My World with Jeff Jarrett - He Lied to Us! The Jay Hassman Story [Show Notes] (Patreon)

Well Jeff if you want to talk about granular we’re about to get a whole lot granular on this week’s edition of My World!

Today we’re talking about the Jay Hassman story. We’ve touched a little bit in our 3 part series on the launch of TNA about who Jay Hassman was. Catch us up for those who haven’t gone all the way through.

Is Hassman the only conduit to In Demand in the company?

In your dad’s book it talked about how he spoke with Hassman two days after and that the expectations were 15% of the WWE buy rate which would get between 90,000 and 100,000 buys. He said the breakeven point was about 55,000 buys. Were you hearing the same things?

You start to find out between week 1 and week 2 that just because you were on InDemand not all the cable systems carried the show. How frustrating is it to hear that?

Haussmann comes to the office and sits down with you & your dad and you voice your concerns about how much InDemand didn’t help and not having it available on all systems. Haussmann sort of blames it on Len Sabal is that correct?

Do you watch the second show from the comfort of your home?

The taped show begins with you vs. Scott Hall who has Toby Keith & Jackie Fargo at ringside. There’s a bunch of interference from people like Toby, Ron Killings, Brian Christopher leading to Scott getting the pin. Interesting to have Scott go over you here. What do you remember of this match?

Jeff...you air Cheex vs. Frank Parker. From the Observer…”On a taped show, there is no way that Cheeks atrocity should have aired.”

I mean...hard to disagree. Did you just need time filler?

Brian Christopher has Sterling Marlin & Hermie Sadler ringside with him for his match with Ron Killings which Christopher wins after hitting the Hip Hop Drop. How important is it for someone like Christopher to get re-established to the audience?

The Lingerie Battle Royal is up next and whoo Jeff. Gives a whole new meaning to TNA. Taylor Vaughan wins over Tyler, ECW’s Francine, Joni, Shannon (WCW’s Daffney), Alexis Laree (the future Mickie James), Erin and ECW’s Elektra. Meltzer had to say… “The lingerie Battle Royal was a total disaster. The promise T&A, and it looked so low rent next to the WWE women, who show more and are so much more attractive, every week on free television. The only thing different was Ed Ferrara grabbing Francine's breast, which did kind of surprise me, but it was more a turn-off than anything else, and didn't even get a pop from the crowd.”

Do you say that’s a fair criticism and what the hell is going on with Ferrara grabbing Francine’s breast?

Apolo defeats David Young after a superkick. Not much here.

Next up is the Rainbow Express vs. The Dupps. From Meltzer… “The shock value stuff, like when Joel Gertner proclaimed the Rainbow Express gay, got no reaction as well.”

The Dupps end up refusing to touch the Rainbow Express because...ya know...and Bill Beherens instead introduces Chris Harris & James Storm to face the Rainbow Express. The future America’s Most Wanted gets the win here. What did everyone see in AMW at this time?

Ricky Steamboat introduces the new NWA World Champion Ken Shamrock who is interrupted by James Mitchell who challenges Shamrock to face Malice next week for the title. Story movement Jeff!

The first TNA X-Division Champion is crowned in the main event where it’s a double elimination match. It’s sort of a gauntlet match where you have to be pinned twice to be eliminated. It’s between AJ Styles, Low Ki, Jerry Lynn & Psicosis. It comes down to AJ Styles needing two pins to beat Lynn while Lynn only needs one elimination but Styles gets it done to become the first X-Division Champion. Why Styles here? Meltzer gave it **** ½.

The show is ranked as thumbs up by 75.2% of the Wrestling Observer readers but Dave points out he got half the response for show 2 compared to show 1. Were you expecting a drop like that in the buyrate from show 1 to 2?

The quick reports after the second show is that the buyrate is down 30% from the first one. Your dad wrote in his book that he actually reached out to Eric Bischoff to discuss the possibility of him helping secure a broadcast cable deal. This is only two weeks before Eric debuts with the WWE. We floated it around a couple of weeks ago about the prospect of WWE signing Eric to keep away from you. Did you know your dad & Eric talked?

The day of your 3rd taping you call the head of the media relations department at InDemand and that he didn’t know about your project. Is that the first time you, yourself Jeff, thought something was going on with Haussmann?

The media relations director tells you flat out he hasn’t talked to Haussmann in several months. Where’s your head at when you hear this news? Ready to fire him?

Do you reach out to Jay on the day of the taping?

Your 3rd pay-per-view is built around the crowning of new NWA World Tag Team Champions.

The Shane Twins are the champions currently but I guess are stripped because the show’s first match is...The Johnsons vs. James Storm & Chris Harris. The future AMW take the win in the NWA World Tag Team Tournament and it is the last time we see the Johnsons thank god.

Jim Miller...NWA President but the graphic says Jim Wilson...comes out and announces that debuting for TNA next week is Omori and he will be wrestling for the NWA World Title. No first name...no promotional package...just Omori. Why do you think anyone would care about him if that’s how you introduce him?

You and Scott Hall have a promo which results in Ron Killings coming out but Hall just shitcans him. Makes Killings look useless as a heel don’t you think?

Monty Brown defeats Anthony Ingram in a short squash match and calls out Ken Shamrock. It’s rare that a company keeps a focus around just the World Heavyweight Champion but it’s old school booking at it’s best don’t you agree?

Puppet cuts a promo challenging any midget...mentioning Gary Coleman & Bettlejuice. The rumor and innuendo is that Bettlejuice was scheduled to face Puppet on this show. Is that true?

The next match has a lot going on. The Rainbow Express defeat Buff Bagwell & Apolo to continue to the finals of the NWA World Tag Team Title Tournament. Buff acts like he doesn’t want to be there and than Alicia Webb (Ryan Shamrock) comes down and demands payment from Ed Ferrera. Buff cuts a promo afterwards and your dad mentions in his book that Buff wasn’t happy with anything that day and he was ready to fire him. What do you remember of Buff that day and what is this stupid shit with Alicia Webb and Ed Ferrera where it makes it seem like she’s Heidi Fleiss?

Oh the Rainbow Express win…

Ken Shamrock is attacked via a blackout and it’s supposedly Malice in prep for the World Title match tonight. How was Shamrock to deal with at this point?

Puppet vs. Todd Stone is about a minute with a win by Puppet. Was Todd Stone even a wrestler? Puppet hits Jeremy Borash & Don West after the match with a kendo stick. Meltzer says, “I don't know what you can do with him (maybe a heel manager), but the guy should give everyone lessons on charisma.”

I don’t know what to say about Puppet but he did have a lot of charisma.

Francine beats “Miss TNA” Taylor Vaughn in 43 seconds. Ed Ferrera grabs her breast again after the match. Jeff where the hell was this going? Was Francine OK with all this?

Hermie Sadler is introduced and Ron Killings attacks him and they have a pull apart to setup a match next week. Don West has the line of the show where he says Sadler is standing up for the 500 million NASCAR fans. I know West is a salesman but Jeff...500 million NASCAR fans?

Ken Shamrock retains the NWA World Title over Malice clean. Odd placement for the NWA World Title in the middle of the card don’t you think? What was different about Malice here because he seemed like a different person than the Wall in WCW?

AJ Styles retains the X Division title over David Young who has Bobcat by his side. These two were super familiar with each other from NWA Wildside and it’s a really good match. Meltzer gave it **¼.

Styles very quickly is the workhorse of the promotion as AMW is attacked and wiped out from the tournament and it’s decided that Styles & Lynn would team up to face the Rainbow Express in the finals and they win in 12:22. Styles now is a double champion on Week 3. Did you just not have enough faith in the tag team division at this point to combine these two?

Jeff...we’re coming up on the main event. So let’s ask this question. NWA World Title match, X division title match, the crowning of the NWA World Tag Team Champions...and the main event is you & Ron Killings against Brian Christopher & Scott Hall. You can see why people would question that right?

Here’s Meltzer regarding the main event… “Hall blew up because he had to work almost the entire match based on the storyline. When he finally went for the hot tag, Christopher turned on him. Hall actually bounced all three around with offense reminiscent of the last years of the career of Dusty Rhodes before they finally overcame him and Christopher laid him out with the hip hop drop and Jarrett beat him with the stroke. Jarrett pounded on Hall, cut a promo on Hall, they took Hall out on a stretcher, and Jarrett pounded him on the stretcher, knocked him off it, etc. Very well done professional looking main event angle.”

You end with heat and a swerve but Hall doesn’t look great. Why the write off here for Scott?

The next day is July 4th and you have a cook out at your house with Jill. You meet with your dad and Vince Russo also. Can’t separate business from pleasure at this point can you?

On July 7th you hire Vince Russo officially. He opts to take a $100k offer from TNA instead of the $125k offer from WWE to stay home. Who do you think got the best of that deal?

July 10th. The day it all changes Jeff. From your father’s book:

“Frank Romano from InDemand had been meeting with Jeff, Bob Ryder & Ron Harris. The meeting was intended to be about how InDemand could help us get help the cable companies to run spots for our show. Ryder, who along with me (Jerry) had serious doubts about Jay Hassman, asked Romano outright if the numbers Haussmann had been giving us were correct. Bob gave Romano copies of what we thought was the InDemand flash reports. Romano said the report did not come from InDemand that it was not even their letterhead used for the flash report. At the end of the meeting, we had discovered that Haussmann had created a fake report and used an InDemand letterhead. Not only that, but he (Haussmann) told inDemadn not to market us because his company was handling the marketing. Haussmann has been telling us that InDemand had not held up their end of the bargain. In short, Haussmann has been lying about buy rates and has deliberately misled us concerning the marketing...By Haussman’s numbers, we thought we had about 175,000 buys for the first 3 shows. Instead, InDemand is projecting us at about 50,000 buys for the three shows combined.”

Jeff...you’re in the meeting. How quickly does your world crumble?

What’s running through your mind?

Do you walk out of that meeting thinking...wow all my money is gone. It’s all gone. What do we do next?

Your dad continued in his book about when he finally got to sat with you to discuss the meeting.

“I reached a point of almost shock, thinking that all our efforts were for nothing and Jeff and I had lost our investment and were in deep debt. I sat in a daze for about 30 minutes with Jeff in the stands.”

What is it like to present that news to not just your father...but your main investor really?

How quickly are you guys able to think of what the next step is?

Once again from your dad’s book… “My plan is to slash cost to the bone. Scale back the operation to under $30,000 per show. .. All this depends on Jeff being able to explain the situation to Health South and them buying into the plan. Otherwise, we are out of business and will have lost our investment.”

What do you need to present to Health South at this point? A business plan for more investment?

Are you worried about this leaking out? What could happen to you if it does?

How quickly do you get your attorneys moving on a lawsuit?

What were you thinking in terms of damages?

Your dad goes on the wrestlingclassics.com message board and posts this message: “...Jeff (Jarrett) and I are wrestling purists just as many fans here," he wrote. "The difference is that we have put up everything we have in our effort to present an alternative to sports entertainment. Our plan was simple. We believed that there were 50,000 wrestling fans who would pay $10 per week, or $40 per month to have an alternative to sports entertainment. This was based on the fact WWE has from 300,000 to one million fans of sports entertainment who will pay $35 per month to see their product. We were well aware that production values, talent, storylines, content, etc. were all factors that could negatively effect the buy rate. We still thought the market would support us enough to make the plan successful. We are finding that many of the wrestling purists did exactly as I did ten years ago, and that is, go on to something else. We are finding that there are many fewer fans who really want an alternative to sports entertainment than we anticipated. Therefore, we can either attempt to attract a few of the WWE fans, or pack up and go home. We have risked everything in our venture. Therefore, not because of our personal taste, but out of necessity, we are compromising our wrestling purist instincts and attempting to create a broader fan base. ECW did a great job of creating a product for the hardcore wrestling fan. The simple fact was that the base of their fans was not sufficient to keep them in business."

Was this your father’s attempt at spinning this and hoping the real news wasn’t going to come out?

Did you agree with it?

In the follow up from all this the company talks about with InDemand and they say that they told Haussmann that it was unethical for him to represent TNA while working for a company that represented WWE. What company was he working for that also represented WWE?

So to cover in depth his deception: He sent you bogus emails that supposedly came from InDemand, the reports, he also told InDemand that he was dropping TNA right after the first meeting yet still got paid by TNA. He told InDemand that Len Sabal would be representing TNA while telling you that Sabal was his partner.

You’re talking about legal action not just against Haussmann but also the WWE. Why the WWE?

It’s said you were interested in bringing in the US Attorney for this case. Why?

On July 25th your father speaks with Vince McMahon about Haussmann. Vince confirms that he’s come to the WWE offices with Team Services for marketing meetings. What is Team Services?

That’s from the Torch who is getting info probably from your dad is that correct?

Are you worried about the legal costs associated with going into court while still operating the business and the money being spent?

Are you saying to yourself...this is it. This is the end of the company?

Did you think InDemand held any legality issues here and was at fault or was it all from the eyes of a conman at this point?

What did you think Jay’s plan really was? Do you think he really thought he would be able to get away with it?

How long did the legal battle with Jay go? Did you get anywhere in the legal battle with WWE or was that just a dead end street? What was the result of everything?

How difficult was all this in continuing your relationship with InDemand when all of your revenue stream at this point is pay-per-view?

How hard is this to handle for yourself personally?