Jeff Jarrett recently spoke with WrestleZone to promote his new podcast, ‘My World with Jeff Jarrett’ on AdFreeShows, and looked back at his journey through the professional wrestling business. Jarrett has been around the world and through many promotions and territories, seeing quite the variety of work and advances in technology and styles. Asked if there are any old-school wrestling elements he’d like to see return to the modern-day product, Jarrett said he knows things are different and he grew up on a different product, but wants to see people remember the business part of the wrestling business and lean into adding more depth and reason into a story.
“Obviously it’s a different era and different time, but when you broke down North America back in the day, there was 22 regional promotions and we did a live television show every Saturday morning in Memphis. And you talk about episodic in nature, but it aired on television, then you went down to the arena and that was the payoff every week,” Jarrett said. “I’m blessed, I’m really lucky that I got to understand when you do a storyline or an angle on TV, you really need to think it through because what you’re doing needs to translate into dollars. Period. End of story. That’s what I was raised on, that’s what the whole mentality, that you shoot an angle on Saturday morning for TV and you entice ticket buyers.
“Now, obviously it’s a different model and you need to be enticed about pay-per-views or the following week on television, but the art and the mindset and the concept of what you do on television has to lead episodically to the next,” he noted. “I think, quite frankly, a lot of things get lost in the shuffle in so many different ways.”
Due to the obvious parallels with guitars, Jarrett is often asked about Elias being a breakout star. Asked if anyone else is catching his attention by using music or performance arts in their work, Jarrett says there are plenty of people doing it right, and some names are more obvious than others, but an easy way to tell is by looking at the ones with a successful social media game.
“I could probably give you a list of multiple guys, like 20 guys, but again, it’s when their music hits and the slick production, I mean there’s independent shows that have incredibly slick production,” Jarrett said, “but it’s that connection of the music and the persona. It goes without saying that we get to know individuals who have the, I’d say best social media presence, that can resonate. Years ago in the 90s, even 2000, to quote ‘get over’, to be exposed was to just get on television and those days are gone.
“So, the person, in a lot of ways, with the best social media game, is the one who’s going to be the breakout star. So, you can look at a list of different guys—I’ve always loved Sami Zayn, he’s right up my alley—but there’s a uniqueness to him on social media. Yes he raises funds and charities and all that,” Jarrett said, “but you gotta connect social media-wise, that’s just as important today as being on television in a lot of ways but the breakout star.”
