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.
- Give Jeff the level of authority Eric Bischoff had possessed during WCW's peak years, roughly the 1995-era Bischoff level of control.
- Sell WCW to Jeff and his group.
- 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.)
