Make no mistakes about it – TNA, the initials of the second largest wrestling company in North America, stands for TITS AND ASS. How do I know? Simple because I phrased it, I pitched it, and I pushed it. This nonsense about its origins being Tuesday Night Action because that was the night that the show was originally set to air, is just that – nonsense.
Who in their right mind would have named their wrestling company Tuesday Night Action with the chance of the show someday moving to another night? Then what? If anybody out there is claiming ownage to Tuesday Night Action, that’s more ludicrous than even me claiming ownership to TITS & ASS!
Regardless, I do own it, because I suggested it to Jeff Jarrett one weekday afternoon while I was working the counter of my CD Warehouse in Marietta, Georgia.
At that time, Jeff had called me looking for a name for his new pay-per-view company. The concept of what TNA was “supposed” to be was the next step beyond the WWE’s Attitude Era. Being that the show was going to air weekly on pay-per-view, there would be no limitations as to the edginess of the program. From swearing, to nudity, to “little people” pleasuring themselves in trash cans (which all three did happen by the way), TNA was designed to be a dangerous, cutting edge, adult-orientated sports entertainment show. Thus the name…TITS & ASS.
In that conversation where I suggested the name for his new venture, I explained to Jeff that the “TNA” in TNA certainly meant just that, but, if we ever needed to, we could tell those who asked that TNA actually meant TOTAL NONSTOP ACTION. In other words, T-N-A was designed to draw attention, but if any conservative critics had an issue with its “true” meaning, we could shush them away with our alternative spin.
At that point, once we had a name in place, I got together with Glenn Gilbertti, the (world famous) Disco Inferno, to come up with the most outlandish characters to ever be seen on the small screen. Glenn and I had an absolute feast with this, because remember, this company was supposed to have NO LIMITS at the beginning. So, when Glenn and I suggested personalities such as the tag team of Cock-n-Balls (Terry Taylor and Balls Mahoney), their arch rivals, The Jew Tang Clan, and heel architect, Bill Ding (that was Glenn’s baby), it was all totally acceptable. Disco and I handed over a sheet to Jeff that had, I’d say, 20-30 outlandish characters, all laid out in extreme detail.
So, you can only imagine my thoughts when Jeff handed me his first draft for the first show. I’ll never forget one thing on the format that just immediately jumped off the page and slapped me across the face: Ron Harris was booked to squash some jobber. Right there I knew, regardless of what Jeff and I had talked about, TITS and ASS was going to be “just another wrestling show”. And, over time, I was right.
The dream of evolving the Attitude Era in a completely uncensored environment never really came to fruition. And that’s cool – it wasn’t my money, or my company. It was Jeff’s, and being that I had already committed to him, I was on board.
