Latest on Jeff Jarrett Attempting to Secure TV for Global Force Wrestling

The most recent edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter has given insight into the latest on Jeff Jarrett attempting to secure TV for Global Force Wrestling in the near future. Jarrett’s first GFW event held in the Tokyo Dome on Jan. 4 was deemed a financial success, however, a weekly television deal is still alluding the company.

Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter writes the following on the situation,

“Regarding Global Force Wrestling, while there is no exact number out still for the 1/4 Tokyo Dome show, reports are that the show was profitable and even with the time slot problems on cable not airing live and issues with the replays not airing in a good time slot on DirecTV, the show looks to have done in the neighborhood of 12,000 to 15,000 buys in North America, maybe closer to the latter number.

The number is significant because they only had 20,000 subscribers to New Japan World, of which about 1,500 were outside of Japan, at the time of the Dome show, and they probably did less buys on traditional PPV in Japan than in the U.S. Break-even was believed to be less than 10,000 buys, so the show was a success.

This is the key where late reporting hurt, because if Jarrett knew the number and it really was 15,000, he probably would have immediately started working for a second date. But it’s taking so long, and even now the number isn’t finalized, because they are not out to lose money and the first show was an experiment, Invasion Attack, the second major show of the year is out. It’s possible for something in July but we’ve heard nothing official as far as a second show.

While Jeff Jarrett hasn’t said anything publicly, he has been unable to secure a paying television deal so far for a weekly show. Through sources in television, Jarrett has proposed to at least one station (and this is one without full national clearance), and probably more, the idea of a test live TV special, which would be a live GFW show featuring talent from New Japan, AAA and the top unsigned indie talent, but thus far he doesn’t have a deal for that either.

He’s expected to make some kind of an announcement this month. He has at least talked of running some house shows without television and has been negotiating with an arena in Las Vegas as the home for the group.”

Editor’s Note:
The show itself was fun. Hopefully the second one is just as good.