Wildside Wrestling

[johnbragg]

March 2001. Fusient Media VEntures, a $67M group led by Brian Bedol and Stephen Greenberg of Classic Sports TV/ESPN Classics, attempts to purchase and operate WCW on Turner cable. Turner decides to dump pro wrestling entirely, selling the scraps to Vince McMahon.

November 2001. Infomercial king Kevin Harrington organizes and finances TV tapings at Universal Studios for "XWF", intended to be kid-friendly entertainment, relying on old Hulk Hogan cronies and castoff WCW stars, like a throwback to pre-NWO WCW.

February 2002. Hulk Hogan, who would have been the centerpiece of the XWF, signs with Vince McMahon.

Spring 2002. Jerry and Jeff Jarrett are organizing what becomes NWA-TNA, running weekly $10 PPVs.

Jerry Jarrett has secured financial backing from HealthSouth, and is seeking a broader base of financial backers. He contacts Kevin Harrington, with a dual proposal. If XWF can find a television outlet, they will hire former WCW World Champion Jeff Jarrett to a main-event contract. If XWF cannot find a television contract by May 1, HArrington will invest $1M in JArrett's venture, receiving 20% ownership and a seat on the board.

He makes a similar deal with the Fusient group of Greenberg and Bedol, and with HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy, $1M for 20% ownership each. Together with Jerry JArrett's $1M in seed capital, that gives J Sports and Entertainment a $4M bankroll.

J Sports and Entertainment Board of Directors
President Jeff Jarrett
Chairman Jerry Jarrett
HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy
Fusient Media Bob Bedol
Infomercial Man Kevin Harrington

 

[johnbragg]

PArt 2. NWA TNA Doesn't Rise All That Far.

Investors Michael Harrington (before Shark Tank) and Bob Bedol (Fusient) are persuaded by Jerry JArrett to risk $1M each on Jarrett's startup weekly PPV promotion, hoping to have an operating wrestling company when the tides of fashion turn and TV networks want pro wrestling again.

They are not impressed by the first show in Huntsville AL, marred by stars crapping on the Gauntlet for the Gold to crown a new NWA champion, midgets, penis-themed, gay-themed and hillbilly-incest-themed tag teams. The action was impressive, however, especially the "X-division" matches.

"What the hell kind of a freak-show train wreck was that?"
"I don't know, I guess it sells pay per views."

Yeah--about that.

The Jarretts discover in a meeting with InDemand executives on July 9 that:
A. They are not selling as many PPV as their consultant led them to believe.
B. There has been almost no advertising done for NWA-TNA.

Jerry Jarrett slashes the budget from $250,000 per show to $100,000 per show, moving from the NAshville Municipal Auditorium to the Fairgrounds. By the end of July, NWA-TNA is running double shows (one almost-live, one taped) for $150,000 each.

The July 20 board meeting is uncomfortable. After the board meeting, the CEO of HealthSouth notifies the other partners that he wants to sell. Dixie Carter, who was handling PR for TNA, gets approval to buy HealthSouth's 20% with Panda Energy money.

September 19, the official buyrate information from InDemand comes in. There were a total of 140,000 buys for the 13 shows (one of which was a 9/11 Best of the X-Division clip show.) Half of the money is gone, and the shows aren't bringing in enough buys to break even, even with the reduced cost structure. But the reduced costs are enough to make sure that NWA TNA should survive until the end of the 52-week InDemand contract.

At the September board meeting, Harrison and Bedol suggest more traditional plan for Year 2--ad-supported weekly TV supporting a monthly $30 PPV. Jarretts, Carter agree. Fusient, Harrison begin exploring WGN, FX, syndication options.

But TV people are not fans of *********ing midgets, and the "TNA" moniker reinforces all of the negative stereotypes about pro wrestling being demographically undesirable and poison to advertisers.

 

[johnbragg]

Mods, is it possible to change the thread title to just "Wildside Wrestling"

 

[johnbragg]

Part 3. Board Room Bedlam.

The September board meeting agrees that Fusient (Bedol and Greenberg) will start exploring TV options for NWA-TNA after the InDemand contract for 52 PPV is fulfilled. The reaction from TV executives is even more negative than expected--the market for low-brow shock-TV is just not there.

At the same meeting, the board approves a 20-week, $1M advertising campaign guided by Kevin Harrington's shop, including a mix of 30-minute infomercials as well as traditional 30 and 60 second ads. Jeff and Jerry Jarrett, backed by Dixie Carter, overrule Harrington on the focus of the ads, stressing the anything-can-happen shock-value only-on-PPV themes, instead of Harrington's preference for a "look at these guys flip around the ring" approach.

Harrison and Bedol have many areas of agreement--they have no confidence in the product as it is. They were brought in as silent partners with the understanding that their expertise could be useful on occasion, with them providing startup capital and the Jarretts running the company, until they were able to either sell at a profit a few years down the line, or be in position to buy control and finance a major expansion. They agree to form a united front in presenting to the "wrestling people", and to Dixie Carter who is fully convinced that Vince Russo's TV philosophies are gold.

At the October board meeting, Harrison and Bedol report back. NWA:TNA programming is a non-starter for television networks, and some cable systems insisted on time-and-channel restrictions on many of the ads. Drastic changes are required if the company is to reach long-term success, and Bedol and Harrison aren't interested in investing more time in a venture that's doomed to fail and refuses to change. They raise the idea of ultimately dumping the "NWA-TNA" name, as part of a shift to network-friendly TV, and insist on some form of veto power over what is shown on the program.

Dixie Carter vociferously backs Jeff Jarrett, and Jerry Jarrett backs his son at the board meeting, despite his reservations.

Carter bursts out "Until now, we have had ZERO advertising. That's not on Jeff. We have the rest of the In-Demand contract to run, and we have the money to run the shows. You don't think Jeff can make this work. Tell you what--if Jeff and Russo can get to 15,000 buys per week in our third quarter (December-MArch), I'll buy you two out. IF he doesn't, you can buy me out and take control and do whatever you want."

Stunned silence from the men on the board, who look back and forth at each other. After a few seconds, Jerry Jarrett says "Well, Dixie, if it's all the same to you, you came in as a silent partner. If Harrington and Bedol want to take over, and that might be for the best, I'd like them to buy out my stake rather than yours."

Harrington responds: "We're talking about a million dollar investment. If Jerry Jarrett wants out, why the hell would I want to sink in another million dollars?" Jeff turns to his father, who says "You can keep your 20%, Jeff, I'm talking about my 20%."

Bedol says "I don't think we can make this decision today. Any of us."

 

[johnbragg]

Part 4.

After the board meeting, Jeff turns on Jerry.
Jeff: "What the hell was that, Dad? You wanna sell the company? Dixie's family is willing to fund us--they could be our Ted Turner!"
Jerry: Jeff, these people know what they're doing. I brought them in for a reason. They're our link to getting this operation on TV at some point. Advertisers, sponsors, investors. But TV means we cut out the Vince Russo shit and repackage, maybe rebrand.
But you have a new money mark, so they can go to hell, right? Just like you didn't need Jim Ross and Vince McMahon anymore. How'd that work out? Hogan and McMahon, the two biggest names in the industry wouldn't piss on you if you were on fire, Jeff, but you and Russo have all the answers. Except he ran one company into the dirt, and you're about to help him do it again.
It looks like you have until March, Jeff, to show this can work. If it doesn't, we either sell to them, or they sell to Dixie Carter and we see how long her Daddy is willing to pay your bills. But I'm too old to work this hard for somebody else's company."


Bedol, Greenberg and Harrison start exploring their options.
Option A is to sell to Dixie Carter, recoup their losses and walk away.

Option B is to buy another 20% for $1 million, giving them a combined 60% and full voting control, and change everything. New name, junk the weekly-PPV concept in favor of finding TV, probably move to Universal Studios, new management team. (Who, exactly, if not the Jarretts? The obvious candidates are all working for Vince McMahon.)

Option C is to patch up as much of existing status quo as possible; persuade the Jarretts to make the necessary changes. Russo and the NC-17 content has to go, the name probably has to go, the weekly PPV experiment has to be abandoned in favor of some form of weekly TV.

 

[johnbragg]

Comedy interlude. Dixie Carter is not the only one who is a babe in the woods as far as pro wrestling culture is concerned.

Brian Bedol calls up Eric Bischoff, who was supposed to be his WCW partner with Fusient, and asks about hiring him as a consultant/adviser to inform Bedol's decision making with NWA-TNA. Bischoff tells him that he's under contract to Vince McMAhon, and even though Bischoff isn't in the business or creative end, that he can't take a consultant gig with another pro wrestling company.

Bedol arranges a phone call with Vince McMahon to see if he can be persuaded to let Bedol take advantage of Bischoff's knowledge. McMahon does not give his approval.

 

[johnbragg]

I'm a little stuck here, as logic really says for the investors to sell to Dixie Carter and be glad they got their initial investment back. But that's not where I want the story to go.

 

[johnbragg]

Bedol, Greenberg and Harrison start exploring their options.
Option A is to sell to Dixie Carter, recoup their losses and walk away.

This is what the accountants would recommend. Buying into TNA was a speculative investment that always had a large chance of going bust. Getting your stake back is better than losing it.

But Dixie laid down a performance metric. If Jeff Jarrett can't come close--and he probably can't--does Bob Carter approve the sale anyway?

You can't plan on Panda agreeing to buy you out if their TNA strategy is still failing. You can hope, but hope is not a plan.

Option A-Prime is, just walk away and write off the investment. But first, you explore the other options.

Option B is to buy another 20% for $1 million, giving them a combined 60% and full voting control, and change everything. New name, junk the weekly-PPV concept in favor of finding TV, probably move to Universal Studios, new management team. (Who, exactly, if not the Jarretts? The obvious candidates are all working for Vince McMahon.)

Harrington and Fusient saw enough potential in pro wrestling to either buy WCW, or start XWF promotion from scratch; and then to invest in Jarrett's startup. For a lot more money than they'd spend to reboot NWA-TNA, which has the value of actually being an operating company putting on weekly shows. The argument that Jerry Jarrett sold them on is the value of having an operating wrestling company when conditions changed and networks wanted wrestling again.

Option C is to patch up as much of existing status quo as possible; persuade the Jarretts to make the necessary changes. Russo and the NC-17 content has to go, the name probably has to go, the weekly PPV experiment has to be abandoned in favor of some form of weekly TV.

Is it really doable to convince Jeff Jarrett, when he has Dixie Carter's full support, and his father unwillling to go against him? If it is, do you have confidence in Jarrett's writing anyway? And then, can you convince TV people that the new product is really separate from the *********ing midgets and Team Penis?

 

[johnbragg]

Part 5.

After the fiasco of the October board meeting, the Fusient group, with Harrington in the loop, start tentative planning for Year 2, if only to be able to make a more informed decision on pulling the plug or not.

Nobody on basic cable (or broadcast network TV) is interested in paying a pro wrestling company to be on their network. WGN would be willing to sell a timeslot for $25000-$75000 a week, but even then only covers half the country. The other option is in-house syndication.

And it just so happens that NWA-TNA has one Bill Behrens already on the payroll. Running the gorilla position for TNA, Behrens has been in TV syndication his entire adult life, starting in 1980 with his family company, syndicating southern territories, USWA, Smoky Mountain. His NWA Wildside has been creating a weekly television show out of a little building in Cornelia, GA since 1999, with syndication over a big chunk of the country. Most of the hot new stars of NWA-TNA came from or came through his promotion.

In retrospect, Fusient and HArrington should have just given Behrens $2M in stead of Jeff and Jerry JArrett in the first place.

Using Behrens' NWA Wildside group solves a lot of problems. Syndication is already in place over a large part of the country. "NWA Wildside Wrestling" doesn't have the stigma of *********ing midgets, or the Beavis-and-Butthead "heh heh T-n-A" problem. Behrens has run weekly house shows, a biweekly wrestling academy and twice-monthly tapings on a shoestring budget. And a lot of NWA-TNA's young talents came up through Behrens' Wildside territory, including one A. J. Styles.

 

[johnbragg]

Just a fragment, Flash-forward.

JArrett's World Wrestling All-Stars stable comes out, in suits as always, guys who have "made their bones" in WCW and WWF during the boom, held tag team and midcard titles, had a good run. Now they're well paid hired guns, on a mission to claim the titles and take them out the door, just like Wildside did to TNA/SEX. Jeff Jarrett, Brian Christopher, Buff Bagwell and Psicosis under a new mask, "Hidalgo de Sangre".

Borash asks Jeff Jarrett to comment about Hidalgo de Sangre's recent X Division title win.

Hidalgo cuts in "!Da me! Da me el microfono." Takes the mic from JArrett.
Coached by creative, Hidalgo speaks slowly and deliberately, so that the audience can figure out what he's saying and Tenay and Foley can give an obviously half-assed translation. "Da me--he said gimme the mic" "I think I figured that out."

"?Porque habla usted, Jeff JArrett? Usted no me paga el dinero. (makes cash finger motion, shakes head no. "Why is Jarrett talking? Jarrett doesn't pay him.") Senor McManus, me paga mucho dinero para ganar(pats belt)ese oro. Y cuando ganamos todo el oro, all the gold, traigamos el campeonato de division Equis, campeonato de parejas (waves at Bagwell and JAmes), campeonato mundial." ("WWA promoter McMAnus pays them a lot to win the gold, and they're taking all the titles to WWA." "So it's the same speech just in Spanish?")

"Pero yo no veo su oro, Jeff Jarrett. ("I don't see your gold")
Aqui esta mi oro (slaps belt over his shoulder). Senor McMAnus le paga usted mucho dinero tambien, pero donde esta SU oro?" "WWA pays Jarrett a lot of money, where's Jarrett's gold?"