The founding father of TNA Wrestling, Jeff Jarrett, played a pivotal role in helping make new stars in the wrestling world. He helped develop names like AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Bobby Roode, and many others. Jarrett spoke about how helping create talent is who he is as a person.
Jarrett was a guest on Fightful's The Wrestling Perspective Podcast this week with Lars Frederiksen and Dennis Farrell. Farrell would ask the WWE Hall of Famer and AEW star Jarrett if he still evaluates young talent to this day, and if he felt he gets the credit he deserves when it came to developing talent.
Jarrett said. “I feel lucky, grateful, blessed all the above. It's kind of the culture, also, that I was born and raised in the Tennessee territory. [With] the socioeconomic, we couldn't compete with Charlotte [North Carolina] or the WWE/F just [because] of their dollars and cents. Texas was a lot bigger. So, my father and Jerry Lawler, and obviously their predecessors, were always looking for new talent and developing new talent. That whole learning tree was that you have to have a turnover talent. It was Lawler, [Bill] Dundee, and maybe Dutch [Mantel]. Talent came through Road Warriors, Hogan, Savage, you name it, they all came through Tennessee. But, the mindset of cultivating talent was in my DNA, and it still is today in ways. That would probably surprise you, but it's part of who I am as a businessman, cultivating talent."
"Then if you fast forward to 2002, June 19th, we launched TNA, and we were the alternative at that time. As Lars pointed out, there weren't cellphones, Youtube, it was pre-social media, pre all that kind of instantaneous information. So, the internet was just getting its legs under it in a big way." Jarrett said.
Today in #IMPACTHistory: @AJStylesOrg and @TheRealXPac defeated Monty Brown and @RealJeffJarrett. (iMPACT! May 27, 2005) pic.twitter.com/QuBNPXyE39
— IMPACT Plus (@IMPACTPlusApp) May 27, 2020
Jarrett talked about the names he helped develop in his company, and how he still feels like finding and developing talent is part of who he is. He would further explain the opportunities that are there for numerous people now.
"So we were the alternative, and so the culture that we created with that early, early TNA Crew was small, and then we grew, and then as you know with Team Canada, Samoa Joe, AJ Styles and Beer Money. Just the development of talent through the years was part of. It always will be part of my D. N. A, and I just think as we progress, I think the opportunities in 2023 to develop talent is more than ever. Jarrett said.
On Wednesday, February 15th on AEW Dynamite. Jeff Jarrett is scheduled to team up with Jay Lethal, Satnam Singh, and Sonjay Dutt and face Orange Cassidy, The Acclaimed, and Billy Gunn in an 8-Man Tag-Team Match.
"I mean, when I look back at my 2022 year and I said a year ago, Effie is a really good talent. He took an ass-kicking from “The Last Outlaw”. There is so much talent on the market right now, that is, I'll say quote unquote undiscovered. They're just looking for their opportunity. The opportunities are there because of the ability to monetize content nowadays." Jarrett said.
This Wednesday 2/15
— Tony Khan (@TonyKhan) February 11, 2023
Laredo TX#AEWDynamite
8pm ET/7pm CT on TBS
Following the exciting conclusion of #AEWRampage tonight, it will be@orangecassidy/@PlatinumMax/@Bowens_Official/@RealBillyGunn vs @RealJeffJarrett/@TheLethalJay/@hellosatnam/@sonjaydutterson this Wednesday on TBS! pic.twitter.com/NmIZrBwyp8
Jarrett will be in action this week on AEW Dynamite, and Fightful will provide live coverage of the show. It will be available on our results page, which can be viewed here.
