During the latest edition of his “My World with Jeff Jarrett” podcast, Jeff Jarrett commented on walking out of WWE in 1995 due to WWE creative issues, and more. You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On the issues with WWE creative that led to him leaving the company in 1995: “Lack of communication and I’ll take full responsibility in so many ways. I’ll still stick to my guns that the package of Double J – we’re still talking about it today. You would’ve thought, ‘Oh man, Jeff and [The Roadie], they were together a couple of years. We were on screen together six months. That to me is a little bit of validation that we really had something. I bet I had three or four conversations [with Vince]. ‘Ah, Vince, I really think it’s premature, I don’t think we need to pull the trigger.’ We had talked about another video, we talked about multiple videos, we talked about an album. You have to remember, CDs in the 90s were printing money. Living in Nashville and knowing the amount of money that was being generated. The country music industry, there were a whole slew of acts in the early 90s that literally blew this town up from a financial perspective, all the money that was being created. As hot as the country music business was and knowing that Brian can sing his ass off as good or better than most folks out there, it’s not my opinion, I’m talking about music execs. That was my whole hope of it all. How can we get this going?”
On talking with Vince before his match Shawn Michaels at In Your House 2 about reconsidering breaking up he and Roadie: “The only thing I know to do is, once we shoot the angle, it’s game set and match. The title is inconsequential to our storyline. Our storyline is between us. I went to the well again on Sunday, I’ll never forget it. I’m standing on stage next to Vince and we’re going over the performance and I say, ‘Vince, can we reconsider this? I really don’t think we should do this.’ He said, ‘Nope, no,’ and he really didn’t even give me the time of day.”
On walking out after his match: “Came through the curtain, kept going to the dressing room, and I could cut the tension with a knife. I had my stuff. I just knew….I don’t know exactly who would’ve been at that table [in Gorilla]. Sean Waltman chased us to the car and gave us a big hug, and as buddies, showed us a sign of support like, ‘I’m gonna miss you guys and I hate this, but let’s see how it works out.’ I remember after that night was over, I went back to my house, and there were two or three voicemails from Vince. He had pulled over on the side of the road and called on a payphone or car phone or whatever it was and basically said, ‘Hey let’s jump on the phone and talk about this.’ You could tell in his voice [he was pissed] and [didn’t call him back]…..in my mind, if I go to RAW or tapings, this is gonna be, ‘Hey let’s do the angle here, let’s do the angle there.’ They were dead set on splitting me and Brian [James] up, and I was dead set on it’s way too premature.”
On how he would’ve handled the situation differently with Vince: “I would’ve flown to Stamford on my day off to show Vince, ‘I’m cracking, I’m burnt. Above all that, can I give you some storylines, some suggestions on how to keep this thing going? If you give me a shot at this, let me and Brian stay together, let’s extend this another month or two, and if it doesn’t work, we’ll pull the trigger. But I think we’ve got a lot of gas left in the tank.’ If I would’ve really shown the initiative and not been just another wrestler walking by Vince’s office when he has 10 people waiting out there…..a real concerted, diplomatic effort and pitched three or four different creative scenarios, I would’ve felt good that at least he heard me out or he’s gonna give me this opportunity, as opposed to me going, ‘Vince, let’s reconsider this.’ I didn’t came with a solution, I just came with a problem.’”
(h/t – 411 Wrestling)
