Jeff Jarrett on his 2008 program with Kurt Angle

Nov 13, 2023 - by James Walsh

On the latest episode of My World With Jeff Jarrett, the WWE Hall of Famer talked about his program with Kurt Angle in 2008, Johnny Devine’s time in TNA Wrestling and more. You can check out some highlights below:

On having his kids and Angle’s personal issues be mentioned in their storyline for Bound for Glory 2008: “So I had to reread it and research to try to click my brain back into gear. So on the overarching kind of comments that Wade Keller made about this, we talked — and I say ‘we.’ Pronouns, pal! The creative team. And I still am a big believer that look, it’s up to the individual first and foremost. It was up to me. It wasn’t up to the creative team. When you use real life, there’s always a fine line. But the line kind of has to be drawn by the person that that it’s their real life about. I was always — and I went back and forth with this a lot, and had a lot of discussions. Do we ignore it completely? And there’s that old famous saying, ‘Life imitates art, and art imitates life.’ Again, I don’t think there is a right or a wrong decision. I think it’s kind of trying to make the very best decision that you can possibly make at the time. And we chose, ‘Okay, let’s touch on it.’ And look, if I could go back and listen to it, Tenay was — and Don West — were very, very sensitive to all of it. I mean, Mike [Tenay] was here at the house a lot in late 2005, all of 2006, into 2007. And then on, too, but he was around the situation a lot. So Mike knew firsthand kind of — not just me, but the girls and you know, just the entire situation. So he just said, ‘Jeff, I’ll handle it any way, but without question I’m going to be respectful of the situation.’ I said, ‘Okay.’ So we said, ‘Let’s not ignore it, but just don’t go overboard with it.’

“Well, I have to respect Kurt’s feelings. And knowing that, ‘Okay, he’s going to take the same mindset that,’ he knew the situation. Of course, he was sympathetic to the situation. But he’s also going to play the role of an antagonist, and dive into that. So I was totally fine with his comments because I also knew his — you know, Kurt and me had conversations. You know, when he obviously came on board. But through Jill’s illness and all that, I knew where Kurt’s head was at. But when you have [Daily Star columnist] Patrick Lennon [talking about the feud]… look, you can’t just say, or my belief is — and I think this gets into a much broader discussion. It kind of drives me crazy in this day and age when you get into — any kind of journalist today, and you just kind of like, ‘Oh no, it’s all BS. It’s all kidding.’ What is that real upside other than helping that publication get clicks? And I understand that as well. But with that being said, I’m in character with Kurt, period, as it relates to Patrick Lennon. I’m not going to just say, ‘Hey, oh come on guy.’ No, that that wasn’t — and yes, 2007 and 2023, it’s a different landscape. It’s a different world. But go back to my overarching theme that the talent, the next breakout talent of today’s world, will understand social media and use it to its advantage, as opposed to the social media using them to their advantage.”

On Johnny Devine asking for his release: “Johnny’s a hell of a heel, good talent. But this got me thinking, looking through research that everybody in TNA, as far as talent, and the office as well. They knew that we didn’t have unlimited spots. That we really could only have a finite number. And I think they began to understand, kind of the philosophy that was put into place that if you keep the same roster year after year after year, it could get really stale. And it’s like a loaf of bread. If one piece of bread is stale, it kind of permeates through the loaf. And so change is good. And Johnny — and there’s other guys that would come up and say, ‘Hey man, I think I got to go.’ Now others said it differently, whether bitching or angry or ‘Screw this, I’m out of here.’ But end of the day they kind of saw, ‘Okay, the upward mobility.’ There’s X amount of spots that, you look at the top of the AJ Styles of the world that were on top of the homegrown talent. And then you look over, we’ll call it on the established veterans, that ‘Okay, there’s not a spot for me.’ And Johnny was one of those who was smart enough to kind of look in the mirror and say, ‘Hey man, I’ve enjoyed my time, but it’s probably better if I move on.’ That was the reality. And he wasn’t the only one. But it’s not for lack of talent. It’s truly a lack of opportunity. For a lot of guys, the opportunity just wasn’t going to be there. The decisions were continually being made and re-evaluated. We’re going to put our best foot forward.”

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