'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,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'%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
2018 has been a huge year for wrestling. WWE is bigger than ever, Kazuchika Okada and Kenny Omega put New Japan Pro-Wrestling on the map, Impact Wrestling has revived itself and the Bullet Club are heading towards one of the biggest independent wrestling shows there has ever been with 'All In'.
2018 has also been a big year for a man whose 32-year career in the industry has seen him, at one point or another, placed firmly at the center of all of the above, I'm of course talking about the WWE legend (as of April 2018) Jeff Jarrett.
That's right, big things are happening for Jeff Jarrett in 2018 too. Already this year he became WWE's most improbable but arguably most deserved 2018 Hall of Fame inductee, he captured the AAA Heavyweight Title becoming a two-time Mega Champion and this month he's embarking on a tour of the UK with a candid tell-all show.
That just seems to be the tip of the iceberg for what Jarrett has planned in 2018, proving that once again he is a man that will always land on his feet in the wrestling industry. I was lucky enough to talk to Jeff Jarrett about his incredible year so far and what he's got in store for us for the rest of the year.
First up, Jeff Jarrett is doing something he's never done before, an intimate candid one-man show where he'll lift the lid on several of the big moments in his career. We asked him about this and why he felt like now was a good time to do something different.
First of all Jeff, can you tell me how the 'Ain't He Great' Tour came about?
Jeff Jarrett: You know this all sort of came about based off the Hall of Fame situation, I got the call early January, it was announced in February, the ceremony obviously around WrestleMania, April 6th this year, 32 years to the day since I had my first match. And then the promoters Hooked on Events, and one thing led to another, and Event Merch, who I've done business with for many many years, they all sort of collectively contacted me and thought I'd be a good idea if I came over.
It's my first one, it's pretty unique, 32 years into my career, Hall of Fame, and my first spoken word tour's going to be in London, that in itself is to me, very humbling, a very very humbling situation. Just announced this week that Kenny McIntosh is going to be the host and he's the who's who of these types of event.
You'll be talking candidly about some of the more notable moments of your career, what kind of things can we expect to hear?
Jeff Jarrett: It is going to be a no holds barred, and we've had a couple of candid conversations, that quite frankly the cameras should have been rolling for these conversations, because I told [Kenny McIntosh] that I'm a promoter, obviously I'm a wrestling fan first and foremost and then a professional wrestler, but also a promoter and I well recognised that people paid their hard earned money.
And for this type of situation it's not a wrestling match they're going to see, so the action in and of itself is not high-flying, but the answers and the questions need to be high-flying and hard-hitting. We got a lot of ground to cover in my 32-year career but I'm certainly looking forward to it and I know Kenny is going to bring his A-Game so I better bring mine
With the Hall of Fame happening this year, did now feel like the right time to do something like this?
Jeff Jarrett: So the timing yeah, the short answer is the timing is right, we got a lot of very exciting things with Fite TV and we're going to be rolling out more and more projects quite frankly about the time this interview probably is published so I'm super excited, I'm really, really excited about 2018 and beyond.
Coming up, find out what Jeff has to say about his shock AAA title win, the Bullet Club, All-In, the state of wrestling in India, his future in WWE and so much more.
Jeff's shock AAA Heavyweight Title win
Jeff mentioned his shock AAA title win as another reason why he's excited to embark on his tour of the UK, which prompted me to ask him why exactly he wanted to return to the ring after a year out and what this means for his future.
Jeff Jarrett: After the Hall of Fame, I worked with AAA, the number one Lucha Libre organisation quite frankly, they're right up there with the number two wrestling organisation, quite frankly, in the world, obviously the WWE is number one, but I'd have to put New Japan and AAA in there as 2-A and 2-B.
And so I became the Mega Champion for the second time, I'm pretty proud of that. To my knowledge, it'll be the first time that the AAA Mega Champion, the current reigning champion, has touched down in the United Kingdom with the title.
You mentioned AAA, one of the big things that happened this year, was, as you said, you winning the Mega Champion title, we won't talk about how you won that title, with the help from Konnan, we won't talk about that, but it was your first match in under a year. What made you want to get back into the ring after all that time?
Jeff Jarrett: You know AAA, and the Mexican audience, we have had, alongside with Karen with me, we have had a unique relationship over the years. We'll call it a love-hate relationship, I love the lucha libre style and the audience and they love to hate me.
So with Konnan and his legendary career there, he's a brilliant creative mind. All the pieces of the puzzle have gone together; the newest baddest faction that's going down, Mad. It's just been put together and taking off so, you know, the timing was just right.
When the opportunity came down, me and Rey Mysterio had many, many matches back in the day in WCW and Doctor Wagner is a legendary figure so when the opportunity presented itself to be in a threeway against those guys, it's hard, it's really hard, to turn down that opportunity.
So does this title win mean that going forward we're going to see you wrestling more than perhaps we've been used to seeing you wrestle recently?
Jeff Jarrett: I've got to pick my spots, I guess that's the obvious answer, but this is somewhat new ground for me. It's been many, many years since I've had the opportunity to work so independently with so many promotions. I'm going to be working with [Pro Wrestling] Chaos in Bristol and with a promotion that I've wanted to work with for quite some time ICW up in Glasgow, and doing the Comic-Con. So I'm very independent and I haven't had that ability [until now].
So the opportunity presented itself with AAA and I certainly seized it so if any other opportunities come along I'll certainly take a long, hard look at it. Physically I feel fantastic, better than I have in years, and I'm working out, quite frankly, very, very hard every day, so I'm excited, I really am excited about 2018.
Coming up, Jeff Jarrett talks about which wrestlers he'd have on his roster if he were the General Manager of a promotion, his future with WWE and if he has any regrets over his extensive career.
Jeff Jarrett as General Manager and the Independent scene
As part of Jeff's UK tour he is making limited appearances at a select few independent wrestling promotions, Pro Wrestling Chaos in Bristol (my local), and ICW in Glasgow who most wrestling fans will know about. I asked Jeff about his role at these shows and why he thinks the independent wrestling scene is important.
Yes, you'll be at Pro Wrestling Chaos in Bristol, you will be the General Manager for the evening. One of the questions I wanted to ask was which wrestler or wrestlers would you absolutely have to have on your roster?
Jeff Jarrett: Those type of questions, quite frankly Daniel, I'll leave that up to the armchair quarterbacks, I'll leave it up to you guys, What is so exciting, it's very exciting, is the depth of talent around the world, just on Fite I was watching a PPV from Australia, Down Under, and the local homegrown talent from there.
It goes without saying and I've said it for years and years now, that the British scene has, not some of the, but probably the best crop of undiscovered talent so there are so many, so for me to name one or two or even four or five is doing many, many others a disservice. But I will say this, there is more undiscovered talent on the independent scene now then there's ever been, in my opinion, I've never seen so much undiscovered talent.
I would definitely agree with that, so, would you say that making appearances for independent promotions like [Pro Wrestling] Chaos and ICW are important to you?
Jeff Jarrett: Absolutely, and it's a part of me working with Fite, and our partnership and bringing independent wrestling a platform, for the lack of a better word. Fite is vastly becoming the, we'll call it, the non-WWE network with there being many, many independent scenes that people have the opportunity to see.
But me making appearances at places like Chaos and collaborating, you know the General Manager role I'm doing and collaborating as much as I can. I enjoy it. It's something I've done my whole career, whether it's the GM role or something along those lines behind the scenes and now I get to integrate myself into these promotions and have a lot of fun, throw a guitar shot around here or there, maybe sing a little song here or there and have some fun!
Coming up, find out what Jeff Jarrett has to say about wrestling in India, the WWE and if he still follows Impact Wrestling following his departure.
Jeff Jarrett on the wrestling industry in India
One of the big things Jeff Jarrett did in TNA was making inroads into the wrestling scene in India, founding Ring Ka King and giving a spotlight to a number of Indian wrestlers. We ask him what his thoughts are on what is still a growing industry over there.
One of the other things you did quite heavily in TNA is you looked to branch out into India with Ring Ka King, do you think there's still a lot more that can be done in India when it comes to wrestling?
Jeff Jarrett: Absolutely, and if you can, put this in bold print. Absolutely yes! (There you go Jeff). It's truly an undiscovered resource, and I don't mean complete undiscovered because in TNA that was the first international market back in 2003 that we cleared so wrestling has been in India for many, many, many years.
But the economy, the technology, the independent scene, everything has come together that India is poised to explode. WWE is putting quite a bit of resource toward India and I can foresee in the near future a lot more being developed in India.
That would be a great thing. Obviously, we've seen some of the talent that you sort-of helped launch, people like Mahabali Shera. He is now in the WWE. It must be quite nice for yourself to see people like that, who you gave a platform to, succeed and go on to work in these other great wrestling companies?
Jeff Jarrett: Yeah, Shera is someone, and there were many people on the Ring Ka King roster, but Shera was someone that collectively by a group of us at Ring Ka King, and I was blessed enough to be a part of that process and a part of that opportunity and given the reigns on that but Shera was, I'll say, a unanimous pick.
He's got a great look but more importantly he really wants it, and that's proven, he moved to America, more specifically moved to Nashville Tennessee, adapted, learned the language. He really has done so much more behind the scenes to succeed in the professional wrestling industry that people will never know. There are no ifs, ands or buts or zero question marks whether Shera wants to succeed in the business and I personally, have a tremendous amount of respect for that.
The same goes with two other guys, who are of Indian descent but Canadian born but their parents are born and raised in India, and that's the Bollywood Boys. Currently with the WWE and those guys were a part of Ring Ka King. They were part of the early days of Global Force, and very, very successful.
They make a great package for the WWE so I'm very happy for their success and they're two other guys who have paid their dues, and really, really the stuff behind the scenes that people don't know about, they have strived and turned over every rock in this business and the success they're having today is truly due to their perseverance.
Coming up, Jeff Jarrett spills the beans on his future WWE plans, his thoughts on Elias and answers whether or not he will be 'All In'.
Jeff Jarrett on the WWE and Elias
With Mahabali Shera and The Bollywood Boys coming up, both currently with the WWE, now seemed like a great time to ask Jeff Jarrett the all-important question. Will he be back with the WWE in the future?
While we're on the subject of the WWE is there any plan for you to return there in the future?
Jeff Jarrett: Daniel, I've got to be candid with you. If there were, do you think I'd be telling you?
(That wasn't a denial though! So I'm going to take that as Jeff Jarrett refuses to deny plans to return to the WWE in the future. Good ol' media spin!)
No, I don't! Okay, can you tell me then, the SmackDown Live General Manager role was a bit up in the air before Paige ended up doing it, were you in talks or were you maybe considered to take that role?
Jeff Jarrett: I can clearly state that the Hall of Fame and everything that went with that was the discussion. And the way that machine works that all of our energies were focused on that. The WWE network collections that were just released this month, the 'Table for 3', I did some stuff with Edge and Christian, quite a few network shows. That was post the Hall of Fame, those were the building blocks.
You did your 'Table for 3' with Road Dogg and Elias, one of the questions a lot of people wanted me to ask you was what are your thoughts on Elias and whether its good to see guitars getting smashed still in the WWE.
Jeff Jarrett: The sky's the limit for that gentleman, ton of respect for him, he has just a tremendous amount of upside, and he appeared to be, from the conversations that I had, that he wants it and as far as his career goes, truly the ball is in his hands, the ball's in his court. I'm looking forward to seeing him continue to succeed over the years and I'm glad to see him wielding a guitar, it makes my heart proud, maybe one day he'll take a guitar shot, he'll be added to the list.
Coming up, Jeff Jarrett discusses All In, Impact Wrestling and reveals if he has any regrets in his career.
Jeff Jarrett on All In
Jeff Jarrett is All In at Starrcast meeting fans at the side-convention to what is becoming the biggest ever independent show in professional wrestling, and as you can see leading a karaoke event with Bruce Prichard. We ask him his thoughts on the event and if he'd like to wrestle at All In.
One of the other huge things that's happening in wrestling at the moment is All In, the independent show that Cody Rhodes and The Young Bucks are putting on, you're appearing at Starrcast, which is part of the event but if you were given the opportunity to wrestle at All In would you?
Jeff Jarrett: Oh yeah, every offer that comes in today, I have the independence so to speak and the ability to make those decisions. To my knowledge, the card is booked but I'm looking forward to being at Starrcast and I'm very excited about that weekend. I'll just say this, for more reasons than one.
(I'm going to apply some more good ol' media spin and assume that means that Jeff Jarrett is wrestling at All In...)
Okay, so maybe more to come from Jeff Jarrett at All In weekend, what are your thoughts on the Bullet Club at the moment? They're a huge, huge deal in wrestling, they sell more t-shirts than anyone else, they do most of the work themselves with things like Being the Elite. Do you think that wrestling needs the Bullet Club?
Jeff Jarrett: Oh God yes. You know what's interesting that is that during the Hall of Fame weekend I had a couple of conversations with my former fellow Bullet Club members that are now currently on the WWE roster and the evolution of the Bullet Club is... My hat's off to them. All the success they're having, you think back to Finn and Karl and how that thing evolved. I was fortunate enough to be a part of that, the Office Bullet Club member as AJ fondly recalled it.
But just how it's evolved is really special and the group has kept that and now we're into multiple years, four or five years of how it's evolved and its just got bigger and hotter and All In is certainly a result of the momentum that the Bullet Club started all those years ago.
And hats off to the Bucks, love those guys, known them quite a few years now, so happy for all their success, and Cody as well, you know Cody's father and myself got a great history together going twenty something years, so All In is fantastic for the professional wrestling industry.
Still to come, Jeff Jarrett talks Impact Wrestling and if he has any regrets over his storied career.
Jeff on TNA and his career regrets/future
It would be almost impossible to talk to Jeff Jarrett and not mention TNA/Impact Wrestling in one way or another. All I wanted to know was whether or not he still keeps up to date with Impact, especially now that it's moved to Canada and is in the process of rebuilding.
Obviously you founded TNA and were with the company for a long long time. You have now left that company, but do you still keep up to date with Impact Wrestling, do you follow the roster and the guys there?
Jeff Jarrett: I keep up with Ring of Honor, with Impact, with New Japan, with All Japan, with NOAH, obviously AAA, CMLL, the independent scene. There's a lot of content being created, it'll be impossible to keep up with all of it, but I do with quite a bit of it. I've got, I'll call it a network of three to five others and at some point or another, we're pretty aware of most things going on around the world. And with my partnership with Fite, I'm in tune with the independent scene and the events coming up. So yeah, I keep up with all of it.
You've been a massive driving force as a wrestling promoter, you built up TNA to be a rival to WWE, you've expanded wrestling to other countries like India and you've given countless wrestlers opportunities they wouldn't have had otherwise, but is there anything you haven't done yet, or that you wish you could have done or perhaps would like to do in the future.
Jeff Jarrett: The opportunities today are more so now than other because of technology. And with fight and the stream that they can provide and the technology and everything that goes with it. So our partnership, Global Force and Fite's partnership. We've got a very exciting third/fourth quarter for 2018 and we already have the building blocks for 2019.
So I'm very excited because technology is providing opportunities that weren't available, even two or three years ago. So the simple answer to that question is stay tuned because there's new events coming up that I'm just as excited about, quite frankly more excited about than things from the past because they will be new, it's different, it's fresh.
So there you have it. It would be easy to sit back and think you've made it after being inducted into the most prestigious Hall of Fame for the career you've spent your entire life doing. But Jeff Jarrett is clearly a man who won't settle and has big plans for the future. Jeff Jarrett is clearly a man who, after taking some time out, is well and truly back!
