You never forget your first.
Jeff Jarrett held a World Championship in every promotion he worked for except WWE. The main two championships he held throughout his career were the WCW World Championship and the NWA World Championship. Both World titles came at different times in his career. In WCW, he was still chasing the dream of being the chosen one in a promotion. But in NWA TNA, he was the promoter and founder putting the title where he knew he could trust it most.
Discussing both championships and their significance in his career on the most recent episode of his podcast, My World, just revealed that he will always prefer the big gold belt but he does wish that the fans could go back to the mentality of having one real World Champion in wrestling as opposed to the multitude of champions that exist today.
"I'll steal [Vince] Russo's line here. That NWA belt that's over my shoulder, was still a prop, but it was 'the' prop. Touring [meant] he went from town to town to promote it, different bosses, different owners, but he was still the champion. That belt wouldn't change hands. I'm saying this out of complete respect, the emotion that we had as fans were, 'Wow, he's the real World Heavyweight Champion.' Versus, 'Hulk is Vince's champion. Oh, big gold belt. That's Billionaire Ted's champion,' or however we put it in our brain.
"I guess what I'm saying is, I wish the fans of today could wrap their emotional investment into the industry. I know it's different. It's just different. You can't go back and play a basketball game without a three-point line. I'm just here on Ask Jeff Anything, I think it's just fascinating that the emotion that we had as kids on that real World Champion mentality, a lot of fun. So for me, it was like the NWA when we worked out the agreement, NWA and there were still 12 promoters in the NWA and Japan was recognized and all that, that was a really cool deal. I like both of them, for a lot of reasons."
Ultimately, the World Championship Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship will always mean more to him because that was the first World Heavyweight Championship he was ever entrusted with by a promotion.
"Me winning the WCW World Heavyweight Champion, that's the first world champion that will always hold the most special place, by far. I had zero decision in it and obviously, all the baggage that goes with that. I didn't hold anybody up with a gun. My contract wasn't about to expire. There was no leverage. It was, 'Jeff, we're gonna make you champion, that the big gold will always hold the most special place.'"
Jeff Jarrett would be honored by WWE with a Hall of Fame induction in 2018.
Recently, Jeff Jarrett talked about Landing a role in the 2013 film Spring Breakers that was originally slated for Val Kilmer. Learn more here.
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