In January, Anthem Sports and Entertainment purchased an 85 percent stake in TNA Wrestling. The founder of TNA Jeff Jarrett returned to the company as Chief Creative Officer. Since Jarrett came in, his failed Global Force Wrestling promotion just had to be included as TNA and GFW merged. TNA has turned into GFW full-time and Impact Wrestling is their flagship show.
It has been a little over six months since the acquisition of now GFW by Anthem, and the results have been mixed. While the promotion is looking to bring the X-Division back to relevance, they have put themselves in a terrible situation by giving the keys the company to Alberto El Patron (formerly Alberto Del Rio).
It seems as the company, now in their 15th year in operation, are going through growing pains once again. There are some bright spots that the promotion can look at as successes, such as:
- Getting Dixie Carter out of power
- Rebuilding the tag team division
- Getting away from the name TNA
- Gaining relationships with other promotions
With the good comes the bad. Here’s the bad on Global Force Wrestling
- El Patron is out of control and is the World Champion
- The company is enamored with ex-WWE guys again (Rey Mysterio, Jack Swagger)
- A report stated that talent would receive no merchandise money and GFW gets 10 percent of talents’ independent dates
- Still fighting with The Hardys over the “Broken Brilliance” gimmick
- Very fond of owls
The problem with GFW is they do not know what the promotion is. During a teleconference on Wednesday, Dutch Mantell said that GFW is in a trial and error process for not just the Impact Wrestling television show, but for Global Force Wrestling as a whole. IT HAS BEEN SIX MONTHS! Why are they still trying to figure things out and not have a set plan in place?
“But hey, let's fly by the seat of our pants and see what happens.”
In many “shoot interviews,” former TNA creative member Jim Cornette mentions that TNA during his time with the company, they squandered their chance to make a first impression for the second time. I feel as if that could be occurring once again as GFW does not have a rallying cry to signify a new beginning. “Make Impact Great Again” sounded right when the new regime came in but now what? Everything has just fallen on deaf ears. Even with a minor uptick in ratings, the company still feels like a poorly ran indie promotion with a TV deal with a network no one has ever heard of.
It is time for GFW to begin having a focused strategy and not have the focus of a Donald Trump speech. They have the advantage of everyone hating what has gone on in the company over the last two years and assuming that it cannot get much worse. Figure out whom you want to lead the company, and I am sorry that man is not Alberto El Patron. Figure out touring and for the love of everything that is holy, build stars and not just sign old ones. Jack Swagger is not going to bring you the wrestling nirvana of one million viewers weekly.
GFW has three to four months to win fans over. That is it. No more chances from fans. No more company reboots. If GFW does not find that one unifying message that can be conveyed to fans, this company will die.
Time is ticking. Get it together Global Force Wrestling and Anthem.
