 Show: The Interactive
Interview
Guest: Jeff Jarrett
Date: 4/03
Your Hosts: Daniel Edler & James Walsh
Transcript By: James Walsh
One of the co-owners and founding members of the NWA-TNA
venture Jeff Jarrett was this week's guest on The Interactive Interview,
and boy did he give us all the time he had and more.
Pushed for time due to a meeting just 10 minutes after the interview start
time, Jeff still managed to give us 36 solid minutes of chatting time, and
an interview which was close to 30. He spoke on many issues, including some
things still in litigation.
JEFF JARRETT
-- Growing up in a wrestling family was different but
he can't say what normal is because he's not sure what is normal. He says
there were a lot of real interesting characters in his house all the time.
-- Coming into wrestling as a USWA babyface was a good thing for him because
it was family owned and a lot of people were there to teach him.
-- Being a babyface is different today than before though the tools are the
same. The main difference is needing an edge because society has changed.
-- The name Simply Irresistible came from a Robert Palmer song and someone
coined him with it and it stuck.
-- Lawler was someone he loved working along side of at that time. He was
difficult at times but he learned a lot from him. He said the friendship
has changed but that's just life.
-- He wrestled for the USWA for 7 years and he had contacts with WCW for
years but he didn't feel it was ready to go there yet. He then decided to
go to the WWF.
-- The Double J character wasn't very different for him, he said. He said
it was a thread of himself and just played it up a bit. He says it was a
business decision because a character is a part of the business. He said
he enjoyed the name spelling and thought it was fun.
-- He says people that say he stole Ric Flair's strut know nothing about
wrestling.
-- The Road Dog being called the real Double J was pointless. He tries to
figure out the logic in it.
-- He says he wants to bring Scott Hall back in TNA. He said his matches
with Scott were "WWF" style. He says he wrestled him from the US to Israel.
-- There was a lot of turmoil in the WWF that resulted in his jump to WCW.
-- He said WCW was fresh and things were geared up when he went there.
-- He said the horsemen stay was too short and he thinks his push in WCW
was unfair, but life is unfair.
-- Mongo is not a wrestler but has incredible raw strength. He said he respects
him.
-- Opportunity is why he went back to the WWF financially.
-- There wasn't much heat about his jump to WCW when he returned to the WWF.
He said when he got back, the "attitude" had started and they were raising
eyebrows.
-- His memories of the haircut match gave him a new lease on his character.
-- He has no reservations from the "Don't Piss Me Off" era. He said the "Good
House Keeping Match" was fun and it was a rare opportunity to hit a 70-year-old
woman over the head with a guitar.
-- He doesn't want to talk about Owen. He says he was a great friend and
it was a tragedy he doesn't want to think about. He says Owen had his priorities
straight in life and he misses him.
-- He said dropping the belt to Chyna was something he was okay with.
-- Vince Russo jumping to WCW was influential in his decision to go as well.
He talks about Steve Austin refusing to do business with him and he just
doesn't know why so he went to WCW.
-- WCW was total chaos when he went back. He said that there was no boss
in WCW and that is why it failed.
-- Slapnuts was something he was thinking about saying for a month before
he said it and he saw it caught on so they worked it the best they could
with shirts and such.
-- His match with Benoit was something he didn't even expect and ended up
being a great match.
-- He talks about Snuka landing on him during the Legends Night of Nitro
when he wrestled Tito, Steele, and Snuka. He said he got the worst kind of
concussion from it and he wasn't right in the head for six months.
-- The system was to blame in Vince getting pushed out of power the first
time in WCW and not any particular person.
-- Kevin Sullivan wasn't given a chance as a booker.
-- The NWO failed because it was a second time around idea.
-- Bischoff coming back didn't work because people were pulling against him,
the same as Russo.
-- Winning the WCW title is something he is very proud of. He talks about
main eventing 7 WCW pay per views in a row, the most in its history.
-- He feels changing the title a lot, it becomes meaningless. He says it's
like having seven super bowls in a row because the meaning of it is bad.
-- David Arquette was a mistake in the long run but it was okay for short-term
publicity.
-- He would love to do a 3 level cage in TNA.
-- He can't answer the questions about Hulk Hogan. He says he'll tell his
story when he can.
-- He hoped WCW would be sold to a single individual but when Vince bought
it, he knew it was a tragic mistake because there wasn't anything to compare
it to anymore.
-- He never gave going back to the WWE a thought at that time.
-- The WWA was not influential in the start of TNA. He says people saying
it's the same thing are looking at it all wrong. He says that they are to
introduce new stars and be a company while the WWA is more to show people
names they haven't seen in a while.
-- Ron Killings was a great world champion and he loved the match where he
won the NWA title.
-- People saying that WWE stars that got released and come to TNA are not
"thrown away" by the WWE but possible Steve Austin wrestlers. They weren't
used right in one company; lets see what they can do in another.
-- He says tomorrow night's show will be huge with Raven. He says they bust
their butts every week.
-- He said he loved Roddy Piper's promo from TNA. He isn't sure how he feels
about what he said about Owen but he won't get into that.
-- Jeff is looking forward to doing a video game. He is working on it. There
are bidders.
-- He says he likes the idea of a TNA training school but says that any guy
or girl can train there once it opens up.
-- He doesn't consider MLW a threat and he's not seen the show yet.
-- We then played word associations, speaking about from DDP to McMahon to
Jim Ross to Owen Hart and more.
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