by Wayne K. Wilkins

Created on: August 24, 2009

Toby Keith is a country music singer who is known for such hits as "Courtesy of the red white and blue" and "How do you like me now". He also played an important role in the first weekly wrestling pay per view of the then National Wrestling Alliance ran Total Nonstop Action Wrestling where he patriotically performed live before being interrupted by Jeff Jarrett. Keith's appearance with TNA was an important role for several reasons.

Jeff Jarrett as the company's founder was attempting to get over as the company's franchise heel. In typical Jeff Jarrett standards made famous during his run in the later years of World Championship Wrestling, the egotistical Jarrett would stop at nothing in order to peak success as a heel and gain control of the company by winning the NWA World Heavyweight Title. Of course, this included Jarrett interrupting Keith's patriotic performance of "courtesy of the red white and blue" which resulted in massive boos throughout the arena.

For this reason, Keith's stint in TNA that night played a crucial role in getting Jarrett over as a heel. He later went on to eliminate Jarrett from the World title picture with the aid of Scott Hall later that night and accompanied Hall to the ring for his match with Jarrett at the following weekly pay per view one week later. While it was a simple short stint, Keith's run with TNA can be looked at with vital importance.

At the time, Toby Keith was at the top of the country music world with his classic "Courtesy of the red white and blue" which was a patriotic song penned after the September 11 bombings. Less than one year later, Keith was enjoying success as the most famous artist in America and as a result, TNA capitalized by advertising Keith to perform at the show which was obviously a way to generate attention to the up and coming promotion in what was obviously a crying success.

The use of celebrities in Wrestling has always been used as a way to garnish attention of a wider audience range and has almost always proved to be successful. TNA followed suit by booking Toby Keith to perform and play a major part in the future of the company's World Championship and enjoyed a successful beginning to a brand new promotion in the process, as well as re-igniting the controversial and egotistical personality of Jeff Jarrett in the mainstream world.

TNA would have risen to the ranks of the second biggest promotion in the world with or without the early affiliation with Toby Keith, but the fact that he was there at the right time certainly helped to add many twists and turns to the show as well as adding many more advertising and marketing opportunities in the process. For these reasons combined, Toby Keith's short stint in TNA Wrestling was arguably a brilliant move for the company.

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