10 Impact Wrestling decisions that they still regret

#4 The GFW branding

The GFW brand brought a new level of confusion to Impact.

One of the bigger wrestling business stories of 2017 was that TNA and the project Jeff Jarrett had founded since leaving the company—Global Force Wrestling—were coming together under the same umbrella of ownership. It was a bit confusing, particularly from a kayfabe perspective, as the rosters came together, and yet didn’t initially make any moves toward unifying titles. On the contrary, GFW even crowned new champions for vacant titles after joining forces.

The popular theory was that there would be big brand war—contrived as it may have been—culminating everything getting rebranded under the GFW brand. It was a sensible enough objective, centred on the dubious reputation and stigmas TNA had developed in the preceding years.

However, before it was all said and done, news broke that Jeff Jarrett was going on leave, followed by reports of his erratic behaviour and that he was entering the WWE sponsored rehab program. Suddenly, the GFW branding fell away, in time for the biggest show of the year, Bound for Glory, being marketed as an Impact Wrestling event.

The whole ordeal added an additional layer of confusion, and a sense the organization didn’t know what it was doing.