Jeff Jarrett

Jeff Jarrett
Jeff Jarrett
Born	July 14, 1967; Nashville, Tennessee
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)	Double J; The Chosen One; Jeff Jarrett
Billed height	5 ft 10 in (178 cm)
Billed weight	230 lb (105 kg)
Trained by	Jerry Jarrett; Tojo Yamamoto
Debut	April 1986

Jeffrey Leonard Jarrett (born July 14, 1967) is an American professional wrestler, and the co-founder and current Vice President of Total Nonstop Action Wrestling.

Career

Jeff Jarrett has wrestled for various organizations including the World Wrestling Federation (he is a former six-time Intercontinental Champion, one-time European Champion, and one-time Tag Team Champion) and, while it existed, World Championship Wrestling (he is a four-time WCW World Champion and two-time U.S. Champion). He currently wrestles for the company he founded with his father, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, and is a six-time NWA World Heavyweight Champion. He made his wrestling debut as a referee working for his father in the now-defunct Continental Wrestling Association. It wasn't long, however, before he was making his own in-ring debut. Jeff's feud with Jerry "The King" Lawler got him noticed by Vince McMahon and he was signed by the WWF to a contract in 1993.

World Wrestling Federation (1993-1996)

When he made his debut in the World Wrestling Federation, he was portrayed as a wanna-be country singer, later allying himself with Brian Armstrong (best known as D-Generation X member "Road Dogg Jesse James"), then simply known as Jarrett's roadie. He would strut to the ring with flashing "Double J" hats and attire, use the phrase "Ain't I great?" and spell his name distinctly at the end of his interviews ("That's J-E-Double-F, J-A Double-R, E Double-T!"). As a finisher, he used a figure-four leglock.

He managed to win the WWF Intercontinental Title on three separate occasions. These reigns were traded back and forth with Razor Ramon and once with Bob Holly. At WrestleMania XI, Ramon defeated Jarrett in a match for the Intercontinental championship by disqualification. Later on, Razor would pin him to regain the belt.

Jarrett sang "With My Baby Tonight" live at In Your House II; this led to controversy between the WWF and Jarrett, as the planned storyline was that Jarrett was just lip syncing for the Roadie. This was one of the reasons for Jarrett leaving the WWF, as he believed it would make him lose his heat (they went ahead with the angle without Jarrett). He also lost the Intercontinental Title to Shawn Michaels in a classic bout in the same night.

After an absence of several months, he returned briefly to feud with Ahmed Johnson, culminating in a match at the 1996 Royal Rumble, which Johnson won by disqualification. He then disappeared from WWF television and jumped ship to work for Eric Bischoff at WCW, WWF's closest competitor.

World Championship Wrestling (1996-1997)

After his arrival in World Championship Wrestling, Jarrett became a "free agent" within the war between the Four Horsemen and the nWo faction. Jarrett quickly aligned himself with the Four Horsemen. During this tenure in WCW, Jarrett held the United States title twice, before returning to the WWF in 1997.

World Wrestling Federation (1997-1999)

He returned to the WWF, eventually reprising his old country music star gimmick and being managed by Tennessee Lee. Still not receiving fan reaction, he cast off the country music gimmick and his manager. During the 1998 Summerslam, Jeff Jarrett lost to X-Pac in a "cut your hair match." After having his head shaved, his gimmick was then repackaged. He aligned himself with the tag team Mark Canterbury and Dennis Knight - dubbed "Southern Justice" (formerly known as The Godwinns).

He was portrayed as somewhat of a misogynist with the catch-phrase "Don't piss me off!", and hired Debra as his manager. He would also align himself with his friend, Owen Hart, with whom he won the Tag Team Championship. Though his gimmick had changed, Jarrett kept his trademark of smashing an acoustic guitar over his opponent's head. The two successfully defended the titles against Mark Henry and D'Lo Brown at WWF St. Valentine's Day Massacre, and Brown and Test at WrestleMania XV. When Owen Hart died, he won a match over Test with the Sharpshooter, Owen's finisher, at the RAW is Owen tribute show. Owen was originally supposed to win the WWF Intercontinental Championship at WWF Over the Edge the night he died, and WWE booked Jarrett to win it instead a week later on RAW from The Godfather.

Jarrett then began to be somewhat abusive towards Debra and engaged in a feud with D'Lo Brown. The two met at the 1999 SummerSlam, with Debra in Brown's corner. However, in the end Brown's former tag team partner Mark Henry turned on him, along with Debra, resulting in Jarrett winning both the European and Intercontinental Championship. The following night, Jarrett awarded Henry the European title and gave Debra an assistant, Miss Kitty. Eventually, Jarrett turned on Debra in favor of Kitty, after blaming her for a mixed tag team loss to Stephanie McMahon and Test.

Later on, Jarrett feuded with Chyna before going back to WCW. He apparently quit after then-champion Steve Austin allegedly vetoed the proposed plan to bring Jarrett to the main event. Apparently, when Jarrett first returned to the WWF, he made a shoot comment on RAW which he stated that Austin's "Austin 3:16..." catchphrase was blasphemous. This did not sit well with Austin, who was said to refuse to work with Jarrett henceforth. There is also an incident between the two going back to Austin's early days which may have helped start the tension. According to industry insiders, Austin never forgot an incident that happened when he broke into the business and worked shows for Jeff's father, Jerry Jarrett. The story goes that Austin was sitting in the locker room after a show looking at his paycheck, which he felt was very small, and Jeff made a sarcastic comment along the lines of "it's not going to get any bigger by staring at it".

According to Joanie Laurer, Vince McMahon forgot that Jarrett's contract expired on October 16th, 1999, and Jarrett was still Intercontinental Champion (his sixth reign as such) when it expired. Jarrett intended to jump back to WCW, but McMahon wanted him to drop the title. Jarrett requested McMahon pay him for the night and also give him all money owed to him in one lump sum to make a clean break (workers usually wait months for PPV and house show bonuses). In exchange, he jobbed to Chyna at No Mercy 1999 on October 17, making her the first (and only) female Intercontinental Champion. It is said that McMahon resents his gaffe with Jarrett's contract to this very day, as it cost him around $250,000 to avoid the risk of Jarrett showing up on WCW with a WWF title belt around his waist. It's believed that Jeff Jarrett was blacklisted by the WWF because of this incident, and was not able to return when WCW merged with the WWF in 2001.

World Championship Wrestling (1999-2001)

Back in WCW, he reformed the nWo (this time called nWo 2000) with Bret Hart, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, The Harris Brothers, and Scott Steiner, and eventually won the WCW World Heavyweight Championship four times. In a bout scheduled by then lead booker Vince Russo at the 2000 Bash at the Beach pay per view, he was ordered to lay down so Hogan could win the title; on a live mic, Hogan stated to Russo, "That's why this company is in the damn shape it's in, because of bullshit like this." In the chaos of WCW's final year, Jarrett would find himself on both sides of alliances with both Kevin Nash and Ric Flair. He was part of Ric Flair's Magnificent Seven heel group when WCW was finally purchased by Vince McMahon. He had been feuding with Dusty and Dustin Rhodes (this feud was ended on Nitro when Dusty and Dustin forced Flair and Jarrett to kiss "Dusty's Big White Ass", which turned out to be an albino donkey wearing a "DUSTY'S ASS" sign). WCW's acquisition by the WWF in March 2001 meant that Jarrett was once again out of a job.

World Wrestling All-Stars (2001-2003)

File:Jeff Jarret as unified WWA and NWA world champions.jpg

Jeff Jarrett as the unified NWA and WWA World Heavyweight Champions.

In late 2001, Jarrett wrestled in World Wrestling All-Stars in Australia and Europe. Jarrett won the first WWA World Heavyweight Championship, but was later stripped of the title. Jarrett returned to the WWA during his first NWA World Heavyweight Championship reign; he defeated Sting for the WWA World Heavyweight Championship at the final WWA event on May 25, 2003, unifying the two titles.

Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2002-Present)

Jarrett and his father started a new wrestling company, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, in May 2002. Because of financial troubles, by the end of 2002, Jarrett became a minority owner of the company. Since wrestling there, he has become a six-time NWA World Heavyweight Champion and has feuded with a wide variety of opponents, including Chris Rock, Scott Hall, Raven, Monty Brown, Kevin Nash, Diamond Dallas Page, Jeff Hardy and A.J. Styles. He also briefly formed The Kings of Wrestling with Kevin Nash and Scott Hall.

In early 2005, Jarrett formed a dominant stable known as Planet Jarrett with Monty Brown, The Outlaw and, later, Rhino. Jarrett also uses the phrase "Planet Jarrett" to refer to TNA as a whole, reflecting his real-life stake in the company and his prominent role within the promotion.

At Unbreakable on September 11, 2005, Jarrett guaranteed that he would get the title back by the time iMPACT! came to Spike TV on October 1. Jarrett made good on his promise quickly on September 15 when America's Most Wanted turned heel and helped him win the title against Raven at a Border City Wrestling event in Windsor, Ontario. The title change was then declared official by TNA Director of Authority Larry Zbyszko. He lost the title to Rhino at Bound For Glory on October 23, but regained it on November 3, 2005 on a special Thursday night episode of iMPACT!.

At Genesis on November 13, he tried to get Scott D'Amore to lure the premiering Christian Cage to his stable. Cage appeared to accept the offer at the end of the show, but an Unprettier to D'Amore and a 3D from Team 3D to Jarrett through a table showed that Cage would not be a lackey to Team Canada or Planet Jarrett. On November 26, during his match against Kip James, the debuting Jackie Gayda appeared. Jarrett seemed frightened by her appearance and ordered her backstage. He pushed her, so she retaliated by slapping him. He was heard saying to her, "It's not what you think," which only led to her catfighting with his valet Gail Kim.

At Turning Point 2005 on December 11, Jarrett successfully defended the NWA World Heavyweight Championship in a rematch with Rhino. After the match, the lights went off, and scorpion images appeared on the screens. When the lights came back on, a chair was in the ring with a black trench coat and a baseball bat. Sting was coming.

On February 12 at Against All Odds 2006, he lost the NWA World Heavyweight Championship to Christian Cage.

From March to the October, he was involved in a feud against Sting. The feud focused on the fact that Sting left TNA, and returned to gain vengeance on Planet Jarrett for filming his family and personal life. In April 2006, Team Jarrett lost a Lethal Lockdown match at Lockdown against Sting's hand-picked team. More recently, Jarrett aligned himself with old WCW ally Scott Steiner. At the Sacrifice PPV in May 2006 Jarrett and Steiner lost a tag-team match against Sting and his chosen partner Samoa Joe after Joe hit a Muscle-Buster on Jarrett.

On the June 1 edition of iMPACT!, Jarrett defeated Raven to qualify for the third King of the Mountain match at Slammiversary 2006 on June 18. Jarrett won the match, assisted by referee Earl Hebner's interference, but new Director of Authority Jim Cornette took the title from Jarrett as the pay-per-view went off the air. On the June 22 episode of iMPACT!, Cornette declared the NWA World Title vacant because of the controversy at Slammiversary. On the June 30 episode, he fired Hebner but awarded the title to Jarrett.

On the July 20 edition of iMPACT!, Jay Lethal challenged Jeff Jarrett for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, instead of challenging for the X-Division Championship; Jarrett retained the title after "Big Poppa Pump" Scott Steiner hit Lethal with a steel pipe, allowing Jarrett to perform the Stroke from the second rope.

Jeff Jarrett defeated Sting at Hard Justice 2006 to retain his NWA World Heavyweight Championship, with the help of Christian Cage, who hit Sting with a guitar. Jim Cornette gave Jarrett the chance to prove himself right by taking a polygraph test on the September 7 edition of iMPACT!. If he passed, he could have taken time off like Sting and train and he wouldn't be in a TNA ring until TNA Bound for Glory. Jarrett failed the polygraph, revealing that there was a partnership between Zbyszko and Jarrett, but he knew nothing about the Slammiversary conspiracy. As a result, Jarrett was in the first ever Fan's Revenge Lumberjack match at No Surrender, where the fans lined the ring holding leather straps against Samoa Joe.

Jarrett would go on to lose the NWA World Heavyweight Title to Sting at Bound for Glory. On the following episode of iMPACT!, a post-match interview revealed that Jarrett was leaving the company indefinitely. Despite not being on TV and not having enough authority like he used to, he still works backstage in the booking team and to make sure everything goes ahead as planned. He was nominated for TNA's Mr. TNA award in the TNA End of Year Awards 2006 along with Kurt Angle, Sting, and A.J. Styles but lost to Samoa Joe.

Independents

At NWA Cyberspace, Jarrett won the Cyberspace Heavyweight Championship on April 30, 2005, and was billed as the Undisputed NWA Heavyweight Champion in that federation when he held the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.

On November 19 at the Above The Law event, Jarrett had to defend his Cyberspace title against "Wildcat" Chris Harris in a match made before Harris's heel turn and affiliation with Planet Jarrett (the World title was not on the line). Jarrett let Harris beat him with a Fingerpoke of Doom-style match, but NWA CS Commissioner Jasmin St. Claire immediately booked them for a three-way dance immediately with fellow Cyberspace wrestler Abyss. Abyss beat both and won the Cyberspace Heavyweight Championship. On November 30, Jarrett was "indefinitely suspended" from NWA Cyberspace for the incident. [1]

Criticism

In February 2005, members of the TNA iMPACT! audience began chanting "Boring!" and "Drop the title!", as well as "Fire Jarrett" and "Please Retire" in late 2005 and early 2006, during Jarrett's interviews and matches. Supporters of Jarrett point to the growth of TNA throughout the time period in which he has headed the promotion.

A lesser-known incident is that, when TNA Wrestling created their first Jeff Jarrett T-shirt, it had a logo in the front with a silhouette of Jarrett with his guitar, and on the back it had the slogan "Major League Stroke" (a reference to his finisher, The Stroke, which is a reference to the stroke of his guitar). Major League Baseball took offense to the shirt, forcing a change of the slogan on the back to the more generic "Big League Stroke".^{[citation needed]}