During an episode of his “My World” podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Jeff Jarrett discussed the circumstances surrounding Christian Cage’s departure from TNA to return to WWE in 2009. Jarrett confidently stated that TNA couldn’t have done anything to keep Cage.
Some key moments from the podcast are highlighted below:
Jarrett’s thoughts on Christian Cage’s decision to return to WWE were this: “From my viewpoint, he’d already made his decision. I made it known to Dallas, Panda Energy and probably mentioned it to Dixie Carter as well. My perspective is that he was keen to rejoin WWE to validate himself. In a way, we accomplished what he wanted from us at TNA. He became the champion, and it was a step forward in his career. It was a mutually beneficial arrangement.”
The veteran wrestler commented on the financials involved in the competition with WWE: “The reality is that we can’t outbid WWE under any circumstance. So the question is, ‘Do we really want to overextend ourselves financially for someone when it’s against our business model?’ These kinds of discussions were always challenging, specifically explaining to Dixie: ‘At the end of the day, we’re operating on a budget and we need to maintain unified team efforts.’ If you overcommit, you risk overbalancing your pay scale. I’m not suggesting that Christian isn’t deserving, but within our structure, we have certain limitations. So I don’t believe financial discussions were necessary.”
You can watch the entire episode of Jarrett’s podcast “My World” below: