Global Force Wrestling (GFW) was an American professional wrestling promotion founded in 2014 by Jeff Jarrett, the co-founder and former President of Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (later known as Impact Wrestling), and his wife Karen Jarrett. The promotion ran several live events and television tapings for a potential television show which never aired while the company was active. Jeff Jarrett returned to Impact Wrestling in an executive role in January 2017 and Karen Jarrett announced that GFW had "merged" with Impact Wrestling on April 20, 2017. Impact Wrestling assumed the GFW name the following month, but the name was dropped when Jeff Jarrett departed the company four months later.
Video Global Force Wrestling (2014-2017)
History
With Jeff Jarrett out as minority investor of TNA Wrestling, he debuted the branding of Global Force Wrestling (business name Global Force Entertainment, LLC) in April 2014 and began promoting the brand and establishing international partnerships with wrestling promotions across the world. The organization had a strategic partnership with 25/7 Productions and David Broome (creator of NBC's The Biggest Loser). Broome stated that the organization planned to create new on-air content 52 weeks per year.
By August 2014, GFW announced working agreements with Mexican promotion Lucha Libre AAA World Wide (AAA), Japan's New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) promotion, multiple European promotions, South African promotion World Wrestling Professionals (WWP), and promotions from Australia and New Zealand. As part of GFW's relationship with New Japan Pro Wrestling, GFW presented NJPW's Wrestle Kingdom 9 at the Tokyo Dome on the American pay-per-view market on January 4, 2015. The pay-per-view featured English language commentary from Jim Ross and Matt Striker. Wrestle Kingdom 9 reportedly drew 12,000 to 15,000 buys in North America.
Throughout May 2015, Jarrett announced talent for their roster, which included Bullet Club members Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows, the Killer Elite Squad, and Chael Sonnen as an expert analyst. Jarrett also announced that four champions (Global, NEX*GEN, Tag Team and Women's Champion) would be crowned at the July 24 tapings.
The first Global Force Wrestling house show took place on June 12, 2015, at The Ballpark at Jackson in Jackson, Tennessee, as part of GFW's "Grand Slam Tour", which entailed holding events at minor league baseball stadiums. In that show's main event, Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows defeated the New Heavenly Bodies.
On July 9, 2015, Jeff Jarrett announced that the name of GFW's television program was "Amped". Amped tapings took place at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on July 24, August 21, and October 23, 2015. In a December 2015 interview, Jeff Jarrett said that they had sixteen one-hour shows filmed at the Las Vegas tapings and hoped to have the shows air globally on television in the future. GFW announced that they had signed an international TV distribution deal with Boulder Creek TV in the UK on September 14, 2015, and with TVNZ Duke in New Zealand on February 18, 2016. Despite this, no tapings of Amped ever aired during GFW's existence, although footage from these tapings were later aired as One Night Only pay-per-view specials. Overall, the promotion held 36 live events.
After returning to TNA in early 2017 as the promotion's chief creative officer, Jarrett stated that GFW and the newly renamed Impact Wrestling were "becoming one day-by-day". On the April 20 episode of Impact Wrestling, Karen Jarrett announced that GFW and Impact Wrestling had officially merged. In a press release issued on June 28, Impact Wrestling announced that their parent company, Anthem Sports & Entertainment Corp., had entered into an agreement to acquire the rights to GFW. After the announcement, Impact Wrestling rebranded and took on the Global Force Wrestling name. Jeff Jarrett took an indefinite leave of absence from the company in September and Anthem slowly reverted back to using the Impact Wrestling name. Impact Wrestling's rebranding was officially over on October 23, when Impact announced that its business partnership with Jeff Jarrett and GFW was terminated. The deal for Anthem to acquire GFW was never completed and Jeff Jarrett continues to own the rights to GFW.
Maps Global Force Wrestling (2014-2017)
Championships history
GFW Global Championship
GFW NEX*GEN Championship
GFW Women's Championship
GFW Tag Team Championship
Past championships used by GFW
Events
Partnerships
See also
- List of Global Force Wrestling alumni
- List of independent wrestling promotions in the United States
- Global Wrestling Network
References
External links
- Official website
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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