Jeff Jarrett - ain't he great?

[LaGoosh]

Really enjoying Jeff Jarrett's latest run in AEW. With so many spectacular athletic wrestlers around these days it's really refreshing to see an old school wrestler doing basic stuff well and just getting that good old fashioned old school heat with the crowd. The man never wastes a second out there and is always doing something to get everything over. The man can get more out of the crowd from a pose than most can get out of a Canadian Destroyer and he knows how to get the people hooked in. Hopefully he starts teaching the younger guys how to truly work a crowd.

With such a roller-coaster of a career it's really nice to see him getting another decent run. It really pissed me off that his HOF induction seemed to focus almost entirely on his mid-90s WWF run rather than everything else. When I think of him I never think of that "Jarrett, spelt J-A-double R-e-double T" shite they kept pushing or his "With my baby tonight" song but WWE made that out to be the most important stuff he did. I mainly associate him with his misogynistic heel run in 99 (which watching back a few years ago was pretty hilariously over the top stuff), hitting people with guitars (which I never get bored of) and that original never ending (often terrible) TNA title run.

What do you think of Double J?

[Nick James]

Jeff has been fantastic since this:

 

[JLM]

HIs current run is by far the most I've enjoyed his work. The initial thought is that he'd be a bad fit for AEW, but that is precisely why he works. It's partly because he can play off the hardcore fans' natural aversion to him and their knowledge of both his on screen and off screen past. More importantly though, as you say, he is just a good old fashioned carny style heel in a modern wrestling world that doesn't have enough of them. That victory dance he did when he had the dusty finish against The Acclaimed was something that comes so naturally to him. It wasn't really focused on, it was just exactly what his character would do in that scenario, so he did it. Amazing that Jeff Jarrett is someone I look forward to watching in 2023. He still looks incredible too. All Hail Double J 

Edited February 24, 2023 by JLM

[SaitoRyo]

His knack of staying relevant and working for top companies is remarkable. A proper worker who, at the minute, is in exactly the spot he should be in. He's not the all-conquering Double J of mid-2000's TNA. He's slotted seamlessly into the midcard and is showing why he has one of the best minds in the business on a weekly basis. The bloke is in absolutely incredible shape, too. Fair play. 

[Supremo]

He’s been amazing in AEW. I’d love to go back in time to 2001, slap the Powerslam magazine out of the hands of my younger self, and explain that two of the best acts in 2023 would feature Billy Gunn and Double J.

In retrospect, now knowing how everything played out, they should have allowed Jeff to keep the Tag Titles after employing the genius tactic of getting in Aurbrey’s way to stop her from restarting the match.

Without any irony whatsoever, one of my biggest dream matches right now is Jeff, Satnam and Lethal facing The Elite for the Trios Titles.

[JLM]

 

4 minutes ago, Supremo said:

 

In retrospect, now knowing how everything played out, they should have allowed Jeff to keep the Tag Titles after employing the genius tactic of getting in Aurbrey’s way to stop her from restarting the match.

 

I just rewatched it prompted by the thread and had forgotten that brilliance. Trying to physically block the conversation between the referees really was the most inspired move. Also love that the second the bell rings he's sprinting to grab the belts. Massive celebration, puts it round his neck, acts like he's just won the world title at Mania. So bloody good. The whole segment he's like "if we grab the belts quickly, celebrate like the win was legit and then scoot out of here before anyone realises then there are no backsies". Great heel logic, and honestly quite frequently true in pro wrestling. 

Edited February 24, 2023 by JLM

[BomberPat]

Genuinely one of my favourites.

When I got properly into wrestling in 2000, it was too late for his WWF run, and I couldn't get into WCW at the time, so I always saw him as a bit of an odd man out - I didn't get it, and thought he was a bit rubbish. I wasn't a big TNA guy either, so largely bought into all the online chat that he was just booking himself to beat all the deserving top babyfaces and clinging to the top spot, and having overlong, overbooked matches.

I went to see TNA at Wembley in 2011, and he fought Johnny Moss, and he was brilliant. He did a ton of comedy, stalling, and pretty much every trick in the book to get the crowd against him, like a mash-up of the best Memphis heels and pure holiday camp fodder - at one point telling Jeremy Borash to announce that if the crowd don't stop calling him names he'll leave and never come back. The point that I didn't really appreciate until much later was that he didn't just get the crowd booing him or chanting "Jarrett sucks", he got them cheering for Johnny Moss - it was all about getting the relatively unknown babyface cheers, not getting boos for himself, and that's a really important distinction. In a John Cena match, when there are duelling chants of "let's go Cena/Cena sucks", all that means is nobody's talking about the other bloke, whereas Jarrett as the big name in the match did everything in his power to make sure you cheered for the other guy.

I've loved pretty much everything he's done since then, particular since he got clean and sober, as he seems to have a renewed self-awareness with that. I really enjoyed his work in AAA, even though I'm very much in the minority on that. I always got a kick out of him showing up on WWE TV, though agree that it was always annoying that they had him do the mid-90s country singer stuff constantly, because that's not how I see him at all. His GCW run ended up being a wash-out thanks to re-signing with WWE, but the "Last Outlaw" stuff was great presentation, brilliant visuals. He was the only good thing in Ric Flair's Last Match and, again, worked his arse off to keep the crowd reacting the way they should.

He's not set a foot wrong in AEW, he completely understands what's expected of him, and plays it to perfection. The right amount of comedy, the right amount of seriousness, a real breath of fresh air in that promotion. When he showed up, lots of people were saying "don't worry, it's not like he'll be on TV every week", and he basically has, and it's brilliant for it. I thought he'd be on the Sting schedule or not far off it, but instead he's been wrestling on Dark, making TV every week, and looking great doing it, and long may it continue. My only criticism is that he's too tied up in the team with Jay Lethal, while there's a ton of singles matches I want to see him have there before he's done. 

 

The best thing about him is that he's always on, and always moving. Any time the camera's on him, he's doing something. He's more entertaining while on the apron waiting for a tag than some wrestlers are all match.

Edited February 24, 2023 by BomberPat

[LaGoosh]

6 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

I wasn't a big TNA guy either, so largely bought into all the online chat that he was just booking himself to beat all the deserving top babyfaces and clinging to the top spot, and having overlong, overbooked matches.

In retrospect, TNA was a new company and they probably weren't sure whether or not any of their other top stars would catch on properly or fuck off at any point so it made the most sense to keep the title on Jarrett as a steady, reliable hand who was guaranteed to be there every week.

[Merzbow]

He was definitely always good but suffered from something DDP did for a few years, too many gimmicks going on at one time and just didn't know how to be himself. During that main event WCW run how many things did he have going at the same time? Multiple catchphrases, the glasses, the guitar twenty times a show, women by his side and more. He needed to distill that all down to something pure.

[Loki]

12 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

In retrospect, TNA was a new company and they probably weren't sure whether or not any of their other top stars would catch on properly or fuck off at any point so it made the most sense to keep the title on Jarrett as a steady, reliable hand who was guaranteed to be there every week.

I'll be honest, it's not even in retrospect, I really liked Jarrett back in those days.  You've got big names like Scott Hall or Raven or DDP dropping by but you're not going to put the title on them for long periods.  At the same time, AJ Styles or whoever isn't ready to be a world champ, so it makes sense to keep things rotating around Jarrett, who's there for the duration.

The Kings of Wrestling stuff with him, Hall and Nash was great.  I really was just watching TNA for the WCW characters to be fair.

Add me to the list of people who are watching AEW mainly for him at the moment.  I'm in awe of him, considering where he was a few years ago when he started to look like he was heading in a Jake Roberts direction.  He wrestles like it's still the 2000s, and his style is so well honed that it fits in with all the craziness of the youngsters.

I assume he's mainly there in a backstage role and happy where he is on the card, but like the rest of you there are some singles matches I'd like to see.

 

[Carbomb]

He's somebody I never really appreciated until much later, but a lot of that was because I wasn't watching wrestling between 94 and the very end of 99, and didn't watch much early TNA. Also, in the early 2000s, I was a fairly "smarky smark" who was just looking for the spectacular mooovez, so was one of those who, upon reading about how he was always booking himself to win the belt, saw him as the Triple H of TNA.

On actually watching his work, and having matured a fair bit since then in wrestling terms (yes, it's an oxymoron, I know), I love the guy. He's always worth watching, almost always works matches that both tell a story in their own right and move the feud or storyline along, and he's bloody hilarious.

He's also an excellent babyface too - much underrated. Back when he'd just come back from looking after his family following his wife's passing, there was such an outpouring of goodwill for him, and he had a great, brief run as the much put-upon former founder being humiliated by Bischoff. This was back when he'd grown his hair and looked like a better-looking Noel Edmonds. I remember he had some superb matches, including a great "Loser Leaves TNA" match with Foley, who, by that point, was having a little of a resurgence himself but was nevertheless quite clearly very limited by his physical state.

If anything, I thought it was a shame he turned heel to join Immortal, because he had enough of the audience behind him, and the character background of being TNA's founder, to lead the resistance to the rip-off nWo.

[LaGoosh]

22 minutes ago, Loki said:

I assume he's mainly there in a backstage role and happy where he is on the card, but like the rest of you there are some singles matches I'd like to see.

Yeah he's there in a live events capacity, starting up their house shows and looking into international markets. But I'd kill to watch a genuine long Jeff Jarrett vs Eddie Kingston feud.

[Your Fight Site]

37 minutes ago, Merzbow said:

He was definitely always good but suffered from something DDP did for a few years, too many gimmicks going on at one time and just didn't know how to be himself. During that main event WCW run how many things did he have going at the same time? Multiple catchphrases, the glasses, the guitar twenty times a show, women by his side and more. He needed to distill that all down to something pure.

I’ve been watching WCW from the first Nitro and made it through to February 2001. So little left 😢 However, I find the opposite with Jarrett.

Having watched him “week in, week out” so to speak, his gimmick is just repetitive and boring. Every promo is, “I’m the chosen one!”, calling any one and every one “slap nuts”, and every match features a guitar being smashed over some one’s head. Hell, it doesn’t even need to be his match for someone to end up wearing a gimmicked six-string as a collar. It’s just the same schtick every show and it’s “X-Pac heat” for where, I don’t dislike him because he’s being a great heel; I dislike him because I’m utterly bored of the predictable promos and plodding matches.

That said, I do think Jarrett is a great wrestler and it’s undeniable he has a great mind for the business having essentially been born into it. It was just the gimmick WCW gave him was lacklustre and way outran its course, with nothing new being added to it for the two years Jarrett portrayed it.

[CavemanLynn]

The Old Man League of Jarrett, along with Dustin, Sting and Billy, have replaced the Hoss division as my AEW fantasy booking. Jarrett is the best, having a blast and showing up all the young'uns around him. Great look, great work, and a wealth of knowledge that I hope the up-and-comers are learning as much as they can from. Watching the clip above, and as highlighted by BomberPat, he really knows how to make the most out of everything he does even if he isn't actually doing anything. I must've watched that clip a dozen times, but only today spotted that glorious wink straight to the camera just before he gives Caster a slap, and then IMMEDIATELY eats a kicking off the lad. Wonderful stuff.

27 minutes ago, Your Fight Site said:

I’ve been watching WCW from the first Nitro and made it through to February 2001. So little left 😢 However, I find the opposite with Jarrett.

Having watched him “week in, week out” so to speak, his gimmick is just repetitive and boring. Every promo is, “I’m the chosen one!”, calling any one and every one “slap nuts”, and every match features a guitar being smashed over some one’s head. Hell, it doesn’t even need to be his match for someone to end up wearing a gimmicked six-string as a collar. It’s just the same schtick every show and it’s “X-Pac heat” for where, I don’t dislike him because he’s being a great heel; I dislike him because I’m utterly bored of the predictable promos and plodding matches.

That said, I do think Jarrett is a great wrestler and it’s undeniable he has a great mind for the business having essentially been born into it. It was just the gimmick WCW gave him was lacklustre and way outran its course, with nothing new being added to it for the two years Jarrett portrayed it.

There was so much wrong with this run. I'd got back into wrestling about two years prior and had no knowledge of Jarrett's previous career, so he was always associated with the mid-card heel role he had around the IC title. His reported behaviour around the Good Housekeeping match with Chyna and subsequent association with Russo was one of the first times I'd picked up something from the dirt sheets, so I always saw him as a blowhard who only got a main event spot through visible nepotism. Then moving onto TNA and Impact, where he was in the mains for a company he founded, my opinion didn't change.

[The Gaffer]

One of the things which definitely helped my own Jarrett renaissance - and was a joy to listen to - was both the Attitude Era podcast (during its initial good run before KEFIN MAHON FUCKING JEEEESUS SHOUTED EVERYTHING BILLY!) and the New Gen podcast start to cover their respective arcs openly assuming they would hate anything to do with Jeff Jarrett, and by the end both of them were hating saying goodbye to him because he was one of the most wildly entertaining, innocent delights on each show. 

A wrestler's wrestler, is Double J.