dickerson were both fantastic guys and businessmen. They just couldn’t handle the immaturity that comes along with Dixie and Andy Barton and the “ire” this immaturity brought out in Jeff (and Jerry) to defend what they perceived was their “baby”.

SIDENOTE: Day and Dickerson are accomplished businessmen. Look them up on Linkedin if you don’t believe me. Niether lasted a year there. What does that tell us about the situation? Bob Carter “handpicked” both men.

November 2005: After growing frustrated with the Carter family and visiting WWE offices one month prior in October, Panda Energy relinquishes Jerry Jarrett of his TNA duties as Jeff Jarrett buys his father out of his controlling interest of the company.

Here’s how it “went down”: Jerry had been put in the same position that Dixie and the situation has put Jeff in now. He was the Carter’s (Bob included) first target. He was just more intimidating to them and the relationship than Jeff was then.

Jerry was being paid $2500 a week to step down and stay away. Well to you and me, this would be just fine! But, this kind of money to Jerry wasn’t worth more than his pride. I don’t think that Jeff actually went against Jerry here.

But, Jerry perceived it that way as he figured that Jeff should walk out and stick with him considering all that had transpired up to this point. Most people would’ve felt their own son got them into this mess and he should keep that united front right?

In Jeff’s defense, he had $1 million of his own money into this and Jill was fighting for her life, literally! His world was a mess as well and I’m sure, if both of them were in better emotional conditions at the time, they may have stepped back, licked their wounds, and waited for these idiots to faulter and then come back in with their 28% interest and with someone else.
Jeff gets $i million per annum no matter what happens! This would’ve been typical Jarrett fashion because Jerry is smart enough to know this.

So is Jeff. I think Jeff was thinking he was “biding his time” hanging in there and it certainly appeared to Jerry that his son turned on him. Mostly because Jeff had made statements that had gotten back to Jerry in regard to Jerry’s age and his business sense slipping.

I don’t think Jeff meant it like it sounded. I think the both had the same “grand plan” but, it got personal between father and son. They are both extremely prideful and stubborn!

Now, I know these items because I have served as a “confidant” for both over the years. Jeff and I had talked and joked about my working with TNA (for that matter Jerry and I had too). There was something about the scenario I didn’t trust. I just knew in that quiet, sub concious, place in my soul that I would not be able to “spread my wings” as it would be perceived as intimidating rather than for the good of the company.

I was also working on a very smart and lucrative venture with Jerry where my talents would be better suited and it was a deal I had brought to the table.

I had been talking to both men at the time and deep in the bowels of my brain, where the “child like” hope that refuses to die dwells, I thought I could get these two back together. Number one because it would have been the right hing to do (and I was the only one conversing with both at the time) and number two because it would’ve been good for everyone involved on a business level as well.

Jerry Jarrett was approached by someone from an Eastern Block country with more money than the Carters! These folks offered him more than he would have made for 3 years from his TNA severance/salary to get that meeting directly with Vince Mcmahon.

However, this was NOT his sole motivation for going to Connecticut. He knew that if he did this, it would permanently “null and void” any future dealings with the Carters, Panda Energy, and TNA! Jerry has a heart condition now. He has had some specialized stress tests that show that his “ticker” does not respond well to that situation.

He and jeff were not talking at the time so Jeff (who again has the same pride his father has and is just as much a hard head) took that as PERSONAL!

Both men saw both situations the way they wanted to. There was NO ONE that could’ve made either see it differently!

Jerry finally decided that you’re either with Jeff or you were with Jerry. There was NO in between! Being that I was the only one “in between” and I wouldn’t “renounce” Jeff nor give up on doing business together, Jerry screwed up a lot of hard work and what could’ve been a 3rd “largest wrestling company”.

He cut me out of the new venture. But, when he did, he cut off his nose to spite his face. I don’t “fancy” myself half as smart as Jerry. But I posess a very keen street smart and I have learned that “knowledge is power”. I have also learned how certain knowledge is gathered and a guys like Jerry and Jeff for that matter, have never looked under those kind of rocks nor know where to find them!

After that blew up, I was pissed at Jerry as well now! I found some new partners and investors and tried to put the deal back together. I was still speaking to Jeff weekly and he had talked me into at least going to Nashville to interview.

I did not want to go to work for TNA! My wife begged me to. Thats a whole other story!

November 7, 2006: Panda Energy International merges its Ethanola Branch with Cirracor, Inc. The resultant company is known as Panda Ethanol, Inc. Panda Energy International remains Panda Ethanol’s largest share holder.

Like I’ve written, Dixie and Andy tried to make their first move on Jeff the same day Jill Jarrett passed away! Dixie was setting out cold cuts and cookies at Jeff’s house the afternoon of the day of Jill’s death and there were a few of us that already knew what she was up to! (remember the knowledge is power and my knack for looking under the right rocks) Part of me/us didn’t want to believe such a thing and we felt this has to be overlooked because our main purpose at the time was to try and be there for Jeff.

Ok, while CFO Dean Broadhead was at the bargaining table with Spike on the re-negotiating of the TNA contract and the “parlay” for the second hour, Jeff was still taking time for his children. Nobody asked me to be anything in the scenario but, I “saw the writing on the wall” and decided myself that I would hear and see what I could. I was concerned for myself, Jeff, and others futures.

Shortly after Jill had passed, I took a shot! I said to Dean, “why are you so stressed out? The company is for sale again eh?” (my area was right outside of Deans. I couldn’t hear anything but, I was close enough to his door that I just may have been able to.)

I also knew that Dean (who is a sharp guy) had his guard down due to personal issues that he had brought on himself.

Somewhat defensively, Dean shot back with “Boy news travels fast”. He then said “yeah, an investor wants out now and they want the 10mil that is owed to them as well. I need to go to Dallas and pull off a miracle”.

Because of this timeline I finally see that the said investor was the Panda Energy Ethanol branch. This was formerly the Panda Energy “Methanol” branch as they were one of the first to turn “cow shit” into energy (I had read about it in Business 2.0 magazine prior to working for TNA). And, like it says in the timeline, this branch is headed by Bob Carters son and Dixies brother.

Can you imagine how the wrestling climate, as a whole, would’ve changed if Spike TV would’ve had this information at the time? Or Panda Ethanol knew that TNA hadn’t paid the brunt of their bills for almost and entire quater? WOW!!!

July 19, 2009: TNA President Dixie Carter sends TNA Vice President Jeff Jarrett home on an indefinite leave of absence following backstage turmoil with current TNA World Heavyweight Champion, Kurt Angle.

This is not just Jeff’s fault. It’s Karen, Kurt, and Dixie’s as well!

July 31, 2009: TNA creative writers Dutch Mantel and Savio Vega, who were considered “Jarrett allies,” are released by Dixie Carter. Mantel had served a major part of the creative team since 2003.

I’ll say it again, extremely stupid moves. I just heard a comment today from a “key” part of the TNA Knockouts division that this person believes ” they just killed off the concept”! And all the girls are concerned.

August 2009: Turmoil continues to brew backstage as “Jarrett’s allies” play the waiting game as to if they will be released next or not. The general feeling is one of a “wait and see” when it comes to the possibility of Jeff Jarrett returning to the company he co-founded, or if Dixie Carter will force him to sell his remaining interests to Panda Energy. This would make the Carter family sole owners of Total Nonstop Action Wrestling.

Look, other than some of the talent roster (which they don’t know how to use obviously) the number one thing TNA has going is the quality of the production of IMPACT.

I’m not saying the quality is good! The production sucks! What I am saying is, David Sahadi, Keith Mitchell, Kevin Sullivan, Gregg Horne have all learned to “polish a turd!!!!”. They do not have the resources they need but, are still able to put together a program that warrants what TNA gets paid from Spike!

These guys are GENIUS in every sense of the word! Yes they are human and therfore flawed but, they have all ONLY been on board and put up with all this shit because of Jeff Jarrett! He has been the one to convince them to stick it out thru all of this shit that TNA has served up to them! And their crews are only there because they have convinced them to stay the way Jeff has with them.

So, not only does TNA not have qualified creative, enough talent agents, the production people are/were what TNA would consider Jeff’s ALLIES may just leave on their own if they aren’t fired. This is going to get interesting!