Line #32 Wrestling/JeffJarrett


1	[[quoteright:280:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jeff_jarrett_280x39_883423a1_9951.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:280: [[{{CAtchPhrase}} Ain't he great? lest you don't piss him off, slappy.]]]]
3
4	Jeffrey Leonard Jarrett (born July 14, 1967) is an American {{professional wrestl\|ing}}er and professional wrestling promoter, who was active in Wrestling/{{WCW}} and [[Wrestling/{{WWE}} WWF]], and the co-founder of both Wrestling/{{TNA}} and Global Force Wrestling. A third-generation wrestler (being the son of legendary promoter Jerry Jarrett), he opened in 1986 as a babyface country singer; hence his [[TheArtifact artifact]] gimmick, that of [[RockersSmashGuitars smashing guitars over peoples' heads]]. But he had trouble getting over with fans, who dismissed his exposure as pure {{nepotism}}.
5
6	Jeff responded by turning heel (as unpopular wrestlers tend to do), and all was well -- he went to WWF, then to WCW for a year and to WWF back again, until he left under a cloud after his contract ran out and he demanded a big payday for jobbing to Wrestling/{{Chyna}}; it wasn't until 2018, 19 years after Jarrett left, that the two sides publicly reconciled with Jarrett's induction into the WWE Hall of Fame and appeared as entry #2 in the 2019 Royal Rumble.
7
8	He had better success as a member of WCW's New Blood stable and in TNA's [[Wrestling/NewWorldOrder nWo]] attempt (Immortal). In November 2022 after parting ways with WWE again he signed with Wrestling/AllEliteWrestling as Director of Business Development as well as an active wrestler. As an in-ring performer, he is best known for his smarmy, cowardly nature.
9
10	Oh, and he's a 15-time world champion, having held six [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/nwa/world/nwa-h.html NWA World Heavyweight Championships]], four [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/wcw/wcw-h.html WCW World Heavyweight Championships]], three [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/us/tn/uswa/uswa-uh.html USWA World Heavyweight Championships]], and two [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/mexico/aaa/aaa-h.html AAA Mega Championships]].
11
12	He was inducted into the Wrestling/WWEHallOfFame in 2018.
13	----
14	!!"The Chosen Tropes":
15	* AlternateCompanyEquivalent: In TNA, he was compared to WWE's Wrestling/TripleH due to being wrestlers who had the clout to push themselves, to the point that detractors of both refer to Jeff as "Triple J" (for Jackass Jeff Jarrett.)
16	* AntiVillain: Jarrett is apparently a loving father of five, including step-children by Karen. There would be a lot of segments on Impact and even the TNA pay per views showing him to be a decent to great dad and husband, so long as no one [[BerserkButton said anything about]] Dixie Carter or Kurt Angle.
17	* ArchEnemy: Wrestling/KurtAngle might be his greatest, by virtue of him ending up with Angle's wife.
18	* TheArtifact: His signature guitar, which was really only relevant to his country singer gimmick from WWF but has stayed with him through his other characterizations as much as Sting's bat or Triple H's sledgehammer.
19	* AttentionWhore: TNA was formed to be a stage for Jarrett to dominate. It all but disappeared by 2007, when his first wife Jill died from cancer.
20	* AuthorAppeal: In WCW and TNA, he makes it clear that he is a massive Tennessee Titans fan. He once taunted the Buffalo Bills right after the Music City Miracle (while wearing a Titans jersey, no less), he had Frank Wycheck on TNA shows in the past, and actually got Adam "Pac-Man" Jones signed to TNA, as well.
21	* AuthorAvatar: In TNA and Ring Ka King, though he had much less power in the latter since he did not actually own it.
22	* AuthorityInNameOnly: As the "King of Mexico" after winning the AAA Mega Champion's belt, which he called the "Mexican Heavyweight Title" on TNA Impact.
23	* BewareTheSillyOnes: While a goofy, silly heel most of the time, he's brought it to Kurt Angle, Wrestling/RicFlair, Wrestling/ShawnMichaels, Wrestling/{{Sting}}, Wrestling/AJStyles, Wrestling/BookerT, Wrestling/ScottSteiner and many other top wrestlers.
24	* BlandNameProduct: AAA did not actually approve of Jeff Jarrett showing up on TNA with the AAA Mega Championship, so he created the Mexican Heavyweight Championship/AAA World Heavyweight Championship, a belt that looked just like it, except that it had the colors of the flag of Mexico.
25	* CanonDiscontinuity:
26	** He and Ray González had a falling out over González winning the NWA World Heavyweight Championship in 2005. González was immediately stripped of the title, and it was expunged from the NWA's and TNA's records. After the NWA divorced from TNA, though, they did officially recognize that Ray González beat Jarrett for the World Heavyweight Championship.
27	** Jarrett is one of the very few wrestlers who's been {{Unperson}}ed in the WWF/E since his exit from the company in 1999, due to monetary issues involving his exit. It says something that the only time [=McMahon=] mentioned him since was during the ''Raw''/''Nitro'' simulcast to state that, from the WCW wrestlers he was going to bring in, Jarrett was definitely ''not'' going to be among them. This policy eventually ended in 2018 with the announcement that Jarrett would be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.
28	* CaptainErsatz: Around the time TNA wrestling secured a deal with Spike TV, "Jeff Jarrett" started showing up in the Spike developed ''Videogame/FireProWrestling'' games. Coincidence?
29	* CatchPhrase
30	** Loves to call opponents "slap nuts." No idea why.
31	** "Ain't I great?" and "That's J, E, double F, J, A, double R, E , double T... I'm double J, Jeff Jarrett!" during his first WWF run.
32	** After he had his head shaved by [[Wrestling/SeanWaltman X-Pac]], he adapted "DON'T PISS ME OFF!" as his new catchphrase.
33	* CombatPragmatist: Is very adept at cheating, of course, he does have a quarter century of wrestling experience.
34	* CoolOldGuy: 46 and busting out Ranas and Missile Dropkicks. Not to mention taking the pinfall in Wrestling/RicFlair's "Last Match" in 2022 at 55.
35	* {{Crossover}}: Though they wrestled other people, ''Main Event Championship Wrestling Arrives'' was marketed with the pitch that it had "TNA Star" Jeff Jarrett and WWE Star Wrestling/JerryLawler on the same card. They occasionally mentioned Wrestling/{{Chikara}} star Chuck Taylor as well.
36	* DeadpanSnarker: Oh, he's had his moments. He once walked into the ring with fans chanting "DROP THE TITLE!", and he proceeded to literally do just that.
37	* DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu: Lampshaded. He hit a backdrop suplex on Scott Steiner on the June 19, 2000 ''Wrestling/WCWMondayNitro'' and ''said'', "I just suplexed Scott Steiner!"
38	* DidntThinkThisThrough: So at the 2009 Slammiversary, Jeff Jarrett states he has no desire to win the Wrestling/{{TNA}} World Heavyweight Championship and just wants Wrestling/MickFoley to lose the belt in the night's King of the Mountain match. Considering he's part of TNA's front line of defense against the Main Event Mafia, it's a safe guess he doesn't want Wrestling/KurtAngle to win either. So what does Jarrett do? Ruin fellow TNA defender '''AJ Styles'''' chances to win the belt, even though neither Foley nor Angle was in any position to stop them and obviously would have lost if AJ won. Jeff himself had no desire to win, so why bother?
39	* DirtyCoward:
40	** Through his heel runs, such as sending Tony Falk to try and convince Wrestling/BigVanVader to go after someone else in USWA. Though in TNA he was uncharacteristically valiant, willingly standing up to Kevin Nash when it was clear he was not going to listen to reason.
41	** Went back to being a coward in his feud with Wrestling/KurtAngle.
42	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: He actually ''had'' been a popular, hardworking {{Face}} in the USWA in Dallas around 1989-1990, and bore zero resemblance to {{the gimmick}} he's been since 1994.
43	* EtTuBrute: Jarrett's valet, Debra, ended up deserting him for [[Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin a big, bald wrestler who was already over]] (and later married him, oh the irony).
44	* EvilIsPetty: In 2008 he could have just fired Kurt Angle but Jeff Jarrett decided to keep him around, hurt Angle and make him look bad to make sure Vince [=McMahon=] would not hire him back.
45	* FeudingFamilies: The Jarretts and Harts have always been very close, so when Wrestling/{{Owen\|Hart}} died under [=McMahon's=] watch... That was the beginning of the end.
46	* FinishingMove: The Stroke, a forward Russian legsweep. The name doubles as a nod to his heel arrogance, abuse of power, etc. ("I'm the one with all the stroke around here!")
47	* ForeignWrestlingHeel: In Wrestling/{{AAA}}, where he insults the Mexican crowd with racial insults. He also thinks that he's the "King of Mexico", much to the ire of the Mexican audience.
48	* GlassJawReferee: Despite being a wrestler, Jeff was about as fragile as any referee when he wore the stripes. This included his returns to refereeing even after he had an ''[[Wrestling/NationalWrestlingAlliance NWA World Heavyweight Championship]] run'' to his name!
49	* HeartbrokenBadass: His [[HighSchoolSweethearts high school girlfriend]] turned wife died of cancer after being married for a long time.
50	* TheHeavy: In 2004, the Capitol+Wrestling/NationalWrestlingAlliance[=-=]Wrestling/{{TNA}} attempted takeover of the International Wrestling Association's Puerto Rican branch used a BigBadDuumvirate; Ray González (TheMole with shares in the World Wrestling Council, looking to revive its old Capitol trademark) and Panda Energy (suits who were sore about IWA owner Victor Jovica lending money to WWC to prevent them from buying it up). Since none of the Panda suits were wrestlers, the face of the NWA-TNA side was Jarrett, and [[DragonWithAnAgenda he had his own agendas]].
51	* HumiliatingWager: He and Dirty White Girl beat Eric Embry and [[Wrestling/{{Jacqueline}} Miss Texas]] in a tag team hair vs hair match during their USWA runs.
52	* InstrumentOfMurder: He inherited the Wrestling/HonkyTonkMan's signature cheating style of cracking a guitar over the heads of his opponents.
53	* {{Jerkass}}: As a Heel.
54	* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: As a Face.
55	* JokerImmunity: Jim Cornette's managed to ''somewhat'' rein in valets, even after it was ruled they couldn't be attacked by male wrestlers. He fired Earl Hebner for being a crooked referee. He broke up the largest and most evil version of Team Canada that wrestling had ever seen. He put LAX back to work. But he couldn't take the NWA World Heavyweight Championship from Jeff Jarrett, which is what people ''really'' wanted to see.
56	* MilesGloriosus
57	** During his 2010-2011 feuds with Wrestling/SamoaJoe and Kurt Angle, Jarrett started to hype himself up as a prolific MMA fighter and held MMA "training" sessions in the ring where he'd basically use simple MMA holds to torture whatever poor sap was dumb enough to become his lackey. Any real competition from men like Joe or Kurt and Jeff was doing everything possible to worm his way out.
58	** Jarrett [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6S2ysN5izk took over a local kids karate school]] where he left all the kids laying while talking trash to Kurt Angle and Samoa Joe.
59	* TheNapoleon: Requested that no one taller than him volunteer for the Double J's Double M A competitions, as he did not want anyone to get hurt. That included kids shorter than him with parents who were taller than him, on the reasoning they had genes that could allow them to surpass his height.
60	* {{Nepotism}}: It was a well-known fact that TNA was created by Jerry Jarrett to put the spotlight on Jeff (well, and to replace WCW). However, this faded out over time as Jeff lost control of the company to Dixie -- whose nepotism far surpasses anything the Jarretts had ever done (nearly killing the company), to the point that Jeff attempted to buy the company back, and when that didn't work, left and started another promotion instead. As much as his detractors resent how he took up the spotlight, they all generally agree that Jeff at least knows how to run a wrestling promotion -- much better than Dixie ever has and ever will.
61	* NonSingingVoice: In-universe, in the WWF, Jarrett was exposed as not singing his own theme song. It was done by his manager The Roadie (AKA "Wrestling/RoadDogg" Jesse James, of Wrestling/DGenerationX fame).
62	* PetTheDog: Despite Jeff Jarret's many, many faults, he really did care about Tony Falk in USWA.
63	* PowerStable:
64	** (in his first WCW run 1996-1997): The Four Horsemen.
65	** (in his second WWE run): Wrestling/JimCornette's NWA group.
66	** (in his second WCW run): Wrestling/VinceRusso's the Powers That Be, the final version of the [[Wrestling/NewWorldOrder nWo]], the New Blood (led by Russo and Wrestling/EricBischoff with Jarrett as the centerpiece before the group fell apart), Ric Flair's The Magnificent Seven.
67	** (in TNA): Planet Jarrett, the Kings of Wrestling (with Wrestling/KevinNash and Wrestling/ScottHall), the TNA Front Line, Immortal.
68	** (in Wrestling/{{AAA}}): ''La Legión Extranjera'' (led by Wrestling/{{Konnan}} with numerous characters) and ''La Sociedad''.
69	** He was briefly a hanger-on to Wrestling/BulletClub in Wrestling/{{New Japan\|ProWrestling}}.
70	* ProducePelting: Jeff Jarrett occasionally had garbage thrown his way during his successive NWA World Championship runs in TNA.
71	* RedBaron: Simply Irresistible (in the USWA in Dallas), Double J, the Chosen One (in [=WCW=]), Big Daddy, the [=TNA=] Founder, the King of the Mountain, the Last Outlaw.
72	* RingOldies: An in-career lasting more than 35 years and still going.
73	* SickeninglySweethearts: With his (actual) wife, Karen Jarrett (nee Smedley, and later Angle).
74	* SignatureMove:
75	** The Jarrett Strut. It's similar to Wrestling/RicFlair's strut, except that at the end he raises his arms in an "I've got it!" motion. It looks pretty ridiculous, but given his heel character, that was probably the intention.
76	** Also "El Kabong", where he slams his guitar over the head of some unlucky schmuck, much as the titular cartoon character would.
77	* SmugSnake: He's a very old school, cowardly sneaky heel.
78	* SmallNameBigEgo: Adding to his sliminess, Jarrett will brag like all hell.
79	* SpellingForEmphasis: He's famous for spelling out his name when introducing himself.
80	* StillGotIt: Like him or hate him, Jarret keeps himself in ''amazing'' shape for a guy in his mid-50s, and is still regarded as a solid hand in the ring. Since signing with AEW he's appeared on TV, PPV and even Dark matches because he can still go so reliably.
81	* {{Unperson}}: He was one of the few wrestlers to be Unpersoned in the WWF/E. The story behind it goes like this: Jeff's contract was set to expire a day ''before'' the pay-per-view on which he was booked to lose the Intercontinental Title to Wrestling/{{Chyna}}. Under no obligation to work the show and feeling that losing to Chyna would make him look bad, Jeff gave Vince an ultimatum: either he would get paid more money for doing the job, or he would leave the company without dropping the title. Even Chyna, no fan of the [=McMahons=], confirmed that Jarrett took him to the cleaners. [=McMahon=] paid him what he asked--which Jeff promptly invested into a ''rival wrestling company''. Vince has held a grudge against Jarrett for it ever since. It is interesting to note that his father, Jerry Jarrett, is a different story; he has a strong relationship with the [=McMahons=], and he [[http://wrestlingaudio.com/ultrapw/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12648:jeff-jarrett-recalls-his-father-being-poised-to-take-over-wwe-if-vince-mcmahon-had-been-convicted&catid=40:tna&Itemid=59 revealed in a 2010 interview]] that Vince [=McMahon=] gave his condolences to him after his wife died. It wasn't until 2018, following 19 years of animosity, that Jeff and WWE surprisingly mended the fences with the announcement of Jeff's induction to the WWE Hall of Fame.
82	** An example of WWE's pettiness at this time is the fact they included his theme "With My Baby Tonight" on the WWE Anthology CD compilation and credited it solely to Road Dogg. It's true that Road Dogg was the singer (under his old name of The Roadie), which WWF acknowledged - but in the context of the time period, it was very much associated with Jarrett. Significant because this wasn't a mere entrance theme; Jarrett's gimmick then was being a country singer who'd had a hit with this song. He even took part in a performance of it at In Your House 2.
83	* VillainTeamUp
84	** When Ray González was revealed to be TheMole in IWA Puerto Rico, still owning 16% of WWC's shares and planning to turn the promotion into an extension of the WWC "brand" under it's old "Capitol" name, well to make a long story short, he faced some stiff resistance. When Jeff Jarrett and other NWA-TNA wrestlers intruded upon IWA though, González allied with them.
85	** While he was AAA's Mega Champion, he helped Mexican America beat Beer Money for the TNA World Tag Team Championships.
86	* WouldHitAGirl: Hit several with a guitar and hit Chyna with about everything that was not nailed down. Also beat the crap out of Alexis Laree during his feud with Raven's Gathering in TNA.
87	* WrestlingDoesntPay: A Wrestling Country Music Star.
88	* WrestlingFamily: Third generation wrestler.
89	* WriterOnBoard: In the early days of TNA, Jarrett hogged the NWA title like there was no tomorrow. Fans, annoyed that Jarrett was essentially abusing his power as owner of TNA, screamed "DROP THE TITLE" at him. Even Jim Cornette, who at the time had was all sunshine and roses about ''every other'' part of NWA-TNA, said he and Jarrett were going to butt heads over his constant title pushes. Since TNA defected from the NWA and built their own world championship, Jarrett's stayed away from the title scene.
90	* WrongGenreSavvy: In the September 6, 2000 ''WCW Thunder'', he walked on to the set of Wrestling/MikeAwesome's [[TalkShowWithFists "Lava Lamp Lounge"]], and accused Awesome of being a mix of "Creator/JohnTravolta ''Film/{{Saturday Night\|Fever}} '''[[Series/SaturdayNightLive Live]]''''' and ''Film/AustinPowers.''"

Context Wrestling / JeffJarrett