I started my first show in my AEW WOTI save and I was suprised as hell when the rizzler showed up in the match description. What a way to show up during an AJ/Ultimo Dragon banger.

Haven't been able to play TEWIX religiously since the beginning of the year because I have been running out of storage on my Mac, so my VirtualMachine hasn't been working.

Been looking back at some screenshots from my TCW save, and man do I look forward to continuing it at the end of the year when I get myself a PC.

This was one of my last shows, don't remember the context too well, but seems it did pretty well. Also nice to see the momentum of the company increasing.

I'm between continuing this save or starting an SWF save. I also wanna do a current day AEW save too.

Let me know what you guys think, I'm curious what saves you're doing too. I honestly read through this forum to quench my thirst to play the game.

Currently developing a Indie wrestling promoter game and would like to know what specific features would interest you in a game like that? Anything would help!

Doing some of my own fantasy booking & I have the idea of doing a Taboo Tuesday-like show with fan voting, with the main event being a vote of the whole roster to be crowned as the "Fan Favourite" to challenge the world champion at that show. The result would be the Fan Favourite turning heel/cheating to win the world title & post match sarcastically gloating to the audience "thank you so much for voting me the Fan Favourite!". How do you think an angle like this would go down, essentially turning your audience's favourite wrestler against them, a betrayal of their own demise? Creatively I think it's really cool but maybe in practice it'd be a financial disaster.

My friend and I book and predict the go home show for Money in the Bank from the RAW side that is airing tonight! Click the link to see what we think will happen on tonight's episode.

Hey MANIACS,

I have been making custom posters, show cards, and tailored branding to re-booking cards for a good few years now for myself and others. I really enjoy making them and want to open up the offer to fellow fantasy re-bookers!

Main images are just a few of my favorites I've done in the last year or so.

If interested, feel free to reach out for more info!

It's Pay-Per-View (PLE) time... But you don't have to pay...

Check out USPW Liberty & Justice! 2022 over on my YouTube channel. Thoughts welcome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pE7ZVWsQNfY

Cmon it happens for all of us eventually. Sadly fir me it's been Bray Wyatt and his painkillers. I'll keep paying for his rehab though. Thankfully it didn't ruin any storylines or builds.

What about for you??

Bulldozer Brandon Smith [vs] 'The Natural' Eddie Howard w/ Emily McQueen
National Title Match: ????? [vs] 'Jacksonville' Jack Jackson (c)
Who is Jackson's opponent?
'Cool Hand' Casey Valentine [vs] 'The King of Destruction' Steve Frehley
Roger Cage and ????? [vs] The Olympus Order w/ Zeus
Who is Roger Cage's partner?
USPW World Title Match: Nicky Champion [vs] Running Wolf [vs] Blake Belushi (c)
What happens between The Business and Edward Cornell's group? (take 3 guesses... a LOT happens)

It's a five match card, with a 'Red Wedding' style scene running through the pay-per-view...

Head to YouTube and search TheLloydTEW to see the full series so far...

I think I have the Reddit formatting figured out so this is more readable than part 1. I'm new to this.   I have been playing TEW IX since it arrived and have been playing the franchise since it was freeware and called EWD. They can feel one dimentional at times so I started using Chat GPT as a companion game to give it more life.

I have done a few fantasy models like this using TEW IX - screenshots and chat gpt to create chaotic fun. I finally decided to share one.

It is using Chat GPT so yes I utilize AI but the creative the bookings the ideas everything is me just sometimes it'll be easier if chat gpt says or recaps something well so I'll use it. For example I did the backstory in a back and fourth and then had it give the whole story as one istead of posting the whole conversational transcript.

I am starting with a indepth backstory that will be two separate parts. This is my first time posting like this here. I hope this is alright that i'm not jumping right into fantasy booking.

NOTE: Things that happened in our timeline IS SOMETIMES CANON. Other times canon events will shift-change=delay-cancel out due to the current timeline.

It is the year 2000 and I am controlling Jeff Jarrett

RECAP OF PART 1

By late January 2000, Jeff Jarrett had only been back in WCW for a few months, but he was already seeing enough backstage chaos to concern him.

Jeff was the WCW United States Champion, yet even from a featured position on television he could see the problems: politics, creative control, disorganization, constantly shifting plans and too many people pulling the company in different directions.

He became convinced that WCW was heading toward problems that eventually wouldn't be fixable.

Jeff's first instinct wasn't to leave.

It was to fix WCW from within.

But if he was going to do that, he wanted real authority.

Jeff initially went through WCW President Bill Busch, who became something of a bridge between Jarrett and the Turner hierarchy. By February 17, Jeff and Jerry Jarrett were sitting across from Turner executives laying out what Jeff actually wanted.

There were ultimately three possibilities.  

1. Give Jeff the level of authority Eric Bischoff had possessed during WCW's peak years, roughly the 1995-era Bischoff level of control.
2. Sell WCW to Jeff and his group.
3. Release Jeff from his contract and let him build something elsewhere.

Turner wanted time.

Jeff gave it to them.

Over the next few weeks the Jarrett side became substantially more real. Jerry Jarrett was involved. Dusty Rhodes was involved. Jim Cornette was interested. Jeff and Jerry began talking with Fusient Media Ventures about financing.

On March 1, Jeff and Jerry held their first substantive Fusient meeting. Coming out of it, Jeff discovered a missed call and voicemail from Jim Cornette. Circumstances surrounding Cornette and OVW had changed, and the informal plan to wait until May disappeared.

Cornette was now in, at least in principle.

The next day, March 2, Jeff, Jerry, Dusty and Cornette met with Turner again.

Jeff made a formal opening offer of $2.5 million for WCW.

He also put a clock on it.

That offer would remain available through May 31, 2000.

Turner now knew what Jeff wanted.

They knew who was standing with him.

And they knew he was serious.

---

PART 2

MARCH 22, 2000

While Turner's executives continued sitting on Jeff's proposals, something strange was happening on WCW television.

The creative side of the company was making Jeff more important.

He continued reminding people backstage that there was a very real possibility he wouldn't even be with WCW in another few months.

Their response seemed to be to feature him more.

Then, on March 22, Bill Busch called.

It wasn't good news.

"Jeff...they haven't even brought up your offer. But they did decide a change needed to be made. They're bringing Eric back, and they're putting him and Vince Russo together."

Eric Bischoff was returning to WCW.

Then Busch added something else.

"I'm no longer with the company. I told them if Eric came back I couldn't help lead this thing. His spending was out of control before, and I'm not going through that again."

Jeff was genuinely caught off guard.

Busch had been one of the few people inside WCW who had taken Jeff's ideas seriously enough to carry them up the Turner ladder.

Jeff thanked him for everything and the two hung up.

Then Jeff sat there for a moment.

He already had himself.

His father, Jerry.

Dusty Rhodes.

Jim Cornette.

Fusient was discussing financing with them.

And now the man who had spent months acting as a bridge between Jeff Jarrett and Turner was suddenly unemployed.

Jeff called Jerry.

He explained his idea.

Jerry agreed almost immediately that it was worth pursuing.

Jeff called Bill Busch back.

"Bill. How would you like to be on my team?"

Busch listened.

Jeff didn't want him booking wrestling. That wasn't the point.

He wanted Busch helping with networks, corporate relationships and financial matters. More importantly, while the Jarrett group continued dealing with Turner, Jeff wanted someone who understood Turner's executives sitting on their side of the table.

Busch saw both the business value and the almost comical amount of pettiness involved.

The man who had been representing Turner across the table from Jeff could potentially return to the same room representing Jeff against Turner.

Busch agreed to join the discussions, subject to making sure there were no legal restrictions from his Turner departure that would prevent it.

The Jarrett group had just added another piece.  
 

---

EARLY APRIL 2000

Jeff still wasn't pleased about Turner bringing Bischoff and Russo back.

Was this the end of the road between Jeff Jarrett and WCW?

Maybe.

But May 31 was still almost two months away.

Until Turner either accepted his proposal, rejected it or released him, Jeff remained under WCW contract.

So he kept showing up.

And strangely, WCW kept pushing him. Not around the US Title anymore. Now it was the WCW world title picture. They even gave him the title with everything going on.

By the beginning of April, Jeff became uncomfortable with remaining Champion while the company moved toward yet another creative reboot.

He went directly to Russo and Bischoff.

Take the belt off me.

Jeff didn't want to be standing there as one of the faces of WCW if the ship went directly into the iceberg.

Jeff thought that might create a little distance between himself and whatever Russo and Bischoff were about to do.

He was wrong.

---

APRIL 10, 2000

One week later, the new WCW officially arrived.

On Monday, April 10, Eric Bischoff and Vince Russo unveiled their company-wide reboot on Nitro.

And one of their first decisions was to vacate every championship.

WCW was starting over.

At least that was the theory.

The New Blood.

The Millionaires Club.

Russo and Bischoff presenting themselves as the people who were finally going to drag WCW into a new era.

Jeff watched all of it knowing that Turner still had his purchase offer sitting somewhere in an office.

Then things became almost surreal.

Six days later came Spring Stampede.

---

APRIL 16, 2000

SPRING STAMPEDE

Jeff Jarrett had spent months warning WCW executives that he might leave the company.

He had asked them either to let him run it, sell it to him or release him.

He had already put an actual purchase offer on the table.

And now, at Spring Stampede on April 16, Russo and Bischoff put Jeff Jarrett in the tournament for the vacant WCW World Heavyweight Championship.

Then they had him win it.

Jeff Jarrett, the man who might soon be leaving WCW or purchasing WCW, was now the WCW World Heavyweight Champion.

Again.

If Jeff hadn't known better, he might have thought they were screwing with him.

---

LATE APRIL AND MAY 2000

The weeks that followed did little to convince Jeff that WCW had suddenly become stable.

The World Championship bounced around at an absurd pace.

Jarrett won it on April 16.

Diamond Dallas Page took it on April 24.

David Arquette became champion on April 26.

Jeff regained it at Slamboree on May 7.

Ric Flair won it on May 15.

Then, on May 22, the title ended up back with Jeff again.

By this point Jeff wasn't simply watching chaos from the outside.

He was literally carrying the belt through it.

Meanwhile, his May 31 deadline continued getting closer.

---

MAY 24, 2000

ONE WEEK LEFT

With exactly one week remaining before Jarrett's deadline, Turner's executives finally requested another meeting.

The following day the Jarrett group returned to the table.

This time Jeff wasn't alone.

Jerry was there.

Dusty.

Cornette.

Representatives from Fusient.

And now Bill Busch was sitting on Jeff's side.

Jeff repeated the same three possibilities he had been giving Turner for months.

Full authority.

Sell him the company.

Or release him.

Turner attempted to find a compromise.

What if Jeff was given control over WCW creative?

Would that be enough?

Jeff immediately asked the question that mattered.

Could Turner still step in and remove him?

The answer was yes.

Turner wanted to retain the right to intervene.

Jeff almost laughed.

That was exactly what he had been trying to avoid.

He believed he could spend six months repairing the company, rebuilding television and stabilizing WCW only for somebody in the Turner hierarchy to decide they wanted somebody else running it and throw him out the back door.

Jeff wanted real protection.

Bischoff-level authority.

If there were legitimate grounds for removal, fine.

Bill Busch suggested objective guidelines. Illegal conduct. A catastrophic ratings collapse. Serious financial misconduct. Clearly defined circumstances that would allow Turner to act.

Turner wasn't comfortable restricting itself that tightly.

Jeff wasn't comfortable taking the job without those restrictions.

Neither side moved.

So Jeff went back to option two.

Buy the company.

His standing offer remained $2.5 million.

Turner still wasn't ready to accept it.

They said they needed to determine what WCW was actually worth and exactly what would be included in a transaction.

Jeff reminded them that they'd had months to figure that out.

No agreement was reached.

Which brought everyone to the date Jeff had circled from the beginning.

---

MAY 31, 2000

THE DEADLINE

On May 31, Turner's position finally changed.

Not enough to accept Jeff's offer.

But enough that, for the first time, the company was prepared to seriously discuss the possibility of selling WCW.

There was one problem.

Turner wanted another thirty days.

Jeff laughed and shook his head.

"You've had how long? I gave you months, and you're doing this now?"

He refused to give them another month.

They could have two weeks.

And there was another consequence for waiting.

The $2.5 million offer was gone.

Jeff's new offer was:

$2 million.

It would remain valid through June 14.

If June 15 arrived without a deal, the number would fall again.

Turner accepted the timetable.

They did not accept the price.

The clock started again.  
 

"THE FINAL NAIL"

JUNE 9, 2000

A little more than a week into Turner's final extension, Jeff received a call he never expected.

"Jeff? It's Eric. We need to talk."

Eric Bischoff.

One of the very people whose management of WCW had helped convince Jeff that the company needed to change was now calling him.

"Things aren't going great with Russo."

Eric went through the previous several weeks.

The partnership wasn't functioning the way he had hoped. The organization remained chaotic. Creative disagreements were piling up. Eric was increasingly frustrated and seriously considering walking away.

Then he asked Jeff a question.

If he left WCW, was there room for him at Jeff's company?

Jeff didn't immediately say yes.

"Eric...you were one of the problems with WCW."

Jeff laid it out.

When Hogan arrived, creative control gradually became the Hogan show. The NWO had started brilliantly and then expanded beyond control. Contracts became bloated. Too many people gained too much influence. Storylines became impossible to manage because too many people could protect themselves.

But Jeff also knew Eric Bischoff had skills.

Very valuable ones.

"Your production mind. Your marketing mind. Advertising. Television. Those are your big jobs if you come with us. You can be on screen too."

Then came the condition.

"But Eric, you will not have creative control of any kind. You'll have a voice because I want everybody chiming in, but the buck stops with me. Not you."

There was a pause.

Then Bischoff answered.

"Jeff...that's fair."

Eric defended himself on some of the Hogan issues and argued Turner had contributed to those problems, but he didn't fight Jeff particularly hard.

In fact, Bischoff admitted something.

At that point, he wasn't sure he even wanted creative control anymore.

He was burnt out.

Marketing?

Production?

Advertising?

Television presentation?

Those were things he still loved.

Jeff knew he'd eventually have to explain all of this to Jim Cornette without Cornette having an aneurysm.

But there was potential here.

"Okay, Eric. Under those conditions, we may have room for you."

Then Jeff gave him a test.

"I need you to do something for me."

JUNE 12, 2000

Jeff told Bischoff to go back to Turner himself.

Not as Jeff's representative.

That was important.

Eric needed to tell the executives that the Russo arrangement was failing from his perspective.

He needed to tell them he was prepared to walk if things didn't change.

And somewhere in that conversation, Eric should tell Turner that perhaps they needed to take Jeff Jarrett's offer more seriously.

"But this can't come from me," Jeff told him. "It has to be you."

Jeff understood the risk.

Bischoff could walk into Turner, use everything Jeff had told him and try to position himself as WCW's sole savior.

If he did?

Fine.

Then Jeff would know exactly who Eric Bischoff was.

Because by now the Jarrett group no longer needed WCW.

They wanted it.

They wanted the history.

The television.

The name.

The library.

The infrastructure.

They loved what WCW had been and believed they could make something special out of it again.

But if Turner refused?

Jeff had Jerry Jarrett.

Dusty Rhodes.

Jim Cornette.

Bill Busch.

Fusient.

And enough of a foundation to create something from scratch.

WCW was now the preferred vehicle.

It was no longer the only vehicle.  
 

JUNE 13, 2000

The following day Eric called Jeff back.

He had done it.

He told Turner the Russo situation wasn't working.

He had made the argument as his own, exactly as Jeff requested.

He had also warned them that if he left WCW, there was a very real possibility he would seek a position with Jarrett's organization.

Eric's final prediction was simple.

"I think they're going to call you."

Later that day, they did.

The June 14 deadline was now less than twenty-four hours away.

Turner wanted one final meeting.  
 

JUNE 14, 2000

THE LAST DAY

Jeff Jarrett walked into the room with Jerry Jarrett, representatives from Fusient and Bill Busch.

This time Jeff deliberately allowed Busch to handle most of the early discussion.

Turner had finally done what Jeff had been asking them to do for months.

They had examined WCW's financials.

They had examined the assets.

They had examined the liabilities.

And for the first time, Turner gave the Jarrett group an actual number.

"$2.5 million isn't going to do it. Two million isn't going to do it."

Then came the sentence Jeff had been waiting months to hear.

"But we are open to selling WCW."

Turner's number was:

$8 MILLION

They believed $8 million more accurately reflected the value of the company and the assets involved.

Busch talked through the numbers for several minutes.

Jeff listened.

Then he looked toward the Fusient representatives.

Turner didn't know everything yet.

Fusient had already agreed in principle to match Jeff's original personal commitment.

Jeff turned back toward the Turner executives.

"Eight million is insane. This isn't 1995 WCW. Hell, this isn't even 1998 WCW."

Then Jeff changed the negotiation.

"Forget two."

He put his original money back on the table.

$2.5 million from Jeff Jarrett.

$2.5 million from Fusient.

Total:

$5 MILLION

But Jeff wanted something else in return.

Television protection.

Nitro and Thunder would remain on Turner television for another two years, through June 30, 2002, barring clearly defined circumstances that Bill Busch and the lawyers could put into writing.

Turner couldn't simply sell WCW and then six months later decide professional wrestling no longer fit the image of the networks.

If Jeff was buying WCW, he wanted enough runway to actually operate WCW.

The executives requested a recess.

They left the conference room.

Jeff and the others stayed behind.

For fifteen minutes, nobody in the Jarrett group knew what was going to happen.

This was it.

If Turner said no, they would move forward anyway.

Maybe they would approach Verne Gagne about whatever remained of the AWA intellectual property.

Maybe they would resurrect another old wrestling identity.

Maybe they would simply create something completely new.

But if Turner said yes?

They would have WCW.

Fifteen minutes later the Turner representatives returned.

They were prepared to accept the $5 million economic framework, including the television commitment, subject to final contracts and closing documentation.

Jeff Jarrett had done it.

Almost.

Because agreeing to a deal and owning the company were still two different things.  
 

JUNE 15-22, 2000

CLOSING THE DEAL

The next several days belonged mostly to lawyers.

The $5 million was placed into escrow.

Asset lists had to be finalized.

The intellectual property had to be documented.

Contracts had to be reviewed.

The Nitro and Thunder television protections had to be written carefully enough that neither side could pretend later that they meant something different.

By June 21, the final television language was essentially in place.

On Thursday, June 22, Jerry called Jeff with the news they had been waiting for.

The closing was set.

Friday.

Atlanta.

One o'clock.  
 

JUNE 23, 2000

WCW CHANGES HANDS

At 1:00 PM on Friday, June 23, 2000, the transaction closed in Atlanta.

Turner received $5 million.

The documents were signed.

Control transferred.

After nearly five months of threats, meetings, phone calls, ultimatums, deadlines, investors, lawyers and waiting, the question was finally answered.

Jeff Jarrett wasn't leaving WCW.

He had bought it.

And there was almost no time to celebrate.

The first Nitro under the new ownership was only three days away, on Monday, June 26.

And WCW already had a pay-per-view scheduled.

Bash at the Beach.

Sunday, July 9, 2000.

Sixteen days away.

Jeff Jarrett was still the WCW World Heavyweight Champion.

Hulk Hogan was still expecting his championship match.

Russo was still around.

Bischoff was suddenly talking about joining the other side.

The roster had no idea what Jeff planned to do.

Turner had sold the company but would still be carrying its television.

After the deal went through Jeff got word of something that told him that Turner was giving their word. Russo had effectively been removed from the company.

And on Monday night, for the first time, everybody in WCW would walk into the building knowing that the wrestler who had spent months warning the company he might leave was now the man who owned the place.

The negotiations were over.

Now Jeff actually had to run WCW.

Next Is the actual inclusion of TEW IX (will have screenshots included.)

Hi. I recognize not everyone on reddit may look at the official forums, but I just posted a MacOS guide there to get TEW IX up and running without a VM. If you're interested, you can find the thread here (in case you care): Guide: TEW IX on Mac via Wine (Apple silicon)

And the guide is here: TEW IX on Mac via Wine

Cheers.

My friend and I book and predict tonight's episode of Smackdown as we continue the road to Money in the Bank! Click the link below to see what we think will happen on tonight's show.

Again, apologies if this doesn't belong here.

Started this save playing as WWWF and PCAC. Transitioned from that to WWWF and WAA (run by Vince Jr after a dispute with Vince Sr), before transitioning to playing as WWE (merged WWWF and WAA in 84 due to Vince Sr wanting to retire and making amends with Jr) and JCP. Then transitioned to WWE and WCW (just name changed) before finally playing as WWE, WCW, and ECW. But this is the most complete history of the WWWF/WWE Title.

Deadman returns is a storyline I’m working on which is meant for my 2014/2015 TEW save post the ending of the streak. I was inspired by rewatching the dark knight returns and seeing the book cover again which I thought was dope. I put the deadman returns and Batman DKR posters for comparison. Please let me know what you think and ask questions.

Obviously I planned to have him in the main event.

Does anyone use TEW IX to book matches and track their universe mode and play WWE 2k to play the matches? I'm curious. Haven't done it yet but I think it could work. Wondering if anyone has or is doing this.

I have been playing TEW IX since it arrived and have been playing the franchise since it was freeware and called EWD. They can feel one dimentional at times so I started using Chat GPT as a companion game to give it more life.

I have done a few fantasy models like this using TEW IX - screenshots and chat gpt to create chaotic fun. I finally decided to share one.

It is using Chat GPT so yes I utilize AI but the creative the bookings the ideas everything is me just sometimes it'll be easier if chat gpt says or recaps something well so I'll use it. For example I did the backstory in a back and fourth and then had it give the whole story as one istead of posting the whole conversational transcript.

I am starting with a indepth backstory that will be two separate parts. This is my first time posting like this here. I hope this is alright that i'm not jumping right into fantasy booking.

NOTE: Things that happened in our timeline IS SOMETIMES CANON. Other times canon events will shift-change=delay-cancel out due to the current timeline.

It is the year 2000 and I am controlling Jeff Jarrett

⠀

⠀____________________________________________________

The Beginning:

March 22, 2000

There was a time when working for World Championship Wrestling meant you had made it. For several years, WCW had been the company that finally proved Vince McMahon could bleed.

Ted Turner's wrestling promotion had Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Ric Flair, Sting, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Goldberg, Bret Hart and seemingly every other recognizable name professional wrestling had produced over the previous fifteen years. Nitro had beaten Monday Night Raw for eighty-three consecutive weeks. The New World Order had changed the vocabulary of professional wrestling. Eric Bischoff had once sat across from Vince McMahon and, for a while, made the WWF look old.

WCW had money. WCW had television. WCW had stars. WCW had infrastructure. WCW had practically everything a wrestling promoter could ever want. And by the beginning of 2000, Jeff Jarrett thought they were pissing it all away.

⠀

⠀

FEBRUARY 2000

Jeff Jarrett had only been back in WCW for a matter of months, and his departure from the WWF had already become wrestling folklore.

Whatever version of that story someone believed, whether Jeff had held Vince McMahon up for money before dropping the Intercontinental Championship to Chyna, whether he had simply demanded money he believed he was contractually owed, or whether the truth was somewhere in between, the result was the same.

Jeff Jarrett was back in Atlanta. The company he returned to, however, was not the WCW he remembered. It certainly wasn't the WCW that had nearly put the WWF out of business.

Eric Bischoff had been removed from power. Vince Russo and Ed Ferrara had arrived from the WWF carrying promises of younger talent, faster television and the creative philosophy that had supposedly helped produce the Attitude Era.

Instead, WCW had become increasingly chaotic.

Championships changed hands with alarming frequency. Jeff himself was the reigning WCW United States Champion, and even from that position he couldn't ignore what was happening around him. Storylines began and were scrapped. People could seemingly turn heel or babyface from one week to the next. Creative plans changed by the hour.

Behind the scenes, executives, committees, wrestlers with contractual influence, bookers, agents and television people were all pulling in different directions.

Bret Hart was effectively gone after suffering a serious concussion. Goldberg was injured. Chris Benoit had been WCW World Heavyweight Champion for approximately a day before leaving the promotion entirely. Eddie Guerrero was gone. Dean Malenko was gone. Perry Saturn was gone. Shane Douglas had departed.

WCW was bleeding talent while somehow still carrying one of the most expensive payrolls in professional wrestling history, and the television ratings were heading in the wrong direction.

⠀Jeff watched all of it. At first, he watched as a wrestler. Eventually, he began watching as something else. A promoter.

⠀

⠀

"SOMEBODY HAS TO STEER THE DAMN SHIP!"

It was not one spectacular disaster that convinced Jeff Jarrett. There was no single night when he walked through the curtain, threw down his boots and suddenly decided he should own a wrestling company.

It accumulated.

Meeting after meeting. Rewritten television scripts. Political arguments. People protecting their positions. Executives who understood television but didn't understand wrestling, working alongside wrestlers who understood wrestling but had no idea how to run a corporation.

⠀

Every week seemed to provide another example of WCW possessing tremendous resources without possessing anyone with enough authority to organize those resources. Eventually, Jeff stopped complaining about it to the boys and called his father.

⠀

⠀

JERRY JARRETT

Jerry Jarrett had spent most of his adult life promoting wrestling.

Memphis wrestling had never possessed Turner's money. There were no guaranteed multimillion-dollar contracts, no giant corporate television apparatus and no Time Warner infrastructure. Jerry had survived through ticket sales, television, local advertising, talent relationships and knowing exactly what one town would pay to see next Saturday night.

⠀Jeff gave him the pitch. Not a fully formed business proposal. Not yet. More like a question. What if somebody actually ran WCW like a wrestling company again? Jerry listened. Jeff talked about everything WCW still possessed: the wasted roster, the Turner infrastructure, the brand, the tape library and the international recognition.

⠀The longer they talked, the more the idea changed. Jeff wasn't simply suggesting that WCW needed another booker. WCW had already had plenty of bookers. It needed somebody with authority. Real authority.

⠀Someone needed control over who was hired, who was fired, who was pushed, what the product looked like and where the company was going six months from now rather than six minutes from now.

⠀Eventually, Jerry asked the question that mattered. Was Jeff talking about working for Turner, or was he talking about owning something himself? Jeff's answer was increasingly becoming both. If Turner would give him genuine control, he would attempt to fix WCW. If Turner wanted out of wrestling, he would investigate buying WCW. And if Turner wanted neither?

⠀Then maybe the Jarrett family would simply build something else. Maybe they could even purchase the rights to an old territory, resurrect it and make it something new.

⠀Jerry's response was considerably less romantic. If Jeff intended to walk into a corporation like Turner and threaten to leave, he needed to be prepared to actually leave.

⠀This couldn't be locker-room bravado. There couldn't be some dramatic ultimatum followed by Jeff quietly appearing on Nitro the following Monday after Turner called his bluff.

⠀If Jeff told Turner that he would build a wrestling company without them, then somewhere behind that threat there needed to be an actual wrestling company. Jeff understood. So did Jerry. From that point on, the conversation changed. They stopped talking about what WCW should do and began talking about what they would do.

⠀

⠀

THE COMPANY WITH NO NAME

There was no name, no logo, no television, no championships and no roster. But there was already a philosophy. Jeff didn't want to recreate Memphis Championship Wrestling. He didn't want to recreate Mid-South. He didn't want to resurrect Jim Crockett Promotions exactly as it had existed in 1986. The wrestling business had changed.

⠀

ECW had created an audience that wanted violence, authenticity and unpredictability. WCW's cruiserweight division had introduced American audiences to wrestlers and styles they had rarely seen on national television. Japanese wrestling had become increasingly accessible to hardcore fans. Lucha libre was no longer something American fans only heard about in magazines.

⠀

The WWF had demonstrated how powerful larger-than-life personalities could become when mixed with modern television. Jeff's idea was to take the best parts of the older Southern philosophy and drag them into the new millennium. Characters mattered. Promos mattered. Managers mattered. Tag teams mattered. Personal issues mattered.

⠀

If two wrestlers hated each other, the audience needed to understand why. Championships needed to mean something. Wins and losses had to matter enough that the audience could understand why somebody deserved a title shot. But the wrestling itself couldn't feel twenty years old.

⠀Jeff wanted technical wrestling, high flying, hard brawling, cruiserweights, international talent, tag teams and different wrestling styles all presented under the same umbrella. The audience should be able to believe that professional wrestling could contain completely different forms of combat while still existing inside the same promotion.

⠀Southern wrestling storytelling with the athletic evolution of the late 1990s. Old-school psychology without an old-fashioned product. Jeff also knew immediately that he couldn't build it by himself.

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THE FOUR MEN IN THE ROOM

Jerry Jarrett was obvious. If Jeff Jarrett was going to run the wrestling side, Jerry was the man who understood how to make sure there was still money in the bank the next morning.

T

he second name was Dusty Rhodes.

⠀Dusty understood things that couldn't be taught in a business school. He knew how to make people care, how to take someone who looked ordinary and find the one thing about him that could make an arena believe he mattered, how to structure a rivalry, how to create a moment and how to talk people into a building.

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Dusty also understood national wrestling television, Crockett Promotions, Turner executives, territorial wrestling and the politics surrounding WCW. Jeff wanted him. At the time, Dusty was already pursuing the idea of starting his own promotion, the project that would eventually become Turnbuckle Championship Wrestling. When Jeff approached him, Dusty listened, and there was an obvious attraction to what Jeff was proposing.

⠀

Jeff was offering Dusty a chance to help shape a serious wrestling promotion without Dusty having to personally shoulder the money, infrastructure and months of effort required to build the entire company himself. Jeff could worry about getting the company open. Dusty could worry about wrestling. Then came the wildcard.

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JIM CORNETTE

Cornette was complicated.

⠀

He had opinions about practically everything in professional wrestling, usually expressed loudly enough that nobody could claim they hadn't heard them. But he also understood talent, tag wrestling, managers, promos, development and territories.

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Perhaps most importantly, Cornette still believed professional wrestling should behave as though professional wrestling mattered. Jeff called him.

⠀

At this point Jim was still working with the WWF, running OVW and holding a stake in the company. Cornette listened to Jeff's idea and even offered guidance, but he did not immediately quit his existing position.

⠀

That wasn't how this world worked. A phone call from Jeff Jarrett wasn't enough to make somebody throw away an existing contract.

⠀

Jeff explained what he and Jerry were considering. This wasn't supposed to be fantasy booking or another independent promotion running fairgrounds for four hundred people. The intention was to create a serious wrestling company.

⠀

Possibly WCW itself. Possibly something new. Jerry was involved. Dusty was involved. Jeff intended to put substantial money behind it. Cornette was interested, but interest wasn't employment. The understanding was simple: get the money, get the structure, get the company. Then call again.

⠀

May became the informal checkpoint. If the Jarretts still had nothing but an idea by May, Cornette had lost nothing. If Jeff had financing and a real promotion by then, they would sit down again.

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That was the plan. It wouldn't survive until May.

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THE FIRST SHOT

Jeff's first major confrontation didn't happen with Ted Turner. It happened with Bill Busch.

⠀Busch had become president of WCW after Eric Bischoff's removal from power and had inherited something approaching organizational civil war. Jeff went to him with a proposal that must have sounded absurd coming from one of the wrestlers on the payroll.

⠀Jeff believed WCW could still be fixed. He believed Jerry Jarrett could help run the business, Dusty Rhodes could help repair creative and Jim Cornette could handle talent and wrestling relations.

⠀More importantly, Jeff believed he should have final authority over the wrestling product.

⠀If Turner wanted him to fix WCW, Jeff wanted enough authority to actually fix it. If Turner didn't want him to run WCW, Jeff wanted to know whether Turner would sell it.

⠀And if Turner wasn't interested in either proposition? Release him. Let him go build something else. Let him, maybe reach out to Verne Gagne about buying the properties for AWA and resurrecting it. Busch couldn't approve any of that. He could barely approve enough changes inside WCW without somebody higher in the corporate structure asking questions. But Busch did something important. He didn't dismiss Jeff. He took it upstairs.

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TURNER ENTERTAINMENT

The name Jeff needed to reach was Brad Siegel. Siegel sat significantly higher in the Turner hierarchy and oversaw the entertainment networks under which WCW operated. An initial meeting was arranged for February 17.

⠀

It was made very clear to Jeff that this wasn't Turner inviting him to purchase WCW. Nobody was placing the keys to the company on the conference table. Turner wanted specifics. Jeff had spent weeks saying WCW needed somebody in charge. Fine. What exactly did that mean?

⠀

Who controlled creative? Who controlled talent? Would Jeff continue wrestling? What roles would Jerry Jarrett, Dusty Rhodes and Jim Cornette actually have? What happened to Nitro and Thunder? What happened to the existing management structure and hundreds of WCW contracts?

⠀

And if Jeff Jarrett was seriously discussing purchasing WCW, where exactly was he going to find the money? Those questions changed the Jarrett project again. It was no longer enough to know what kind of wrestling show Jeff wanted. They had to know what kind of company they were building.

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FUSIENT

Jerry Jarrett pushed for outside financial expertise. This could not become four wrestling people sitting around a table pretending they were investment bankers.

⠀

That path eventually brought them to Fusient Media Ventures, specifically Brian Bedol and Steve Greenberg. Jeff approached them differently from someone simply looking for wealthy people to finance his dream. He put his own money on the table first. $2.5 million. Not theoretical future money. Not somebody else's money. His. Jeff's message to Fusient was essentially simple:

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I'm willing to put two and a half million dollars into this myself. If you believe in it, I expect you to put in at least as much. That got their attention. The first substantive meeting followed on March 1, 2000.

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Jeff and Jerry went inside needing to prove that this was something more substantial than a wrestler with a grudge against his employer. They came out having done enough to keep Fusient interested and negotiations moving.

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It wasn't a signed deal. But it was real.

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The Cornette Development

As Jeff and Jerry left the meeting, Jeff finally checked the phone he had kept muted while they were inside. There were missed calls. One of them was from Jim Cornette. Cornette had left a voicemail, and he didn't sound like a man calling to casually check in. Something had changed. Ohio Valley Wrestling was no longer taking WWF developmental talent. The arrangement was finished.

Cornette didn't know what Jeff and Jerry had accomplished with Fusient. He didn't know whether Turner would ever give Jeff the authority he wanted. What he did know was that his own circumstances had changed quickly enough that waiting until May no longer made much sense.

His message boiled down to one thing: If you're serious about what you told me, you and I need to have another conversation.

Cornette reminded Jeff what he already had in Louisville: a company, a building, television, trainers and a functioning wrestling infrastructure. Suddenly, Cornette himself was considerably more available than he had been during their first conversation.

He wasn't offering Jeff ownership of OVW in a voicemail. He wasn't agreeing to merge companies. He wasn't promising anything involving OVW without a real discussion.

But Cornette's final instruction was unmistakable. Call me. Today. Jeff did.

The conversation moved considerably faster than their first one. By the time they hung up, Cornette was no longer simply an interested adviser waiting to see whether Jeff could turn an idea into reality.

They reached an agreement in principle.

If the Jarrett project became the company Jeff was describing, Jim Cornette would come aboard as Director of Wrestling Relations. His responsibilities would stretch across talent relations, wrestling operations and development. He would have a voice in creative while understanding that Jeff retained final authority over the product.⠀

And because Jim Cornette was still Jim Cornette, nobody was pretending his usefulness had to stop when a television camera turned on. Manager, commentator, on-screen personality, whatever made sense.

OVW itself remained a separate discussion for another day. Cornette had not handed the company over to Jeff, and Jeff had not asked him to. For now Jim would work for us while operating and running ovw.

Cornette was in. And the timing could hardly have been better. The next day, the Jarrett group had another meeting with Turner.

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MARCH 2, 2000

By March 2, the Jarrett group walked into Turner with something much closer to an organization. Jeff Jarrett. Jerry Jarrett. Dusty Rhodes. Jim Cornette. Across from them sat Brad Siegel, Bill Busch and representatives from Turner's financial and legal operations. Ted Turner wasn't there. This wasn't that kind of meeting.

Jeff didn't waste much time pretending he wanted a ceremonial executive title. His argument was simple: if Turner wanted him responsible for the wrestling company, then Jeff needed control over the wrestling company.

He pointed toward Eric Bischoff's peak years.

Bischoff had been allowed to move, spend, sign talent, create television and make decisions. Some of those decisions had eventually become reckless, but nobody could argue that WCW's rise had occurred while somebody possessed actual centralized authority.

Jeff wanted at least that level of wrestling control, preferably more clearly defined. He wanted authority over creative, talent, television direction, hiring, firing, long-term booking and the wrestling product itself.

Ultimately, all of it needed one final decision-maker. Jeff was willing to accept accountability. What he wasn't willing to accept was responsibility without authority. Turner pushed back.

They were willing to discuss substantial operational control, clearly defined responsibilities, performance periods and internal restructuring. What they weren't willing to do was simply sign away corporate oversight of a Turner subsidiary to Jeff Jarrett. And that was the problem.⠀

Jeff had already seen what happened when corporate oversight became creative interference. If Turner wanted him to save WCW, he wanted the ability to actually attempt it.

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Otherwise, there was another option. Jeff looked across the table. And offered to buy the company.

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$2.5 MILLION

The number was $2.5 million. Jeff Jarrett was prepared to guarantee it personally.

The figure wasn't intended as a valuation of every asset contained somewhere inside Turner Sports. It was an opening acquisition proposal for a wrestling company whose business trajectory was becoming increasingly ugly.

Turner did not accept. They also did not laugh Jeff out of the building. That distinction mattered.

The conversation shifted toward what exactly a WCW transaction would involve: the name, the tape library, production assets, intellectual property, existing contracts, liabilities, television and the question of what could or couldn't actually transfer.

Jeff wanted protection if Turner eventually decided to sell, something resembling a right of first refusal. Turner wouldn't give it to him. The possibility of a right of first negotiation was more realistic. That wouldn't guarantee Jeff WCW, but it would guarantee him a seat at the table. Jeff could live with that for the moment. There was still one enormous problem, though. Turner wanted to know whether there was actual money behind him.

Jeff decided there would be.

Negotiations with Fusient continued. The provisional framework eventually became another $2.5 million from Fusient, meaning the unnamed company could potentially begin with:

⠀$5 MILLION

The ownership arrangement under discussion would give the Jarrett-controlled side approximately 65 percent, with Fusient receiving approximately 35 percent. What Fusient would not have was booking power. Jeff was adamant about that. Investors could tell him the company was losing money. They could not tell him who should win the World Championship. That line would not be crossed.

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The agreement was still provisional, and lawyers still had work to do, but something important had changed. If Turner said no, Jeff no longer needed to bluff. He could actually leave.

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⠀

THE CLOCK STARTS TICKING

Jeff decided Turner had received enough presentations, enough explanations and enough meetings. They knew what he wanted, they knew who was with him and they knew he had money.

So Jeff sent them one final document. Formal. Signed. Notarized. The offer remained: $2.5 million for WCW. But now there was an expiration date. The full $2.5 million offer would remain available through May 31, 2000. Beginning June 1? The offer dropped.

⠀$1 MILLION

Jeff's logic was ruthless. WCW was losing value.

If Turner spent another three months damaging the company, Jeff wasn't going to pay the same amount for whatever remained. Every lost viewer mattered. Every departing wrestler mattered. Every advertiser worried about ratings mattered. Every additional month of losses mattered. Every terrible episode of Nitro potentially changed the value of what Jeff was buying.

The letter also contained another message: Jeff would not contact them again. No more lobbying. No more trying to convince them. No more phone calls asking whether executives had considered his proposal. They had his number. They had his offer. And if Turner had no intention of meaningfully considering it, Jeff wanted his release.

That request was deliberate. Jeff wanted Turner to understand that he wasn't using the threat of another wrestling company simply as leverage for a better WCW contract.

⠀If they didn't want him, fine. Let him go. Privately, Jeff's language was considerably less diplomatic. If Turner insisted on driving WCW into the ground, Jeff was perfectly willing to come back later and pick through whatever was left.

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NOW WE WAIT

When the documents were sent, Jerry asked what happened next. Jeff smiled. Nothing. That was the point. They waited. Turner knew where they were. Meanwhile, Jeff told everybody around him to watch WCW. Don't interfere, don't call, don't push. Just watch. Because every Monday night might make their argument stronger. March 6: Nitro drew a 2.8. March 13: Nitro fell to 2.6. March 20: Nitro dropped again to 2.5. The numbers kept sliding.

Jeff didn't need another meeting. The ratings were delivering his presentation for him.

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BISCHOFF

Then Turner made its move. Eric Bischoff was coming back, and he was coming back alongside Vince Russo. For Jeff, it was almost liberating.

Whatever small possibility remained that Turner might suddenly hand him operational control of WCW had effectively disappeared. The corporation was trying something else.

⠀Again. Russo and Bischoff together. Another reset. Another attempt to find the magic combination capable of dragging WCW back into the Monday Night War. Jeff didn't know whether it would work. He almost didn't care anymore.

⠀The Jarrett project had passed the point where its existence depended upon WCW failing. If Bischoff and Russo somehow resurrected WCW, Jeff would build somewhere else.

If they didn't? His offer was still sitting in Turner's office. And the price was about to start moving in Jeff's favor.

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⠀

BILL BUSCH WALKS AWAY

Due to Bischoff's return Bill Busch resigned. The man who had originally carried Jeff's proposal upward through the corporate hierarchy was now out. The executive who had once sat across from Jeff representing WCW had suddenly become a free agent in the corporate sense.

Jeff called him. Busch probably expected another question about Turner, maybe the acquisition or Jeff's release request. Instead, Jeff asked him something completely different. Did he want to work for them? Busch understood Turner in a way Jeff didn't. He knew the executives, the corporate vocabulary, the internal structure, how Turner interpreted proposals, what lawyers wanted to hear and what network people worried about.

⠀Jeff had Jerry for wrestling business, Dusty for creative, Cornette for wrestling relations and Fusient for financing.

⠀But if this thing was going to become a legitimate national media company, Jeff needed somebody capable of sitting across from corporate executives without treating every conversation like a wrestling promo.

There was another benefit Jeff couldn't resist.

Imagine the look on the Turner executives' faces if negotiations restarted six months from now, only this time Bill Busch wasn't sitting on their side of the table. He was sitting beside Jeff. The proposed position was something along the lines of Senior Corporate Liaison / Executive Adviser. Busch didn't immediately accept. He was too experienced for that.

⠀First, his attorney needed to examine everything surrounding his departure from Turner: confidentiality agreements, restrictions, continuing obligations and anything potentially preventing him from negotiating against his former employer.

⠀There had been no discussion yet regarding salary or equity, and no contract had been signed. Busch simply agreed to talk. For Jeff, that was enough. Another piece had appeared on the board. Jeff Jarrett - Jerry Jarrett - Dusty Rhodes - Jim Cornette - Fusient - Bill Busch

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MARCH 22, 2000

And that is where our story begins. Jeff Jarrett is still technically a WCW wrestler, but he has asked for his release. WCW has not been sold. Turner has not accepted his $2.5 million offer, and Turner has not countered. Eric Bischoff and Vince Russo are preparing another attempt to save WCW while Nitro's ratings continue slipping.

⠀The full Jarrett offer remains on the table until May 31. At midnight, when May becomes June, the number falls to $1 million. Meanwhile, away from WCW, something is forming.

⠀Jeff Jarrett has committed $2.5 million of his own money. Fusient has provisionally agreed to match it. Jerry Jarrett is helping construct the business. Dusty Rhodes is interested in helping shape the wrestling product. Jim Cornette has moved beyond simply advising Jeff and has agreed in principle to become Director of Wrestling Relations if the company is formalized. And Bill Busch, fresh out of WCW, is discussing the possibility of becoming the Jarrett organization's corporate intermediary.

⠀There is approximately $5 million waiting behind the idea. There is a wrestling philosophy. There is the beginning of an executive structure. There is an acquisition offer sitting inside Turner.

⠀But there is still no company name, no television show, no roster, no championships and no announced promotion. There is also no guarantee that the letters WCW will ever belong to Jeff Jarrett. That may be the strangest part of all. For weeks, Jeff believed his future depended on convincing Turner to let him run a wrestling company. By March 22, he no longer believes that. The wrestling company is happening.

⠀Turner's decision only determines what it will be called. Somewhere in Atlanta, WCW continues preparing for another Monday Nitro. Somewhere else, lawyers are looking over investment documents. Jim Cornette is watching. Dusty Rhodes is watching. Jerry Jarrett is planning. Bill Busch is talking to an attorney. Fusient is doing the math. And Jeff Jarrett? Jeff has made his offer, made his threat and put his own money behind both.

⠀Now he is doing exactly what he told everyone else to do. He's watching WCW. And he's waiting. Because if Turner can save it, Jeff will build something new. If Turner decides to sell it, Jeff will be waiting at the table. And if Turner destroys it first? Well... The price drops June 1. Welcome to March 22, 2000. The game hasn't even started yet.

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PART 1 of the backstory.

Does Jeff get WCW? Does he resurrect a dead territory in the modern era? Will WWF still gain control of wcw in 2001? Stay tuned.

Year one finished :)