Jim Barnett
By Scott Keith on 3 June 2024
Watching the season finale of DSOTR on Black Saturday and I never realized how influential Jim Barnett was.
A couple key highlights:
– Came up with the name World Championship Wrestling from the promotion he owned in Australia
– First openly gay person in wrestling ( before Patterson)
– Facilitated Vince buying enough shares of Georgia Championship Wrestling to have WWF stars shown on TBS for a year
– Helped Vince sell shares to Jim Crockett, leading to JCP/WCW on Turner for a while
– Worked for Vince from 83-87, then fired for talking to Crockett, tried to OD on pills
– Served as a confidant to Ted Turner and adviser in WCW from 87 until the promotion closed in 01
– Went back to Vince from 02 until he died 2 years later and while there told Bruce Prichard that John Cena is their next main guy
All said and done, was he underrated or properly recognized for his contributions to the business?
Separate question: how long do these AEW contracts run?
They started 5 years ago so it seems like at least some would be running out by now.
Would be very interested in your thoughts.
I think he was a little underrated but he came along before the days of the internet, when people could find out about guys like Barnett actually pulling the strings. He’d make for an amazing Dark Side episode though.