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Former TNA creative team member Dutch Mantel explains why booking meetings were moved to Jeff Jarrett's home

Posted in: TNA News
By By Jason Powell
Sep 29, 2009 - 02:10 PM

Former TNA creative team member Dutch Mantel explained in the Dot Net Audio interview TNA booking meetings were moved to Jeff Jarrett's home in 2005. "Another reason we went out to Jeff's is obviously because Jill was sick - very, very sick..." Mantel said. "She died in 2007 and we started going out there in maybe 2005. I live on the other side of Nashville and Jeff lives on the northern end, and I would drive 60-some odd miles one way to meet at Jeff's house. And I never complained one bit about it.

"It would be a three-day deal every two weeks. That was really a tough time for everybody in TNA, to tell you the truth. Jeff was trying to hold up the best he could. It was hard for me, and I knew Jeff a lot better than I knew Jill. Jeff hardly brought Jill around to the wrestling. A lot of guys do that. They don't bring their wives around the business. They just don't...

"For all the people saying, 'Oh, the booking sucks and the booking is this,' they don't really know what was going on behind the scenes... Jill always was up top and we were always downstairs, not the basement, but the bottom floor. It's very hard to try to be creative for a wrestling show while a lady, a woman is upstairs fighting for her life."

Powell's POV: It was tough just to listen to Mantel recall this tough time in the Jarrett family and TNA history. On a much more positive note, Dutch also took listeners through the TNA creative process and commented in detail on his working relationship with Jeff Jarrett, Vince Russo, Dixie Carter, and much more.

You can still access the two-part, three-hour-plus audio interview with Dutch Mantel by becoming a Dot Net Member for only $5 per month by visiting the Dot Net Members' Signup Page.

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