Straight Shooting

I’ll never get how Jeff Jarrett can legitimately be classified as the biggest star TNA has.

 

His tenure as the main headliner of WCW was during it’s absolute worst (quality and ratings/buy rate wise) and a amusing yet cheap heel mid-card gimmick in WWF that relied heavily on those cheap tactics to get any sort of heat (from portraying an over-protective jerk when it came to Debra and her desire to expose her “puppies”, his catchphrase that was all sorts of lame and oh yes, the always reliable woman hating shtick, which is always a haven for creative brilliance) and to top it off? He jobbed out to Chyna.

 

Regardless of how well booked Chyna was at that time as an “equal”, the perception is always He lost to the girl and never got that job back...in fact, even RAN from the girl as he appeared in WCW the next night.

 

WCW was a sinking boat regardless of Jarrett’s involvement but it didn’t make matters easier for the company. In fact, it was starting to turn itself around (in terms of quality) once they finally abandoned Jarrett from the main event and decided to push Scott Steiner as THE top heel of the promotion (something they drastically missed the boat with).

 

Most wrestling fans, the casual fans TNA is looking to hook won’t know the business nature of WCW but even the dumbest and most clueless of casual fans (like Iggy) can reconigize that WCW folded just a few months after Jarrett was champion…and Scott Steiner, Booker T and DDP all stuck around in WWE.

 

Jeff Jarrett, in the eyes of the casual fans? Didn’t even get to come work for WWE. Further creating the impression that Jarrett wasn’t worth anything if WWE didn’t bother to hire him as they did the other WCW headliners of the time…

 

So I’m struggling to discover this supposed star power that Jeff Jarrett wields.

 

When Raven, one of the signature stars of ECW(granted it was @ the underground indy level, but it's a fixture that has survived well past it's demise, lending credibility to how influential it was) at it’s absolute best and perhaps one of the greatest characters professional wrestling ever saw.

 

Raven had relative success as well in WCW, when it was still mainstream and acceptable. He wasn’t a main eventer but he was always consistently pushed in the upper card and always stood out thanks to the fraction of integrity the Raven character kept in the transfer from Philadelphia to Atlanta.

 

Raven’s WWE run was short and unmemorable and certainly most wouldn’t even recall he had a stint in WWE and wouldn’t quite matter anyways…

 

Jeff Hardy…For all his inconsistencies as a performer and as an employee, he was always clearly an star in WWE. His unique image, mind-blowing popularity with the female crowd and was even over with the crucial male demographic due to his outrageous persona and awe-inspiring bump style.

 

Which made him stand out so well. Some would argue that in 2002, during that brief push with the Undertaker, Jeff Hardy was so over that most casual fans would have considered Jeff Hardy a legitimate champion or at the very least, an captivating baby face.

 

Jeff Hardy’s brush with the world title scene in 2002 was more credible then Jeff Jarrett’s reign with the WCW title in 2000.

 

I don’t blame Dixie Carter for wanting to do this, placing the title on Jarrett. She admits to not being a wrestling historian and Jeff, to his credit is a pretty damn good political mastermind. Spike TV is also to fault for this horrible regression TNA took here by tossing Raven’s reign aside for another pointless and ill-fated (for the company) reign for Jarrett as it approaches it’s biggest stage yet…and after looking so strong after Sacrifice and Unbreakable…it appears to be sputtering again. All it took was ONE swift movement like this to derail all positive momentum.

 

What message does this send to those fans who stuck through with TNA the last 3 years and more importantly, to the workers in the back?

 

“Okay we got that TV deal we been shooting for and thanks to your hard work we got a good healthy promotion from Spike TV. So we’re going to reward Jeff Jarrett, the guy who has buried everyone here in the back or plans to, with another reign. We are clearly not making any changes despite 3 years of PROOF that Jerry’s boy is hardly a star in any fashion. Keep busting ass boys and Maybe like AJ, Ron and Raven you can get a short little cup of coffee with the title before Jeff destroys your hard work for his ego”.

 

I really had good hopes for TNA and to an extent I still do. It still has a great roster of talent that can make TNA stand out and I’d hate to dismiss TNA’s chances of survival already just because Jeff Jarrett weaseled his way into the world title scene again but I fail to find hope in a world of Jeff Jarrett leading a national promotion…It didn’t work in WCW. It didn’t work when TNA had it’s FSN timeslot…

 

Third Time’s a charm is a lovely cliché but it’s far from reality in most cases.

 

What failed twice, is doomed to fail thrice.

I’ll never get how Jeff Jarrett can legitimately be classified as the biggest star TNA has.

 

That’s probably down the Jerry Jarrett’s influence. As the guy Panda Energy bought TNA from, and with someone who still has a significant amount of stock in the company, Jerry has pull. And he’s using that pull to push for Jeff to get a God Push.

 

His tenure as the main headliner of WCW was during it’s absolute worst (quality and ratings/buy rate wise) and a amusing yet cheap heel mid-card gimmick in WWF that relied heavily on those cheap tactics to get any sort of heat (from portraying an over-protective jerk when it came to Debra and her desire to expose her “puppies”, his catchphrase that was all sorts of lame and oh yes, the always reliable woman hating shtick, which is always a haven for creative brilliance) and to top it off? He jobbed out to Chyna.

 

Cheap heat is the only kind of heat Jeff can get. He doesn’t have the ability to really connect with the crowd, so he has to use any kind of crutch he can to get some kind, any kind, of crowd response.

 

Jeff Jarrett, in the eyes of the casual fans? Didn’t even get to come work for WWE. Further creating the impression that Jarrett wasn’t worth anything if WWE didn’t bother to hire him as they did the other WCW headliners of the time…

 

But how fun was it to see Jeff get fired on live television?

 

So I’m struggling to discover this supposed star power that Jeff Jarrett wields.

 

It’s all down to Jeff and Jerry’s politicking. Nobody outside of the Jarrett family, and a certain blind beyond belief Jarrett mark, considers Jeff a star.

 

Jeff Hardy…For all his inconsistencies as a performer and as an employee, he was always clearly an star in WWE. His unique image, mind-blowing popularity with the female crowd and was even over with the crucial male demographic due to his outrageous persona and awe-inspiring bump style.

 

Jeff Hardy has tons more charisma and personality than Jarrett has. He’s got that ‘X-Factor’ that makes him stand out from the crowd. Jeff Jarrett couldn’t stand out if he took two steps forward.

 

Spike TV is also to fault for this horrible regression TNA took here by tossing Raven’s reign aside for another pointless and ill-fated (for the company) reign for Jarrett as it approaches it’s biggest stage yet…and after looking so strong after Sacrifice and Unbreakable…it appears to be sputtering again. All it took was ONE swift movement like this to derail all positive momentum

 

As I mentioned in the NWA Title thread, I asked Dave Meltzer about this, and he said Spike had nothing to do with the decision, and that it was all down to the committee.

 

What message does this send to those fans who stuck through with TNA the last 3 years and more importantly, to the workers in the back?

 

“Welcome to the Jeff Jarrett Show. Get ready to have the most bland and unexciting world champion of the modern era get shoved down your throats”

 

I really had good hopes for TNA and to an extent I still do. It still has a great roster of talent that can make TNA stand out and I’d hate to dismiss TNA’s chances of survival already just because Jeff Jarrett weaseled his way into the world title scene again but I fail to find hope in a world of Jeff Jarrett leading a national promotion…It didn’t work in WCW. It didn’t work when TNA had it’s FSN timeslot…

 

I had high hopes for TNA too, which makes this news all the more depressing. Jeff Jarrett is not the man to lead a promotion to national glory. He never has been, and he never will be. TNA are as good as dead with Jeff weighing them down.

Agreed.

 

Jarrett is a good wrestler, a good talker. He's a solid addition to anyones roster. He, however, has limited growth (mainly) on account of his size. The guy just isn't a convincing champion. I don't look at JJ and think "that guy could kick my ass". To use the airport analogy that Kevin Nash likes to use, if you see JJ walking by, you wouldn't think he was a wrestler. And worse, he doesn't look tough in the ring. He's average. No one sees average on TV and stays on that station.

 

I can see this moving into a Raven/Dudleys vs. JJ/AMW** feud, which is actually a pretty strong feud for TNA on television (The Dudleys' "big surprise" on TV is a pretty good hook, you have the ECW connection, and a 6 man feud can last for a few months), but only as a secondary feud with a bigger headliner. The X title would be an OK headliner in general, but when trying to capture the most audience possible, you need a big name to get their attention, and then in between the big name(s), you sneak in the unknown guys and try to get them over as fast as possible so you can shift the focus towards them. I don't really see any big names out there right now (Jericho would be border-line) that would do that, so maybe they may have to bite the bullet and get the X-title over as the main title through force and hope that the fans cling to it.

 

(** the more I think about it, the more a Dudz/Raven (how was Raven able to keep the name, btw??) vs. AMW/JJ sounds good. It can have legs in that you have more guys joining the cause - Jeff Hardy joins Dudleys and Raven (Hardys history with the Dudleys, and the fact that he is an "outsider" in TNA along with the ECW guys), Monty Brown joins AMW/JJ cause he's TNA born and bred. Rhyno has to make a choice, since I believe he is with JJ, and he eventually joins the Extreme Team. Abyss gives his loyalties to the TNA team. That way you can mesh the guys the fans would know with the guys they wouldn't know. I don't know how much TV time TNA will get, but one big arch with lots of wrestlers would be PERFECT for this day-and-age in a very serialized/hour-long-drama television season. Booking/writing television would be a breeze if you had that one big storyline, some storylines that surround it (and eventually become a part of it), and then your headlining X-Division staying outside of it.

 

Some people would contend that having the TNA guys has heels wouldn't be wise, since TNA is the show. Why would you want the fans to hate TNA? First of all, it's easier to hate someone you don't know, than to get behind them. And, ultimately, fans are more likely to cheer the guys they DO know, than cheer the guys they don't know. With that said, I would have the feud play out in a way where most of the TNA guys turn on JJ, to get the TNA guys over as faces. The way this feud could be booked, there's like months worth of TV to use.)

 

...dammit, why am I not putting this in my own blog? This = Ratings.

 

Oh, and I'd start off the first TNA show with AJ Styles coming out dressed like John Cena, acting like John Cena, and then saying "The reason why you can't see me, is that I'm moving way too fast" and throwing off the Cena stuff to reveal AJ Styles.

 

Lemme revise this: I'd start off with an intro package to AJ styles where he says and does all this - then having him wrestle to show it.

Agreed.

 

(** the more I think about it, the more a Dudz/Raven (how was Raven able to keep the name, btw??) vs. AMW/JJ sounds good. 

 

 

 

Because he was smart enough to buy the rights the name before Vince even considered it.

 

Also, great fucking idea there. It'll never happen but good work.

Well, now we get a classic main event for BFG, with Jeff Jarrett defending against that great worker, Kevin Nash. MOTY, without a doubt.