My World w/ Jeff Jarrett - Winning the WCW Title [Show Notes] (Patreon)

Last year - you & Paul Bromwell finished off your time in the nWo so be sure to check that out in the archives.

But as the nWo slowly fades away - you’re still running in a time with WCW that is full of just things up in the air.

With Vince Russo being sent home - is Kevin Sullivan running creative? Is that who you’re getting your marching orders from?

What was the backstage locker room like? It had to be full of rumor, innuendo, politics driving everything?

Is this the most chaotic locker room you can ever remember being a part of?

Did it feel like you were on a sinking ship?

Coming out of Superbrawl where Sid retained his WCW title in a 3-way over you & Scott Hall, the show is in Sacramento. It’s written in the Observer that you were supposed to wrestle Sid on this show but creative decided to push it back to Uncensored and have it be a pay-per-view main event.

What did you think of working with Sid?

Were you ready to be in a top spot do you think - character wise?

The Harris Twins are your heaters still and they’re everywhere on the show, beating up Kidman & Lash Leroux, Disco, Booker, where do you think this push came from for them?

How’s this for a match, the Harris Twins took on Terry Funk & Dustin Rhodes. It would lead to both you & Sid coming down, and of course you hit the timekeeper with a guitar because Jarrett Must Smash Guitars, and Sid chases you out while Dustin turns on Funk and hits him with a DDT. Yes that’s a real sentence and it all happened on TV in about 5 minutes.

Jeff - what in the world is going on here?

From the Observer

“Hogan was on Mancow again on 2/18 saying his match with Luger would turn the company around, that nobody under 40 on the WCW roster has any credibility in wrestling (which I'm sure Goldberg will be thrilled at), that Perry Saturn (who ripped on Hogan on his web site) had never drawn a dime and never would, blamed Russo's writing for the current problems in WCW. Hogan needs to go. He's done more to hurt team morale than anyone in the company. The company will never rebuild as long as he's around even though there are ways he could be booked that could be very effective (although I can't come up with one scenario where he could be used that would justify his level of pay), his keeping others down make him not worth whatever potential upside he may have left. Until Bill Busch explains to EVERY wrestler over 40 that their only job left in the company is to make someone under 35 a superstar and anyone who doesn't do it the right way (and there are ways to lose to make it a joke that the opponent doesn't get over and that's not acceptable just losing and making a joke of it) is gone, there is no hope. There is not one exception because all those guys who in their minds think they are stars that are over aren't drawing a dime or a rating at this point.”

When you see Hogan make these statements in the press - does it bother you - or does it just bother Dave Meltzer?

I ask that because it’s also reported in both the Observer & the Torch that the previous Nitro was scheduled to have you vs. Sid as we said - but it was supposed to be in a cage - and when that match is pushed back - Hogan had to go out with Luger and do the cage match and Hogan was pissed about it. Do you remember any issues with Hogan around this time?

On the last Monday night in February 2000 - Raw triples Nitro in the ratings for the first time. How do you think it got so bad so fast?

On that Nitro in the Target Center you defeat Vampiro to retain the US title. What did you think of working with Vampiro?

Now also on the show they air Sid backstage laid out with a broken guitar next to him. It was reported that Sid claimed he had gotten a concussion from the last time you had hit him with a guitar. Do you remember being told that?

Meltzer actually brings up a good point, if Mike Tenay & Moolah get hit with the guitars and they never get a concussion - but the bigger 300 lb guys do - is there something wrong with this equation?

There’s a report in the Observer that there’s talk of NWA World Wide doing a Christine Jarrett Memorial show at the Fairgrounds but it would have to be approved by your father & Eddie Marlin. Do you remember ever hearing about this and what would you had thought of the show happening?

SuperBrawl bombs in terms of a buy rate - the lowest ever between WCW & WWF. Does any of this trickle down to you because you’re in the main event?

Were you paid more if a pay-per-view was successful and you were in the main event or were you just a guaranteed deal?

It has come out in court documents since WCW has closed about what WCW paid out in 2000 to talent.

Would it surprise you to know that you were the 14th highest paid wrestler in WCW?

Above you - and this is with payroll, merchandise & licensing…

1. Goldberg
2. Hulk Hogan
3. Sting
4. Kevin Nash
5. DDP
6. Bret Hart
7. Lex Luger
8. Sid Vicious
9. Scott Hall
10. Scott Steiner
11. Booker T
12. Tank Abbott
13. Rick Steiner
14. You

Slapnuts must’ve been a hell of a seller for WCW as well as you made the 4th most that year in merchandise behind Goldberg, Hogan & Sting…at a whopping $4350.66.

Does that just show you how messed up WCW was at the time?

I say all that to say - this company just did not have its priorities on straight did it?

Because on March 6th - in Chapel Hill, North Carolina - 2,236 paid for Nitro. Almost one year ago to the day - March 1st, 1999 - 17,852 paid for Nitro with 16,000 tickets being sold the first day they went on sale.

Jeff.

JEFF.

JEFF!

Could anybody fix this?

On that Nitro - the Harris Brothers keep killing motherfuckers but they get arrested and your backup and heaters aren’t there. But you’re booked in a tag team match in the main event and you end up choosing…The Wall. Jerry Tuite. He will be teaming with you to take on Sid & Vampiro.

I’ll just let the Observer say this:

“This was terrible. The ONLY good thing about this match was the outfit Tylene Buck was wearing. Vampiro didn't come across like he belonged in a main event. Wall was awful. Finish saw Jarrett hit Sid with a guitar and Wall choke slammed Sid. Jarrett pinned Sid while Wall choke slammed Vampiro. Madden tried to get Vampiro over as the next Sting, but since he's always losing every match, somehow if you look back at Sting in 1988, he didn't do jobs on TV every week during that period he shot from mid-card to superstardom in like a one month period”

At least Sid took the guitar this time…

Because the next day for Thunder…SID NO-SHOWED. I know…I’m shocked as well. Do you think it was from the guitar shot?

I mean Jeff how does it look that the World Champion doesn’t even show up?

You defeat Vampiro…again…to retain the US title. Did you think it was silly you were the US champion going in to challenge for the World Title? Did they realize that too and then decide they can’t book you to lose since you’re in the main event but that they don’t want the title on you either?

There’s a lot of talk that when Goldberg returns he needs a big opponent and you were on the list. Did you think that was ever a possibility?

It’s reported in the Observer that Terry Taylor was removed from the booking committee. There’s a lot of people that have a lot of opinions of Terry Taylor. What’s yours?

It’s also reported that Kevin Nash was no longer part of the committee. What did you think of Kevin’s ideas creatively in WCW?

When do you first hear of the possibility of Russo coming back?

What about Bischoff?

The WWF announces that they’re leaving USA to go to TNN. Jeff - you’re a student of the game. When you hear this - what did you think of it?

Were you surprised to see TNN move on so quickly from ECW?

Did you have any connections to TNN considering your family & you and Nashville or was that connection long gone with it being owned by Viacom?

Not to sidebar like we always do - but what was your opinion of USA when you would speak to them for TNA while they were out of the wrestling game?

Are you aware of the AOL Time Warner merger and how it would impact WCW or is that not even on your radar at the time?

While this is going on - there’s another European tour WCW heads out on and this one is a success.

From the Observer

“While the gates were huge, the reaction to the shows by the time they were over was typical of the WCW shoot yourself in the foot tour 2000. Birmingham drew 11,812 paying $383,976. London drew 10,450 paying $375,411 and Manchester drew 16,318 (which had a few thousand empty seats which were technical holds so the building itself was sold out of available seats) paying $447,436. WCW didn't seem fit to even announce this level of success on television when they came home. On the surface, that would seem like great news, and WCW has planned a return for November. But reports indicate the crowds were hot to see a big show, and WCW brought out all the trappings such as the pyro, the Nitro Girls along with injured stars like Bret Hart, Buff Bagwell and Kevin Nash, but reports from the shows were strongly negative across the board at the wrestling itself, and the fact that the perceived top guys like Sting, Bill Goldberg (who were both on the tickets themselves) and Sid Vicious weren't there. Goldberg, Page, Sting, Scott Hall and Billy Kidman were all either advertised ahead of time as being on the tour or listed as being there in the program.”

What do you remember of this tour and how it ended up being very WCW like?

Uncensored is a week away and while you & Sid are on top - the most heavily featured and promoted match is Ric Flair vs. Hulk Hogan in a strap match. Do you think you were destined to fail the way the company was presenting your program with Sid?

The go-home Nitro features you wrestling Vampiro…again…and getting the victory…again…but you did work the show in Providence with the flu…and it’s a dusty finish where Vampiro gets the pin but it’s because he hit you with the belt and a referee overturned it and you get the stroke on the belt to retain…a heel getting saved by a ref…makes no sense right?

Well…from the Observer

“The original plan for this match was for Vampiro to get the title when Vicious laid out Jarrett after a ref bump. Either earlier in the day or the previous night, Vicious asked for Thunder off and was given the day off. The feeling, and this is correct, is that it would be stupid to beat Jarrett in any way except Sid costing him the title, because it would weaken the PPV main event, so they changed the finish to Jarrett going over, but probably sometime within the next month they'll do the match again with the planned title change”

Jeff - how in the world does this happen?

Are you privy to any of this? Are you even aware this is going on?

At Thunder the next night - the show Sid needed off mind you - Sid is there - and he comes out to save Booker after you beat him and the Harris Boys are also beating you down and it looks god awful to see you selling for him with these punches. Anything you can do to make him look good right?

You get to the pay-per-view in Miami and…well let’s read the Observer recap:

“10. Sid Vicious retained the WCW title pinning Jeff Jarrett in 7:36. Jarrett did as good a job as humanly possible with Sid at this stage and it really wasn't bad early on. Jarrett got a near fall after a belt shot, which seems to be the most overused cliche finish in both WWF and WCW these days. After a low blow, Jarrett beat up ref Nick Patrick, which made perfect sense since he then laid out Sid with a guitar shot and there was no ref to count. Mark Johnson ran out to count with Hogan limping behind him. Hogan saved the day, beating up Jarrett and the Harris twins (who were interfering frequently) before giving Jarrett the leg drop and putting Sid on top for the pin. After the match, Scott Steiner came out and cracked a guitar on Hogan's back. *¼”

This is your first time being involved with Hulk right?

What did you think of the booking? Were you happy with it? What’s going through your head that you finally get a World title shot - one-on-one and you’re not in the main event, pinned by Sid and then your match is an afterthought as it goes right into Hogan vs. Flair in the main event?

The next night Nitro is in Gainesville and you’re in the main event teaming with Scott Steiner to take on Sid & Hogan.

From the Observer

“Jarrett & Steiner vs. Hogan & Sid saw Hogan never sell one thing the entire match, look bad (Steiner almost never worked with Hogan) until Sid choke slammed Hogan. Normally guys recover from the choke slam pretty quickly, and normally Hogan recovers from everything immediately, but he decided to put this one over. Sid pinned Hogan and the ref counted three, which makes no sense, and by this point in time, one of the things that should be a priority is to at least make sense. So Hogan & Sid both won and lost the match in 5:27”

This is WCW to a tee at this point in time isn’t it?

Well the world changes just a few days later…

From the Observer:

“After seemingly swimming in an ocean of rapidly declining numbers across the board, World Championship Wrestling went to a strange pair of people as its life preservers-- Eric Bischoff and Vince Russo.

In a decision that had been in the works for about one month according to company sources, Brad Siegel completed the circular back-stabbing game which wound up in, not almost, but actually a pro wrestling like tag team, of the two people, former enemies, with seemingly nothing in common, bound together by their hatred for common enemies. Already there are those within the company doubtful the two can remain a cohesive unit over the long haul, with the impression if things are successful, both will want full credit, and if they're not, it won't take long for fingers to be pointed. Of course, that fact will be exploited as the two will work the latter point to try and do a television angle with each other. In the game where political allies take precedence over economic realities, the group that pulled the coup to get rid of Bischoff in early September, headed by Bill Busch, Gary Juster, J.J. Dillon and Kevin Sullivan, and who, barely three months after a much ballyhooed hiring of Russo as head TV writer, eliminated him from power as well, saw the tables turn when they also, after barely two months in power, couldn't turn the declining economic fortunes around.”

Jeff - how do you hear about this? What did you think of it?

You weren’t exactly on great terms with Bischoff but you were with Russo - is this something you were excited for?

Who did you talk to first - Vince or Eric?

“The first order of business was to cancel TV tapings on 4/3 in Worcester, MA and 4/4 in Durham, NH, to give them until 4/10 to start fresh with new storylines.”

Were you shocked to see them cancel the TV tapings? Were you surprised they were going to move forward with Spring Stampede with just 6 days to build a pay-per-view?

From the Observer

On the 3/27 Nitro, announcers Mark Madden and Tony Schiavone, at the expense of calling the matches and hyping the angles for the 4/16 PPV, spent the entire show trumpeting first the angle of whether Russo would agree to work with Bischoff, although neither appeared on camera, and then, hyping the two up as if they were two of the three geniuses, those exact words being used, that created the pro wrestling boom. The third name was never mentioned, although I suppose the name Vince McMahon may have been implied. Russo was hyped as the guy who turned the WWF around and Bischoff as the guy who turned WCW around.

At this point, every angle that was done on TV this week was meaningless because everything starts anew in two weeks. There isn't one match certain for Spring Stampede nor will there be until 4/10. The only major angle they are pushing is to build

toward Bischoff vs. Russo but nobody knows where the chips fall from there. Russo will be doing most of the writing and one thing he did say in an interview at 1wrestling.com that was a shoot is that he hadn't even watched one WCW TV show from the time he was axed until this past week, which you can take however you'd like.

What did you think of the planned shut down and restart of storylines? Did you think it was something that would work?

The Spring Break Nitro on March 27th featured you & Scott Steiner defeating Curt Hennig & Buff Bagwell. It feels like everybody was a heel in this match does it not?

You would work Thunder the next night losing to Booker T via DQ and then the company shuts down from television. Were you in regular contact with Eric & Vince?

Anyone else in the office side of things?

What were you being told?

You’re still working house shows - working against Booker T in Johnstown, PA in front of 800 people - Chattanooga in the main event against Buff with 1,339 people…Jeff did you ever think you’d be working in front of 800 people again?

As TV in Denver approaches there’s so much rumor and innuendo. Did you know anything walking into that show?

The biggest story besides the reset - was Mike Awesome - ECW champion - making an appearance and attacking Kevin Nash. What did you think of seeing Awesome come in while still ECW champion?

From the Observer 4/17/00:

“The first Bischoff/Russo era episode of Nitro was largely considered a major success. The show was built around an old vs. new feud, with them being labeled NB, or New Blood, against the Millionaire's Club. No doubt as a swerve, they changed the original plans and had Bischoff join up with Russo and New Blood against the established stars. The entire show consisted of the big stars being shown up, beaten up, and left laying at the hands of wrestlers that in the past they wouldn't have even intermingled with. Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan in particular were the focus of the show, which wound up turning the entire group babyface even though the idea clearly was to not have any babyfaces or heels in the promotion.

WCW vacated all their titles and announced every title would be decided on the Spring Stampede PPV show on 4/16 in Chicago, but by the end of the final Nitro before the show, only one match was actually announced, Jeff Jarrett vs. Diamond Dallas Page for the WCW title, which is hardly a ticket seller. The rest of the show was to be made clear at the Thunder tapings on 4/11 in Colorado Springs.”

Jeff - there’s never been anything done like this in wrestling history before. When you’re told what the plan is…were you shocked?

You’re the first person to talk on this Nitro - called yourself the chosen one - hand-picked to be the next WCW World Champion by the man most responsible for turning the WWF around; you then said the man he would introduce was once Vince McMahon’s greatest secret, Vince Russo; Russo then walked out to the ring to an instrumental version of “Iron Man” and said his goal was to beat McMahon at his own game and claimed he was taken down by political BS backstage…

Jeff - tradition, protecting the business, it’s all down the drain right here isn’t it?

Although Russo coming out to Iron Man tickled me…

All titles are vacant, tournaments are to begin now, including your US title being stripped from you but you’re immediately put into a top spot as the tournament to crown a new WCW champion will be determined by a 4-man field for the right to face you at Spring Stampede…those 4 men? DDP, Lex Luger, Sting & Sid Vicious.

Jeff - why do you think it was you that was put in this spot?

Were you surprised by it?

Was it all too inside baseball?

It’s reported that for Bret Hart’s appearance they wanted him in the rafters. Did you ever hear that?

They show scenes from the “Ready to Rumble” premier which saw David Arquette with help from DDP hit you with a guitar. What do you remember of this premiere and was it the first time you met Arquette?

Did you know at this point what all that was going to turn out to be…

“Jarrett beat Hennig in 4:24 in a match that had zero heat when Sean Stasiak, who they actually said used to be Meat in the WWF, came out. After a ref bump, Stasiak did some move on Hennig. Nobody to this day has any idea what it was because it was totally screwed up, almost making it a Shock Master calibre debut. Jarrett then scored the pin with the stroke.”

This…this was something wans’t it Jeff?

“Finally, in a match to determine who would face Jarrett, Russo's best friend in the company, for the least important major company world title in the history of this great sport, Page, Bischoff's beat friend beat Sting in 3:42 with a diamond cutter when Jarrett was distracting Kimberly and the ref was missing allowing Vampiro to turn on Sting. Jarrett hit Kimberly with a guitar when Page moved after the match to a huge pop. Jarrett did an interview but Page ran in to attack him.”

There’s Jeff just killing women with that guitar again…

Show is over…what do you think?

How long did you give Russo & Bischoff working together?

“Due to all the publicity, there was about a half-point shift in the ratings, with Nitro doing a 3.06 rating (3.58 first hour; 2.64 second hour) and a 4.6 share. Raw did a 6.17 rating (5.68 first hour; 6.61 second hour) and a 9.4 share. The number of viewers of pro wrestling didn't show a significant increase, with 9.7 million, but during the head-to-head hour, Nitro garnered a noticeable percentage of the audience that had stuck with Raw over the past three to six months, and for the first time since the departure of Chris Benoit and company, there was a huge percentage of the audience that was watching Nitro switching to Raw when the show ended.”

I mean…this is an accomplishment isn’t it?

Did you think this was sustainable?

Well WCW is going to WCW…from the Observer

Thunder 4/12/00:

“Now at this point in the show live, they had a match with Sting against three Villanos, one of which was Jarrett. However, in the production blunder of the year, they skipped that match and came back from the commercial showing the replay of the finish where Jarrett hit Sting with a guitar and Page saved Sting so Sting won the match to get into the U.S. title tournament.

Then they showed the Sting match, complete with Russo back at ringside in the Sting costume. Sting had to pin all three. What was really funny is seeing the two Villanos from Mexico and Jarrett together, that Jarrett was actually tiny next to the Mexican cruiserweights who are considered too small to be taken seriously. Sting pinned both of them. Jarrett then crashed the guitar on Sting and unmasked. Page ran in and hit Jarrett with a diamond cutter but Sting pinned him in 2:28. This probably would have been a good angle, except for the production screw up.”

I mean…how do you think this happened Jeff?

Were the Villanos actually bigger than you?

“Finally DDP wrestled Bigelow and we had another ref bump. Page hit the diamond cutter and Bischoff came out, counted to two and stopped. Jarrett hit Page with a guitar shot. Arquette finally did his run-in with them explaining that Arquette is now close friends with Page. Arquette took a hell of a bump over the top, but then, even though he looks to be about 150 pounds, Jarrett couldn't pick him up for a bodyslam because he mistimed his jump before he clumsily got dropped on the rail. Jarrett gave Arquette the stroke. Kanyon, who I guess is now a Millionaire and over 40, saved Page for a second until Bischoff hit him with a weak chair shot and Kidman came out and spray painted NB on Page.”

Jeff - THERE’S SO MUCH GOING ON. HOW IS ANYONE SUPPOSED TO FIGURE ANY OF THIS OUT?

That’s it. That’s the 2 show build to Spring Stampede. Looking back - do you wish there was more time before this show to promote it?

Spring Stampede 4/16/00:

The WCW turnaround that began less than one week earlier was met with mixed but skewing more on the positive side reviews for its first major show, Spring Stampede, on 4/16 at the United Center in Chicago.

The 14-match show, which was loaded up with angles, saw tremendous heat put on the New Blood as heels, featured more inspired work from the wrestlers than in months, was generally considered the best WCW PPV show since last year's Spring Stampede in Tacoma, WA. Still, with the quality of most of the WCW PPV shows over the past year, that's not in many cases even praiseworthy enough to categorize it as a good show.

Jeff - 14 matches?!?!? My goodness how did you go on last after having everyone do everything before you…

-We are doing a watchalong with Jeff of the match this week over on Adfreeshows.com so keep an eye out for that.

“14. Jeff Jarrett pinned Diamond Dallas Page in 15:02 to win the vacant WCW heavyweight title. Page, smart promoter that he is, littered the building with signs promoting his book. You don't actually believe fans would bring signs like that to a show, do you? He even had a spot where Jarrett tore up a copy of the book. Bischoff came out. This was a really good match. Jarrett had a long figure four. Page tried to reverse it but got a rope break. Page got a few quick cradles and a uranage for a near fall. Page moved amazingly well for someone who has been out of action for so long with a back injury that didn't even heal until his former next door neighbor was back in charge. Finish saw Bischoff distract Charles Robinson (who took a bump halfway through the match to tease a near fall from a belt shot by Jarrett) and Kimberly got in the ring holding the guitar and clocked Page with it for the pin. All the champs came to the ring to celebrate with Russo and Bischoff to end the show.

Observer ***½

Torch ***¼”

So Kimberly helps you win by turning on her husband you have the Big Gold Belt around your waist - and Vince Russo & Eric Bischoff there by your side for your big moment.

Jeff - you are officially the chosen one. The top guy. The main event. How did it feel?

How does it feel today looking back on it?

Was this a crowning moment of achievement?

What did your Dad think of all this do you know?

Is anything about this moment soured for you at all?

Do you wish we could just skip David Arquette?