I remember back in late 2022 when I thought Tony Khan risked turning off the AEW fan base by signing Jeff Jarret to a contract and giving him a whole bunch of TV time. A lot of that skepticism was related to Jarrett’s negative history with WCW and Impact Wrestling.
In a new interview with Chris Van Vliet, Jarrett got into a discussion about the stigma related to making himself the TNA world champion when he was running the show. Jeff says the idea that his ego had anything to do with that decision-making
is laughable nonsense:
“Dutch Mantel, Vince Russo, Jeremy Borash, Scott D’Amore, folks that were in the room, they were well aware. But when I had to really have that conversation, when I knew that it probably needed to be said, I would look at somebody and say, do you really think the Jeff Jarrett you know, that has the most money at risk, is gonna make a decision based on ego, rather than dollars and cents? My money’s at stake. I’m the single largest shareholder of the promotion. I have a fiduciary responsibility to my investors.
The nonsense and the thought process that he is making himself champion for glory is laughable, especially me being a third-generation guy, and being around the business since a little kid. It was always so laughable. But again, it was something I couldn’t control, so it was what it was.”
Jarrett goes on to say he has zero regrets about the way he booked himself in TNA. He justifies it by saying he was the only wrestler there that you could guarantee wasn’t going to jump ship from TNA to WWE.
“None. My track record, I’ll say this, our track record speaks for itself. We went from a Wednesday night pay-per-view only, to Fox Sports Net, to one hour on a Saturday night off prime on Spike TV, to a one hour on Thursday nights off prime, to a one hour prime time, to a two hour of prime time under my leadership.
So during that build…we worked under shoestring budgets. Whether it’s a Conrad Thompson, or a Jim Cornette, or Dutch, or others that worked in the middle of it, they understood that the only person that I can guarantee will not walk out and go to the WWE is myself.
Also, my philosophy in booking is the babyface chase. I think you have to look at the landscape, and WWE has always had, for the most part, that babyface champion, a touring champion that’s a babyface. I didn’t necessarily think that it fit our model. We had four distinct divisions, and I wanted a heel champion where the babyfaces were chasing, namely an AJ Styles, as we were developing talent.”
After hearing Jarrett’s claim that his ego had nothing to do with how he booked himself on top in TNA, my immediate instinct was to laugh, roll my eyes, and think of the CM Punk “Yeah, okay pal” gif . That is still my reaction hours later. However, even if I humor the idea that Jarrett really believes his statement to be true, I think it’s a self-defeating way to book a pro wrestling promotion. If your pro wrestling company is so shitty that you can’t incentivize anybody else to stick around besides the owner, then you must be doing something terribly wrong.
What’s your reaction to Jeff Jarrett’s claim that his ego had nothing to do making himself the top guy and world champion in TNA? Let me know in the comments below, Cagesiders.
