Jeff Jarrett has addressed the criticism he has faced for booking himself as TNA World Champion. He revealed he holds no regrets about those decisions. The AEW veteran believes his title reigns were necessary to help grow TNA during its early years. Moreover, he asserted that the decision came about for the good of the business, not for personal glory.
Jarrett recently appeared on Insight with Chris Van Vliet. He reflected on his career and TNA’s formative years ahead of the promotion’s history featuring on Dark Side of the Ring Season 7. During the interview, Jarrett was asked whether he had any regrets about repeatedly putting the NWA World Heavyweight Championship on himself while serving as both an executive and an in-ring performer.
Jeff Jarrett says business always came before his own interests in TNA
Chris Van Vliet asked Jarrett if being both a company executive and TNA World Champion ever created problems, especially since many fans questioned why he kept putting the title on himself.
Jarrett said the topic came up many times behind the scenes with people like Dutch Mantel, Vince Russo, Jeremy Borash, Scott D’Amore, and former TNA president Dixie Carter. He told them the same thing every time.
“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 that Jeff Jarrett, who has the most money at risk, is going to 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. It was such 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, and it was always so laughable. But again it was something I couldn’t control, so it was what it was,” Jarrett said.
When Van Vliet asked if he had any regrets about booking himself as champion, Jarrett clearly said “none.”
He said TNA’s growth during those years proves the strategy worked. Jarrett believes that steady growth showed TNA was heading in the right direction despite working with a much smaller budget than WWE. He also said another reason he kept the title was that he was the one person guaranteed to stay with the company.
“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, and this is what Conrad always gets fascinated by, like, the numbers and the budgets that we worked under. We worked under shoestring budgets. Whether it’s a Conrad Thompson or a Jim Cornette or Dutch or others that work 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,” Jarrett said.
Jarrett explained that he also wanted TNA to be different from WWE. Instead of having a heroic babyface champion, he preferred being a dominant heel champion who gave fans someone to root against.
“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,” Jarrett added.
His goal was to create exciting title chases for rising stars like AJ Styles while also helping build the rest of the roster.
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