Backstage Incident At Sunday’s Impact Wrestling Taping Between The Jarretts and Longtime Employee

The latest set of Impact Wrestling tapings in Orlando, Florida did not end without any drama.

There was a “loud and ugly argument” between company executive Bob Ryder and Karen and Jeff Jarrett at Sunday’s taping at Universal Studios Florida.

Multiple sources in Impact Wrestling stated to Mike Johnson of PWInsider.com that Karen confronted Ryder (who was timing out the taping) and began arguing with him over what we are told was, of all things, the booking of a hotel room.

Shortly after Karen “dressed down Ryder,” she left the scene. Several minutes later, Jeff loudly confronted Ryder and told him to “not wait” and to leave the event. After his argument with Jeff, Ryder packed up and left before completing his duties.

Johnson was told that Ryder then had another argument with the Jarretts before getting in his car and leaving Universal Studios Florida. There was a lot of sympathy for Ryder following the incident since his health has not been the best in recent months.

A number of those Johnson spoke to on Monday believed that Ryder was fired by the Jarretts or that Ryder had quit after his argument with Karen. However, PWInsider.com has confirmed that Ryder was in the Impact offices in Nashville on Tuesday working as he usually does. It is believed that whatever sparked the issue was settled once everyone returned to Nashville.

Impact officials had been trying hard to keep the incident quiet, to the point that sources who are usually very open to Johnson denied the incident ever happened. Another dismissed it as the pressures of producing television, although many, many others confirmed the scene indeed happened and that in the moment, it was “as bad you can imagine.”

As has been reported over the years, Impact Wrestling (formerly TNA) was founded in 2002 after a fishing trip on Ryder’s boat with Jeff and Jerry Jarrett, which led to the company’s initial concept of weekly Wednesday night pay-per-view events priced at $9.99. Ryder has been a major cog in the TNA machine from day one, handling travel and logistics before moving upward to handle talent relations and contract issues. He and Jeremy Borash are the longest running employees in the company.

One person told Johnson, “If Ryder left, he would be the guy that knew where every single body was buried.”

Ryder previously worked for World Championship Wrestling after parlaying his internet reporting into a position with that company.