LOLGFW History

There was a lot of hype behind this promotion, at one point. The basics of its beginnings are like this: Jeff Jarrett jumped ship from TNA in late 2013. Everything was going downhill with the promotion, and Jarrett likely saw the rise of independent wrestling at the time. Despite TNA's failure, there were still many fans of wrestling outside of WWE. Perhaps a new promotion could capitalize on this market...enter Global Force Wrestling. Enjoy some music to set the mood.

It Begins (2013-2015)
The story of GFW begins in late 2013. Here is a quote from the 2013 section of LOLTNA History: Jarrett's exit from TNA was due to a plan he had with Toby Keith to create a new promotion. Global Force Wrestling was supposed to be a lifeboat of sorts to get by while TNA was presumed to be near-death. Many more details can be found on that other wiki's article on GFW, but in short: this was a very serious project for Jarrett. Partnerships left and right with many promotions, a lot of TV episodes being taped, he got Bullet Club members to appear at a few GFW events, Wrestle Kingdom got on PPV in the US thanks to GFW...so what went wrong? The wikipedia article doesn't really say much.
 * On December 17th, AJ Styles' twelve-year tenure with the company came to an end when he decided to leave a company he helped build rather than take a cut in pay. Four days later, TNA co-founder Jeff Jarrett left the company after he (along with Toby Keith) failed to negotiate a buyout of TNA with the Carters. (The deal breaker? Bob Carter reportedly insisted they keep Dixie in the company in some fashion). 
 * Source: https://wrestlingnews.co/other/toby-keith-was-very-close-to-buying-tna-more-news-on-global-force-wrestling/

Trouble, and a hell of a deal with TNA (2015)
Well, there were rumors of Jarrett wanting to do more work with New Japan and AAA. However, AAA preferred to keep working with TNA, getting them to send talent over to Mexico for the Lucha Libre World Cup in 2015. As for New Japan, Jarrett didn't get to do more than just helping them with Wrestle Kingdom. Years later, it was found out that New Japan management still held a grudge with TNA due to how Kazuchika Okada was handled during his excursion. A notable quote that got out around the time that Davey Boy Smith Jr was confirmed for being gone from NJPW was "Fucking Jeff Jarrett and TNA." More details, per the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. So, New Japan was out of the picture despite them allowing a few of their talents to take some bookings from GFW. The clock was ticking, and not much was happening with GFW despite taping a bunch of shows in August. Outside of those tapings, only a few other shows were heard of, namely ones taped at baseball stadiums, something Jarrett addressed in his interview with Rolling Stone. Despite some supposed international distribution deal in the UK, and another deal in New Zealand, none of GFW's Amped shows aired until they were released in 2017 through Impact Wrestling, which no longer had Dixie Carter around by then.
 * Davey Boy Smith Jr. asked for NJPW’s permission to work Impact and didn’t get permission. He asked what the problem was and they said “Fucking Jeff Jarrett and TNA" and were still mad about how Okada was booked. Smith told them that Jarrett was long gone, and that he was going get a big push.

Jarrett couldn't just sit there and do nothing in 2015, he had to get some publicity for GFW...and he got some through a temporary partnership with TNA. As covered in the LOLTNA History article, the GFW "Invasion" was laughably short, but Jarrett got a hell of a deal. He sold his minority stake in the company to Dixie - so now, Dixie finally got rid of Jarrett for good, and Jarrett got some money AND publicity for GFW out of it. On top of that, the cherry on top was that the deal included a fucking Hall of Fame induction. Even if Dixie wanted to bury him on the way out, he's a freaking hall of famer, fans would turn on the promotion if she dared to do that.

With this great deal, surely business would pick up for GFW in 2016, right?

Real Trouble, Global Force Gold (2016)
Business just wasn't picking up. Toby Keith was long gone since Jarrett couldn't get a TV deal going. Despite whatever deal GFW had in New Zealand, none of the taped shows made it to TV. GFW was just a brand that seemed to be unable to take off...and Jarrett needed some fucking money.

In April 2016, GFW hit its lowest point with Global Force Gold. What exactly is Global Force Gold? The infamous David Bixenspan had this to say on April 8: You read that right! Jeff Jarrett got his promotion directly associated with a fucking pyramid scheme! That's how cold business got for GFW. It can only be assumed that Jarrett was losing so much money that he literally had to scam GFW's fans. The headlines were not pretty. Bix was polite with "Jeff Jarrett Using Global Force Brand To Sell Gold To Fans For Some Reason" - others weren't. While r/squaredcircle is essentially "confimation bias: the board," there were a few good takes to be found on the subject:
 * Yesterday, a curious link popped up on Wrestling Twitter which also showed up on Reddit an hour later: GlobalForceGold.info. Someone, and I’m not sure who it was, must have gone to the Global Force Wrestling website and seen the pop-over ad that it now serves up: 
 * For starters, whatever it is, in the welcome video (embedded above), Jeff Jarrett calls it “GlobalForceGold.com,” which is not a good sign when the domain is actually GlobalForceGold.info. In the video, he says that he, his family, his friends, and his fans are all joining “Team Jarrett” and that we can, too! The website explains that if you enter your name, email address, and phone number, you will be contacted about getting a free autographed photo and get an opportunity to watch a seven minute video.
 * If you just put in dummy information, you get this video, called “Karatbars Explained”
 * What the heck is Karatbars? Well, their website has a frequently asked questions page. Apparently,  they’re a German company that is a “bank-independent trading houses [sic] for merchandise and precious metals, especially Gold bullion in form of a card in small denominations.” Uh Oh.
 * There are a number of websites proclaiming it to be a scam, with one self-proclaimed “scam buster,” Ethan Vanderbuilt, even calling it a “ponzi scheme.” Technically, it sounds more like a pyramid scheme, as it’s based on recruiting affiliates who will recruit more affiliates, with promises of unrealistic financial returns.
 * Wrestlezone went with "An Inside Look at Jeff Jarrett’s New “Global Force Gold” and Why Ponzi Scheme Allegations Are Creating a Major GFW Controversy"
 * The previously mentioned Ethan Vanderbuilt was more direct: "Global Force Gold Scam? Yes It Is In My Opinion!"
 * Solowrestling: "Jeff Jarrett propone una presunta estafa piramidal mediante GFW" (Jeff Jarrett proposes an alleged scam through GFW)
 * Cageside Seats: "Jeff Jarrett and Global Force Wrestling now in the multi-level marketing business"
 * Wrestlecrap: "It Came From YouTube: Please buy some worthless gold from Jeff Jarrett- he needs money!"
 * Pissedoffnobody: "Well, I think it's fair to say after their poorly advertised and attended UK shows as well as their baseball/casino shows that couldn't do worthwhile numbers, as well as the fact most of the indies they tried to work with are now on good terms with NXT or ROH instead, this is pretty much a failed enterprise entirely. Hell, most of the material they taped is of talent in LU, NJPW, back at TNA or signed to NXT now. This was a waste of time and money for everyone. 2 and a half years after they announced their formation, they are still going nowhere fast and apparently even the UK TV deal has been rescinded after the poor attendance of their UK shows. "
 * rleclair90: "It's Jeff Katz with the Wrestling Revolution Project all over again. People got behind the idea, people got scammed, Katz made off with footage we're never gonna get to see and all the money left over. I'm not saying Jarrett's as bad as Katz, but the parallels are there."
 * AndyVale: "I remember being excited at seeing GFW was coming to the UK. Then when the shows were announced they really didn't look particularly special. It was basically a regular Indie show with the addition of Jeff Jarrett & Magnus, and in some interesting choices of location. Nothing wrong with that, but I was expecting something incredible, which would make the trip to Grimsby worthwhile. When the UK indies already have solid home-grown line-ups, and talent from all over the world wanting to work with RPW, PCW, Southside etc. it didn't really stand out."
 * Cheeseblanket: "Oh man, what a bummer. I really really wanted to believe that GFW could have been a cool little alternative company, but I think this is the final nail in the coffin for me. There were plenty of little red flags and warning signs before that the whole operation was pretty bush league, but this is just pathetic."
 * Benoit'd user: "So here's how you know this is a scam. The company (or one of their MLM associates, it doesn't matter) has googlebombed the search results for the specific phrase "is karatbars a scam" to pull up a bunch of their official websites, as opposed to people talking about how karatbars is a scam.I also read this: [Ethan Vanderbuilt's website] and this: http://factsaboutinternetmarketing.com/karatbars-international-scam-review-not-all-that-glitters-is-gold Which explain in a lot of detail what a massive disgusting MLM scam this is, and how the company and it's subsidiaries are under investigation by government agencies. Fuck you Jarrett, fuck you forever. It makes me laugh that his little blurb video on the website there is posted via the YouTube account of a company called "Integrity First Real Estate Group" I might drop them a message and ask them if they know what they're doing."

This was essentially the death of the hype for GFW. Its final event as Jarrett's GFW was in March 2017, along with Tried-N-True Pro Wrestling. That said, there was a hint of life left in the promotion. GFW made a few headlines when recent WWE release Cody Rhodes won the NEX*GEN championship.

LOLTNA becomes LOLGFW, unfinished merger (2017)

 * Jeff Jarrett had returned to TNA back in January 2017, and so the new creative team had to take some time to wrap up storylines from the previous regime.
 * On March 9, 2017, the promotion was relaunched once again...and the result was a true LOLTNA shitshow. The first segment set up a lengthy feud between Jeremy Borash and Josh Mathews. Yes, a feud between two commentators. While there were some nice shots fired between the two, they kept bickering throughout the night, actively hurting matches. And Impact kept going like this for weeks. Worst of all, there were so many WWE namedrops throughout the night that this show felt like the same old TNA.
 * That show also featured two promos where an authority figure (Bruce Prichard, then Dutch Mantell) buried the previous management and swore to Make Impact Great Again™. This created some controversy: first of all, Impact had gotten pretty decent at telling stories. Sure, it lost a lot of people through the years, but lately, the shows weren't bad enough to bury them like this. Second, it was totally unnecessary to take so much time to admit that the shows sucked. More wrestling, and less talking would have been welcome on this night.
 * Alberto El Patron was introduced by Bruce Prichard, after the latter cut an infamous promo. Among other things, Bruce literally said "TNA IS DEAD!" and shilled his podcast because of course he did. Alberto's titantron was botched: the text originally said "Alberto De Patron," so his entrance had to be re-taped. This segment set up Alberto's world title shot. Yes, a former WWE guy got a title shot on his first night. What a reboot.
 * The Hardys had just left the company and had to be written out. What the creative team came up with was bizarre. They aired part of the last footage from the Broken Hardys and their Expedition of Gold. When they teleported via Vanguard 1, somehow, Decay managed to steal the Tag Team championship belts from the Hardys. Since they can't just steal titles to become champions, the championship was vacated.
 * At the main event of this episode, Alberto El Patron and Lashley were in an overbooked mess that involved two ref bumps. The match was mostly nothing special until then, and finished with babyface Alberto hitting Lashley with his world title belt for the win. Alberto El Patron was the NEW World Champion...or was he?
 * Alberto had to relinquish the title because one of the refs caught him using the belt. A dusty finish for the main event of the reboot of Impact Wrestling.
 * A couple of weeks after that show, Karen Jarrett was introduced as another authority figure. So far, Impact had 3 authority figures on the show.
 * In April 2017, Jeff Jarrett said something interesting at a Wrestlecon interview: "In the weeks and days, months, however that saying goes, more will come out, but yeah, Global Force and Impact are becoming one day-by-day."
 * A major announcement was made on the same month at a live Impact episode. Per Wrestlezone: "Global Force Wrestling is officially defunct as a promotion, as it was announced tonight that the company founded by Jeff Jarrett has merged with Impact Wrestling. Tonight’s live episode of Impact Wrestling featured Karen Jarrett addressing GFW’s status, and she told the crowd the two companies have merged. Global Force Wrestling was officially founded in April 2014, and the company hosted live events and several television tapings for a potential TV show."
 * There was just a little problem with that. The merger wasn't actually finished. While a previous report of Anthem moving away from the "TNA" name ended up being true, and Karen Jarrett cut a neat little promo about the merger, that didn't mean the merger was actually done. People can lie in pro wrestling. This would explain why the GFW name and brand would be dropped from all of Impact Wrestling's programming by the end of 2017.
 * On that same 4/20 episode of Impact Wrestling, a big tag team match took place: Team Borash vs Team Mathews. If Josh's team lost, he would leave Impact Wrestling. The team did lose, and the babyfaces all celebrated...but Josh Mathews came back to Impact anyways because Josh didn't say for how long he'd be gone. The feud was ultimately pointless because despite a very wacky tag team match at Slammiversary, Borash eventually left for WWE, and Josh Mathews stayed.
 * A few of Jarrett's GFW champions were brought in to drop their titles. These would later be unified with Impact's championships so that the original GFW titles could be retired. Christina Von Eerie dropped her Women's championship to Sienna in a rather poor match. Magnus at least managed to get one GFW World title defense on TV, but it was in a shitty match with Matt Morgan, who was on a very brief return to the promotion.
 * The start of this new, NEW era of Impact got off to a very rocky start, but the TV show did pick up some momentum eventually. Alberto El Patron won the GFW World Heavyweight championship from Magnus on the May 11 episode, and so, it was almost time to close the book on the history of the original GFW championships. Cody never got to drop his NEX*GEN championship since business was really picking up for him at Ring of Honor. He was only able to honor his last few dates with Impact on March, and this was before the other GFW championships were brought into the show.
 * All the feuds culminated on Slammiversary, a show that was well received. At least for that night, the GFW brand felt like it was more alive than ever...until shit started going downhill hard.
 * Around this time, Alberto was becoming infamous for randomly no-showing dates at indies. Something about Impact was enough to get him to make all his dates there, but then his infamous relationship with Paige hit a dark chapter. More details from Pro Wrestling Sheet: "The airport altercation between GFW Global Champion Alberto El Patron and WWE Superstar Paige was recorded via audio by a witness — and it’s clear there was no third party involved. TMZ released audio of Paige yelling “stay out of my life” and “leave me the f*ck alone” as she argued with El Patron in public on Sunday at Orlando International Airport. Paige can also be heard saying, “I’m trying to get away from you. All the time.” As we previously reported, the 24-year old female wrestler tweeted about the incident and said they were the ones who called the police due to a fan taking pictures of them while she was crying … but that’s doesn’t seem to be the truth, based on this recording."
 * Yes, you read that right, TMZ released the audio. People outside of the wrestling business got word of this, and even worse reports came out afterwards, like Paige's brother saying Alberto beats her, and...generally, it was a chaotic year for Alberto, even fans knew that the relationship with Paige was a trainwreck, and it was a bad time to make him the face of the promotion. Or any promotion, for that matter. A seperate page would have to be made to cover the weird stories about Alberto El Patron at the time. On July 12, he was suspended, and one month later, he was stripped of his unified GFW World Heavyweight championship.
 * This left Impact Wrestling with a problem: they had already taped a bunch of episodes with Alberto El Patron feuding with LAX. The payoff was supposed to be a world title match with Low Ki. Since they had taped so much with that feud, they had to air all of it, portraying Alberto El Patron as a babyface during a time when real life troubles made it nearly impossible to cheer for him.
 * As if that wasn't enough trouble, Low Ki also ended up leaving the promotion. Due to Alberto's suspension, he ended up being relegated to the X-Division. Low Ki wanted to be pushed to the main event, but plans had to be changed. He worked a couple of house shows and one last set of tapings before leaving Impact Wrestling.
 * In August, Jim Cornette was introduced as yet another authority figure. Due to legal troubles with Canada, he had to leave the promotion by November because the Bound For Glory event was going to take place in Canada.
 * Despite this, Impact Wrestling kept going along putting on some decent-to-good shows, and pushing some talent that gave life to the weekly TV. However, Impact would hit another low point with Bound For Glory.
 * Now, let's backtrack a bit. Bound For Glory took place in November, and by then, the promotion dropped the Global Force Wrestling name. What happened now?
 * Back in September, it was announced that Jeff Jarrett would take an indefinite leave of absence from "GFW" - there were numerous reasons for this, but the breaking point is here, per Wrestling Observer: "It appears the breaking point had to do with Jarrett's behavior at this year's TripleMania. Jarrett was said to be not in shape for wrestling and stumbled down the ring steps (although, he wasn’t the only person on the show who had trouble with the steps), doing little wrestling in his match. Ed Nordholm, Executive Vice President of Anthem Sports & Entertainment, was on the trip and made the call to remove Jarrett."
 * Another take from WrestlingInc: "Another source noted to PWInsider that Jarrett was "not blameless" but that there was also "blame to be thrown in all directions" of the company. The same source claimed that a lot of things Jarrett had been publicly criticized for were just him towing the company line and following "marching orders" out of loyalty to Anthem after they brought him back into the company, including when he defended Anthem in the beef with The Hardys. There's been a feeling among some that Jarrett had been trying hard to step in between Nordholm and the wrestling side of the company due to the belief among many that Nordholm didn't "get" the business. One source pointed to how the company put effort into bringing Alberto El Patron in as a surprise for his debut, only for Nordholm to tweet a photo of Patron before he came out, spoiling the surprise. The source admitted that Jarrett needed a break but noted that Jarrett had been "bending over backward" to try and balance things between Anthem and GFW, adding that Jarrett 'desperately wanted his company back and wanted to prove to everyone he was right all along with his vision.'"
 * More importantly, from the same page: "On a related note, a source reported to PWInsider that the GFW - Anthem merger was "nowhere near as completed" as they have touted publicly. Trademarks for Global Force Wrestling and GFW are still under the ownership of the Global Force Wrestling LLC that Jarrett launched in 2014. It's possible that the GFW letters will disappear from Impact Wrestling if Jarrett doesn't return to the company for some reason."
 * And that's basically what ended up happening. Jeff Jarrett didn't come back, and the promotion went back to being Impact Wrestling. All of its titles were renamed to Impact instead of GFW, and by the September 21 episode of Impact Wrestling, everything was almost back to normal. Unfortunately for Impact Wrestling, fans soon noticed that Eli Drake's world title belt had a sticker on top of its GFW logo in the center piece, and the other plates still had the GFW logo on it.
 * Nevertheless, this was the end of LOLGFW history. From here on, the TV show improved, as did the major PPV events. The roster would also get some significant signings like Fenix and Pentagon Jr, among others. Any moments of failure after this point belong on the LOLIMPACT History page.

Related Pages

 * LOLWWE History
 * LOLTNA History
 * LOLROH History
 * LOLIMPACT History