WWE Hall of Famer Jeff Jarrett, who is also All Elite Wrestling’s Director of Business Development, took to an episode of his “My World with Jeff Jarrett” podcast, where he talked about a number of topics including the decision to bring fellow WWE Hall of Famers Kevin Nash and Scott Hall into TNA in 2004.
Jarrett said, “They were close to Orlando. It’s not like I was asking them to get on a plane and fly halfway across the country and work 30-minute matches. I wanted them to be a part of the product. And you know, look. They’re both businessmen. They got paid under their market value, but they wanted to get paid. But they also — during this time frame. That’s why I want to kind of be specific. As time went on, especially Kevin, it became much more, ‘Okay, I’m committing. I’m going to get paid. Hey Jeff, I understand, and you understand that you don’t have to buy a plane ticket, and you don’t even have to buy a hotel room.’ So that alone, comparatively speaking to all the talent here, I’m — a first-class ticket. So just right out of the gate, my market value works.”
“Anyway, they were coming to help a buddy during these early days. And hose guys are — what Conrad, four years removed from, being part of the biggest box-up attractions in the entire business? So hell yeah, I want them to be a part of the company. And [I] knew with our, I’ll call it our core. America’s Most Wanted, Team Canada, AJ, Chris Daniels. The Low Ki’s of the world… we had a nucleus of talent that we needed some box office attractions and I’ll call it, quote, unquote, from the WCW era, because we’re only four years, three years removed from that, to help us create brand awareness. And they did, they absolutely did. The folks at Fox Sports, when I was having those conversations — and no disrespect to our current roster at the time, they just didn’t know anybody. Did they know a Jeff Hardy? ‘Oh god, yeah, yeah. He was just on this TV.’ And those guys knew, we’re going to get into some conversations about the Best Damn Sports Show Period. Their producers just obviously knew who Kevin Nash and Scott Hall were. So that just comes part of building any brand. You gotta bring some brand with you to build your own brand, and that’s where we’re at in ’04.”
On Nash and Hall coming in for the right reasons:
“So you made the comment, I think it was a Meltzer report, ‘TNA is now in a cost-cutting mode.’ I’d like to respectfully say, when were we not in a cost-cutting mode? We were always watching the bottom line. I mean, always. On the flip side of that is, Kevin and Scott: ‘Yep, I’m going to come help my buddy out’ and this and that. Once they get there and kind of get the lay of the land — by their DNA, they immediately go into, it’s just the nature of the beast. The boys will be the boys, the talent will be talent. They’re going to go right into the mindset. And that’s, ‘Hey, I’m going to show you guys. I’m going right into my negotiating. Only two left, guys.’ I mean, that’s just putting it out in the ether of, ‘We’ll see how these things go.’ But that to me is locker room negotiation… it proved on out that they came in for the right reasons and never gouged for money, never.”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
