Jeff Jarrett says he looks back on his WCW run with fondness, pushing back on the disdain other top stars have voiced about the era. Speaking with Ariel Helwani on YouTube, Jarrett also recalled the surreal night WWF bought the company and fired him on air.
Asked how he views the wild 1999 to 2001 stretch, Jarrett did not hesitate. “Uh, with incredible fondness,” he said, adding that he won his first world title in Chicago’s United Center. “A kid who grew up on basketball, they got to win his first world title in the United Center. Are you kidding me?”
Jarrett said he focused on what he could control amid the backstage chaos. “I did a conscious mentality that, Jeff, go out and perform for these fans. That’s all you can do. You can’t control any of the insanity backstage.”
Fired On Air
When WWF bought WCW and staged the simulcast, an on-screen Vince McMahon singled out Jarrett on television. He said Bruce Prichard tipped him off beforehand. “He said, hey, man, just give you a heads up.”
Jarrett called the night both sad and surreal, watching production crews realize the war was over. “There was people in production that were crying, that were somber. They knew game set match.”
On the sale itself, he added, “I certainly never called in a million years Vince buying. It was such a shock.”
With no leverage and no rival company left, Jarrett said he never pursued a WWF spot and no one reached out to him. “It was not a wrestler’s market. We had zero leverage. There was no number two.”
From Jet Skis To TNA
Jarrett spent the summer being paid without working, a period he dubbed the Summer of No Worries. “I got to spend all summer on the lake riding jet skis and hanging out.”
He said starting his own promotion was not a lightbulb moment. “It was a series of jet ski rides that made me go, okay.” A fishing trip with his father followed, and Jarrett zeroed in on a gap in the market. “There’s a huge void in the marketplace. I just knew there’s an opportunity.”
On the name, Jarrett said he wanted something forward-looking, passed down from lessons from his father and grandmother. “You just cannot bank on yesterday. I need to do something different.”
