During the latest edition of his “My World with Jeff Jarrett” podcast, Jeff Jarrett commented on coming up with the idea for the “TNA” name, what the original name was going to be, and more. You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On rumors that he had considered Tuesday Night Attitude as the original name for TNA: “That’s accurate. A little unknown fact, so to speak.”
On who came up with the idea to use TNA as the company’s initials: “Me and Vince [Russo] obviously had the conversation. I’m sure J.B. [Jeremy Borash], Disco [Inferno]….I mean there probably could have been multiples, but me and Vince probably had the most extensive conversations. Again, the conversation went back to me and my father that I was ready, willing, and able to shoulder the load. I had come off WCW and WWF, and the single biggest deciding factor, in my opinion, on the success or failure of a wrestling company is you have to have the buck stop with someone. So, the buck stopped with me. You can point fingers at Vince Russo, or Jerry Jarrett, or a number of folks over the years. If the buck stops with you, you’re ultimately…. so it was me. A PPV-only company, we were still going with the mindset, in Pat Patterson’s words, ‘A little something extra.’ So, the double entendre with no commercials. That was another thing. It being two hours, commercial-free, on PPV and using the double entendre, so the Total Nonstop Action was the commercial-free, and the other version of tits and ass – the other version of TNA – was just that.”
On deciding on Total Nonstop Action and why Tuesday Night Attitude didn’t work: “That was a pivot off of ‘We love TNA, the double entendre.’ I say we, but I’m not going to throw people in my bucket unless they are willing. Lots of folks hated on that name, but I didn’t hear anybody come say, ‘Oh Jeff, that’s going to put you out of business.’ It was, again context, coming off the Attitude Era, we were strictly a PPV-only. We could get away with more stuff, so we were going to have girls dancing in cages. We were going to push the envelope – not go over the line but go right up to the line. So, going back to Tuesday Night Attitude, Tuesday went away. Pay-per-view companies were not enamored with that. That was a big replay night. That was a big movie night. They wanted us on Wednesdays. I wasn’t opposed to that. It’s sort of sitting in the middle of the week. Maybe it works a little better, again, my eternal optimism. I can bring talent in on Wednesday and they can go work the independents.”
(h/t – 411 Wrestling)
