The Rise & Fall Of TNA | Wrestling Timelines

37. March 11, 2002 | Early Whispers

In the March 11, 2002 issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer covers the dismal state of U.S. wrestling in the shadow of the WWF’s monopoly. He wades through the laughable attempts to create an alternative to the market leader: doomed outfits established by purveyors of deeply ugly hardcore pornography; promotions that operate as desperate, short-term cash-grabs; outfits that only pretend to exist to bilk naive investors out of money. There is some optimism, because Meltzer writes the following:

“There is one other product quietly starting up in the background. There have apparently been negotiations between Jerry Jarrett and InDemand PPV. The idea seems to be based around the idea of doing weekly PPV events, in primetime, most likely on Wednesday nights, at $9.95 a pop.” 

Meltzer exercises caution over the development, citing the fatal lack of television. The pro wrestling landscape in the United States is shattered. The shuttering of WCW in 2001, and the declining WWF of 2002, hardly positions pro wrestling as a viable option for a TV industry that, pre-streaming, is very far from dead. The industry and the advertising industry that sustains it had a very dim view of wrestling to begin with. Advertisers largely believe that the average pro wrestling fan is uneducated and poor. Why sell to those who can’t buy? This stigma undermined pro wrestling’s commercial potential even during the boom. 

Jarrett however is a pro wrestling genius, the man who drafted the blueprint for weekly episodic television in his heyday as the mastermind behind the Memphis territory. He’s old and out of touch, but this might prove to be a feature, not a bug, in a schlock-polluted landscape in dire need of a back-to-basics approach. He and son Jeff are convinced to give this a try at the urging of Bob Ryder: former WCW employee and architect of the ‘Internet Wrestling Community’. 

Ryder becomes the first and, until his death in November 2020, longest-serving TNA employee. 

Under the banner of Jarrett Sports Entertainment and “presented” by the old governing body of the industry in the U.S., NWA:TNA is soon to be born.