By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Insight With Chris Van Vliet with guest Jeff Jarrett
Host: Chris Van Vliet
Podcast available via Podcasts.Apple.com
This Dark Side of the Ring Season Seven is coming out on July 7. There’s three episodes about you and TNA, and everything around that, and it’s crazy because I feel like they’re just scratching the surface too. “What’s bizarre is I have been a fan of the show, but I wasn’t out of the gate. Because look, being a third-generation guy, it has told stories that don’t reflect maybe the best light on the industry. But as you kind of dig in season after season, I remember Dutch Mantell enlightened me, and then, of course, the Owen [Hart] episode, and just different episodes, and I’ve done a few. It’s done in an in-depth, very respectful way. So when they approached me, it was like, oh, wow, I’m being approached about a Dark Side of the Ring, and I’ve watched plenty of episodes, and a lot of folks candidly don’t get the opportunity to maybe talk about the light side. There’s a dark side, but my story, as it sits today, it went through some dark components, but coming out of it, I’m very grateful. So, when they approached me, I thought it was really interesting, and you just assume one episode, and we got into, hey, we may end up doing two episodes, and then hey, we may end up doing three episodes. I first thought it was on me, and then when you hear, I’ll call it the other part of the story, the back story, or whatever it may be, that kind of came to light, Evan [Husney] had planned to kind of do a TNA story, and then maybe a Jeff story. Then as they got into it, the network was like, “Hey, man, this is the story.'”
Well, you can’t tell the story of TNA without telling the story of Jeff Jarrett, and they even say it in Dark Side of the Ring: TNA was built out of desperation. Because at that point in time, you’d just been fired from WWE, there was nowhere else for you to go at this point. “Well, it’s funny, we were talking before the cameras rolling about being misunderstood. Being fired, and I’ve been let go, fired numerous times. But the reality was Vince [McMahon] did ‘fire’ me on TV, but I was still going to have a contract for the next seven or eight nine months. So that was a storyline that has grown that Jeff got fired, started TNA. The reality was I was paid through the end of October, and when that was over, I kind of sat back and said, okay. I never made a call to say, ‘Hey JR [Jim Ross], Vince, you got a job for me?’ You just kind of look back and know your place in the industry and go, you have no leverage, none. It certainly wasn’t a wrestler’s market. Vince, without a number two, there is no number one. It was Vince owning the entire game, and so that is really the thought process that went through my mind is there’s a real opportunity here. So it’s just one of those things that TNA, just the narrative that is out there, as you say, it built out of desperation. I believe it was built out of an opportunity.”
Is it also the balance in TNA of being the owner of the company and also being the top guy? Do you give yourself the championship? If so, how many times? “That is something that internally, even Dixie [Carter] weighed in as we got going along in that I would always stop folks when it really got into a discussion: Dutch Mantell, Vince Russo, Jeremy Borash, Scott D’Amore, folks that were in the room, they were well aware. But when I had to really have that conversation when I knew that it probably needed to be said, I would look at somebody and say, ‘Do you really think that Jeff Jarrett, who has the most money at risk, is going to make a decision based on ego rather than dollars and cents?’ My money’s at stake. I’m the single largest shareholder of the promotion. I have a fiduciary responsibility to my investors. It was such nonsense, and the thought process that he is making himself champion for glory is laughable, especially me being a third-generation guy, and being around the business since a little kid, and it was always so laughable. But again, it was something I couldn’t control, so it was what it was.”
How’s your relationship with Dixie Carter now? “It has always been strained. Since before my first wife’s passing, I would say it’s been strained, but I had so much respect for her position. That is the investor’s daughter, in the investor Bob Carter, and Janice played a huge role, and that’s where the talk about stuff being misunderstood that you often hear about Bob Carter, but very few people really understand what a role Janice had. They were a team, they’re a husband and wife, but also a team. But I respected Dixie, and knew that, okay, that’s the financial partner’s daughter. I’ve got daughters; I respected that. So I always handled that situation, and despite what she thought, I tried to look out for her over and over and over. But I mean, talking about Dark Side, the producers had tried to get Dixie to be a part of the Dark Side, to my understanding, multiple times, and she said no, or didn’t call back, or whatever it was. We were on a phone call, and I said, ‘Hey, guys, do y’all want me to call Dixie and try to get her on the show?’ ‘Well, yeah, we weren’t going to come out and ask you.’
“I mean, Dixie’s kids, and my sister and brother’s kids, and before my dad’s passing, they live in South Nashville. The kids went to school together. They saw each other socially, so I had no problem, and I’ve seen Dixie occasionally. But I just texted her and I said, ‘Hey, have you got a few minutes? I’d love to chat.’ She said, ‘Yeah, give me a couple hours or something.’ So we jumped on the phone, and I told her, ‘Dixie, I know you’ve been asked to do Dark Side. All I really want to say is I’m encouraging you to sit down and tell your version, tell your truth.’ She’s like, ‘Well, I’m not real sure.’ She kind of indicated, I’ll paraphrase, you know, that part of her life is behind her, and all this. I said, ‘Dixie, here’s the real reality in this industry: there’s your truth, and they will say there’s multiple people that are on the show, their truth, and then somewhere in the middle in there, there’s truth.’ I wanted her to understand that I thought it was in her best interest, and she didn’t tell me no, but she never came through.”
What’s the story behind Taylor Swift being a babysitter for your kids? “Taylor Swift stories. You know, born and raised, lived in Hendersonville since I was a kid. But Scott Swift, Taylor’s dad, in the financial services business, could work out of his house. Taylor’s got a brother, Austin, but she wanted to be a country music star from a really early age, and so they packed up and they moved to Hendersonville. Moved down here, and she went to the same high school that all my kids went, and all that. So my first wife, Jill, had gotten real sick, and so just friends among friends around town, and that album Tim McGraw had just come out, so she was just breaking, not on tour or anything, it is around Christmas time. So a friend of a friend asked her to come over and play for the girls and my wife, and so that’s where the relationship started.
“In that time, TNA had so much going on there. Wife who’s sick, daughters, just a real challenging time, and so in this community one thing led to another, and it started out with seven or eight of us, and Taylor just kept playing. I’ve said this, it turned into a couple-hour concert. She played everything, but that’s when the girls and her bonded. Then, tough time, and a couple of months later, my wife passed away, and Taylor was with them through it all. She would call from time to time, ‘Hey, what are the girls doing this afternoon? I’d like to come over and make cookies. I’d like to just spend time with them.’ She’d come over, and there’s a picture floating around playing the piano, but that’s the side of Taylor people don’t see. The little girl’s grown up, gone to the Big Apple and tying the knot, but she just became what you call a family friend, so I can officially say she’s never been on the Jarrett payroll, she never had a paid gig as a babysitter, but very, very good to the girls.”
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