12 Things We Learned From Dark Side Of The Ring: TNA (Parts 1 & 2)

Not many wrestling fans gave a thought to who was financing TNA at the start. From the outside looking in, the Jarrett family had pooled their own cash to fund the outfit and that was that. Besides, people were just glad to have some sort of alternative to the WWF post-WCW and ECW, so did it really matter? News flash, it did to Jeff.

He'd sought out investors from HealthSouth to prop up TNA financially and stop it from burning too much of his personal savings. Then, mere weeks into the promotion's weekly PPV run, Jarrett received a call from HealthSouth. They told him that funding would be cut immediately. Elsewhere, news broke that family members had been falsifying financials at HealthSouth, so they were in legal hot water. Boss Richard Scrushy was in the thick of it.

After putting down the phone, Jeff knew he had “a massive amount of work in front of [him], with a very short timeframe”. Panicking but trying to keep a cool head, he made some calls to see what money he could drum up. That’s when he stumbled across Dixie Carter, and she advised Jeff speak to her parents who owned Panda Energy.

The rest is history, albeit history that'd become rather painful for Jarrett to revisit on 'Dark Side'. The Carter family's millions gave TNA a lifeline, but Dixie's dad Bob only agreed to fund the company if his daughter played a key role in the office.

Dixie as TNA President was born that day, and everything started to change for Jeff.