Josh Mathews On Impact Wrestling Cutting Ties With Jeff Jarrett, If Belts Will Be Changed Again
WrestlingInc.com owner Raj Giri was on a media conference call today with Impact Wrestling commentator Josh Mathews. On the call, Giri asked about Impact Wrestling terminating its business relationship with Jeff Jarrett and Global Force Entertainment, Inc.
On Monday, Impact announced it would be ending its business relationship with Jarrett. Details emerged about an incident involving Jarrett at an indy show in Calgary on Friday in which he didn't appear to be in condition to perform when he wrestled a 25-minute main event, causing some of the people in attendance to walk out early.
Mathews said he's not sure when exactly Impact decided to terminate Jarrett, but he believes the company needed to come to a decision before the upcoming pay-per-view Bound For Glory, which will be on Nov. 5.
"I'm not privy to when the decision was made. I was told when you guys were told, probably a little bit beforehand," Mathews said. "I think if you look at it logically, and if you look at everything that was happening from when we made the original announcement about the time of being away for a while, I think a final decision had to be made before Bound For Glory, before were were going to get up to Ottawa. The decision was made when it was made, and now we can move forward with what we're trying to do with Impact."
Jarrett had taken an indefinite leave of absence from his position as Chief Creative Officer of Impact Wrestling on Sept. 5 "to focus on personal matters." He founded Global Force Wrestling in 2014 and Impact had acquired GFW in June and rebranded itself. Mathews was asked about whether or not the company will be reverting back to Impact's branding, starting with the championship belts.
"Yeah, I think you've seen that the titles have the Impact plates on them now," Mathews said. "Whatever the case may be, but yeah, they're gonna change."