The Soap Opera in the Impact Zone

Pull up a barstool, grab a cold pint of whatever cheap domestic light beer is on tap, and let’s talk about the absolute car crash that was early TNA Wrestling. We are talking about a promotion that somehow survived Vince Russo booking a reverse battle royal, yet almost got killed by a classic soap opera love triangle. It is the stuff of dirt-sheet folklore, whispered in locker rooms and typed out on ancient message boards.

And now, thanks to Vice TV, we are finally getting the dirty details laid bare. This three-part documentary promises to blow the lid off the entire promotion.

According to the newly released teaser for the seventh season of Dark Side of the Ring, Karen Jarrett is finally speaking out. She has stayed silent for two decades, watching the rumors fester. Now, she is ready to set the record straight on how she ended up leaving the Olympic Gold Medalist for the king of the double-J stroke.

It is a story of addiction, backstage paranoia, and some of the most tasteless television booking in the history of the business. As Wrestling News reported, the upcoming season premieres on Tuesday, July 7, and it kicks off with a double-header focusing on the rise and fall of Jeff Jarrett's TNA.

For years, the narrative was simple: Jeff, the founder and top heel, stole the wife of the company's biggest star, Kurt Angle. But Karen is throwing a giant wrench into that machine. The reality, as it usually is in pro wrestling, is far more depressing than the rumor mill suggested.

"People thinking that that marriage got broken up by a love affair couldn’t be more wrong." — Karen Jarrett

Separation, Addiction, and Ice Packs

The timeline is the first thing Karen is coming for. The prevailing gossip was that an active affair ended the Angle marriage and threw TNA into chaos. Karen flatly denies this.

"People thinking that that marriage got broken up by a love affair couldn’t be more wrong. Kurt and I were legally separated in 2006," she reveals in the teaser.

She explains that Kurt was going through "some very dark days" after his WWE release. Karen was asked to present the image of a perfect family while the marriage "couldn’t have been more broken." She stayed quiet because she felt it was a private family matter.

At that time, Kurt Angle was the biggest signing in TNA history, but his body was a ticking time bomb. Jim Cornette recalls that Angle was dealing with injuries from years of competition. Cornette describes him laid out in the dressing area with ice packs on his shoulder, neck, and back after every match, only to do it all again the next day.

He was a shell of himself, pushed to the limit by a company desperate to compete with WWE. Jeff Jarrett speaks about it as well in the teaser, stating, "Kurt was having more bad days than good days." Jarrett adds a grim truth about Kurt's struggles: "The disease of addiction is undefeated."

Karen felt trapped in a public relations lie, pretending to be the happy wife of a superstar who was physically and mentally falling apart. The separation in 2006 was the breaking point.

"I’ve never talked about it, ever, ever. I’ve never felt I needed to discuss it, or that it was anyone’s business, but this is a part of Jeff’s story, and it needs to be made right," Karen says.

The silence is over, and the picture she paints is one of survival rather than betrayal.

Backstage Paranoia and the Scriptural Rebound

While the marriage was dead, the locker room was very much alive with gossip. In a small promotion like TNA, secrets do not exist. Awesome Kong did not mince words about the sheer audacity of the situation.

In the teaser, Kong notes, "The word on the street was that Karen had left Kurt for Jeff. They were having an affair." She follows that up with the ultimate locker room reaction: "Here’s the boss and his number one talent, and you’re like, with his wife?"

D'Lo Brown agrees that the locker room was paralyzed by the tension. He recalls that "there was always the underlying question of what was going on." Imagine trying to put on a professional wrestling show when you do not know if your boss and your top star are going to murder each other in the gorilla position.

It was a miracle the company did not fold right then and there. Dixie Carter, the president of TNA, eventually suspended Jeff Jarrett in 2009 when the relationship became public knowledge, sending shockwaves through the office.

But how did the relationship actually start? According to Jeff, he did not cross any lines until the separation was already set in stone and Kurt was moving on.

"When I knew that Kurt was seeing other people, I’m like, okay, let’s see where this goes," Jarrett says. Karen's recollection of their first phone conversation is even more surreal. Jeff called to check on her and ended up reciting scripture to her.

Her reaction? "All I could think was, they don’t make men like this." Yes, you read that right. Jeff Jarrett, the guy who spent the 90s smashing acoustic guitars over women's heads, won over his future wife with Bible verses.

"Here’s the boss and his number one talent, and you’re like, with his wife?" — Awesome Kong

The Absolute Peak of Trash TV Booking

They eventually married in August of 2010. Instead of keeping this personal mess off television, TNA did the most TNA thing possible. They booked it.

They put the real-life trauma of Kurt, Karen, and Jeff on nationwide television. This was not just a minor angle; it was a year-long feud that dominated the main event picture.

Kurt Angle was forced to walk Karen down the aisle to renew her vows with Jeff Jarrett in a segment that made viewers squirm with discomfort. They even brought Kurt's real-life children into the storyline, filming segments at Kurt's house with Jeff playing the new stepdad.

This was trash TV booking at its absolute worst. It did not draw ratings; it just made the product look cheap and exploitative. It showed a complete lack of class from the booking committee.

The feud culminated in matches that were over-booked messes, dragging down the workrate of everyone involved. It remains a stain on the legacy of the promotion, a monument to the era when TNA would do anything for a cheap pop, no matter how much it damaged the dignity of its performers.

The upcoming season of Dark Side of the Ring will cover this entire saga, alongside several other tragic and bizarre stories from wrestling history. For fans of the era, it is a chance to see the curtain pulled back on the most chaotic locker room in the business.

The schedule for the seventh season shows a diverse lineup of episodes that will keep fans glued to their screens all summer long.

Dark Side of the Ring Season 7 Schedule

The seventh season of the documentary series kicks off on Tuesday, July 7 on Vice TV. Here is the full broadcast schedule for the upcoming season:

  • July 7: Jeff Jarrett’s TNA, Parts One and Two
  • July 14: Jeff Jarrett’s TNA, Part Three
  • July 21: Samoa Joe vs. Necro Butcher
  • July 28: The Big Boss Man
  • August 4: The Renegade, Rick Wilson
  • August 11: Paul Orndorff
  • August 18: Missy Hyatt
  • August 25: Zach Gowen

Whether you loved early TNA or watched it with your hands over your eyes, this documentary is going to be essential viewing. Pull up a chair, crack open another cold one, and get ready for the fallout. The car crash is about to be replayed in slow motion, and nobody is coming out of it looking clean.