Jeff Jarrett has put a hard timeline on what he sees as Hulk Hogan’s damage to TNA, claiming the promotion went from profitable to a “financial death spiral” in less than 12 months after Hogan arrived.
The TNA co-founder made the comments on Dark Side of the Ring, which is running a multi-part special on his career and the promotion’s history.
Jarrett saved his sharpest criticism for Dixie Carter’s 2013 on-screen segment, in which she grabbed Hogan’s leg and begged him not to leave the company during his exit angle. He argued the spot exposed how little Carter understood the wrestling business.
What an incredible masterpiece of a job that Hulk and Eric (Bischoff) and whoever else was involved, convinced her to do that,” Jarrett said. “I would’ve never done that if I was Dixie. It said everything about her knowledge of the industry.
On the financial fallout, Jarrett was blunt:
From the day Hulk came in, it was less than 12 months that we went from profitability to financial death spiral.
The characterization is his own assessment. TNA’s granular finances from that era were never made public, and Dark Side of the Ring leans heavily on first-person testimony that isn’t always independently documented.
Carter’s Locker Room Speech
Jarrett also took aim at Carter’s infamous talent address, framing it as a moment that told the roster exactly who they worked for. He said the reaction on wrestlers’ faces said everything.
It was not about anything other than her ego. You can go back and look at the faces. Talent really understood, ‘This is who we’re working for,'” Jarrett said. “A lot of them, including myself, ‘where do things go now?'
Carter became president of TNA after her family’s Panda Energy purchased a controlling stake, stepping into the role without prior experience running a wrestling promotion.
Hogan and Bischoff debuted in January 2010 and overhauled the company’s creative direction, a period widely viewed as a downturn for the brand Jarrett had co-founded in 2002 with his father, Jerry Jarrett.
Jarrett Wanted Carter To Tell Her Side
Despite the criticism, Jarrett has said he tried to give Carter a platform to respond. He reached out and encouraged her to appear on the documentary, but she declined. Jarrett previously detailed his effort to get Carter involved in the project.
Speaking about revisiting the saga, Jarrett stopped short of calling the experience healing.
It’d be hard for me to call it therapeutic, but I understand where you’re coming from,” he said, noting he had stayed quiet on certain matters for years partly because children were involved.
He added that the response to the episodes has been telling.
There are some folks that are kind of blown away. They’re like, ‘I had no idea. I thought I knew the story, but boy oh boy, was I wrong,'” Jarrett said. “As a lifetime in this business, I just have to nod my head and say, ‘That’s, in a way, kind of par for the course.'
Jarrett, who built TNA from the ground up in the early 2000s, is currently signed to AEW as a performer and producer.
