WWE Hall of Famer Jeff Jarrett, who is also All Elite Wrestling’s Director of Business Development, appeared on an episode of his “My World with Jeff Jarrett” podcast. In it, he discussed various topics, including how a riot broke out at a 1997 WWE house show in Little Rock, Arkansas after fellow WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels refused to work a tag team match with Triple H against himself and Jerry Lawler.
Jarrett said, “No. I remember the day. I remember the scene, the setting. I mean, not every particular. But the two things that kind of jumped out at me at the reporting were Lawler having a problem with the finish. Knowing that his son Brian, and we were going to clean house at the end of the night. And DX, Shawn and Hunter, the top heels in the territory, the direction the business was going. Just all the above, it just — back to our early kind of tongue in cheek silliness. Like, the Memphis fans were restless that the show wasn’t good. So that’s just creating a completely false narrative. They get a WWE show once a year, and they’re going to say ‘that son of a bitch is less than two stars. Crappy show?’ I mean, come on. No.”
On fans spitting on The Undertaker, who was working with The Rock in the main event:
“Look, again who’s his opponent? And to me, he had a ton of heat on him. But the whole night as it built — again, it was the weekend show, I’m going back to beer flowing [with the fans]. Oh, this was another point I was going to make, Conrad. That I just think — I’m going to do my best to explain it, but I think it is very, very important as a peek behind the curtain just how shows work. Memphis, Nashville, Louisville, Evansville, back in the weekly cadence, we knew the cops — I mean, by name. They walk us to the car, the heels to the car, and all that. I mean, the in-house security and all this. When you roll into Memphis or Little Rock, or any of these towns, especially in these days, we had maybe two. One or two, no more than that, of our own security that would have a pre-show security meeting. Which would mean, ‘Talk to the police officers, then talk to the ushers and ticket takers, and then whatever the building [security], yellow shirts, red shirts, green shirts, whatever.’ It was just kind of that. So that is your kind of point of contact to say, ‘Hey guys–‘ You don’t come in and say, ‘Hey man, our business is hot. It’s really hot. And Shawn just did a big heel thing in Montreal, and he’s our hot heel. We really gotta be careful.’ You just gotta, have to say, ‘Hey, folks, here’s the deal. Don’t watch the matches, watch the crowd. Don’t face–‘ Just the do’s and don’ts, okay? These guys are hourly workers, other than a uniformed police officer who does this day in, day out. Most of the time those guys, not only do they not give a s**t, they don’t really understand… They think, ‘Oh, throwing a plastic cup, oh that’s cool. We saw it at Bash at the Bech, remember when Hogan did this?’ And so when you just kind of roll all this in, and you’re going — and you just mentioned it. I think a big thing that went with Shawn and Bret, and he’s the hot heel — this was DC, the Attitude Era. They were brand new, and the things they were doing on TV were appropriate for the time, if you will, shock TV. And Shawn just — yes, his in-ring working ability is, he has very, very few peers, if any. I’ve said that multiple times. But his his ability to connect emotionally, heel or babyface, when he wants to ramp it up? That’s why he’s a pro’s pro. He’s like, ‘I’m gonna put a little gas on this.’ He absolutely is a ring general, through and through and through. So he went out there in Memphis, and he had done his time in Memphis before, and had a little fun. And I have a feeling Taker probably gave him the heads up on this. But I don’t think they were throwing crap at Taker. Maybe if one guy did it and they kind of dogpiled on and all this. But I think the heat originally started early in the night before the Taker match. Whatever heel, Henry Godwin or whatever. But as the night rolled on, it became the in thing to do. ‘Hey, let’s throw stuff in the ring.’ Rocky comes out and he’s working right beside Taker, his opponent. They’re just going to flood him with stuff. So you know, the report that, ‘Oh, Taker got destroyed,’ I just think is a half truth much like, ‘Oh, it’s a crappy show.’ No, ‘8-Ball and D-Lo didn’t get four stars.’ So that silly narrative. But there you go. Connie, longwinded answer, but I apologize, but that was I think trying to give it complete, full context.”
On whether it was a disaster:
“Is it best-case scenario? No. Did it kill the town? Very far from it. Because if you are a paying customer, you saw plenty of in-ring action. Six, seven, eight matches. But your spectacle of a main event, you got to see Shawn and Hunter and stuff thrown everywhere. And then Dude Love and then Jeff. I don’t think I said a word on the mic, but you know, we didn’t do a lot of action, you didn’t get a finish. But you got to see, we’ll call it a crazy in-ring. So was it best case? No, but was it disaster? Not by any stretch, the picketing and the phone calls and the complaints, and everything that went with it. It’s — as me and you would text Connie, the good old rassling business. I mean, you just kind of think that there was probably a few folks leaving that night that went, ‘Damn, they scripted that pretty good tonight. That’s kind of seemed real tonight.’ And Mick’s like, ‘You damn right it was real. I’m trying to get — for a shoot, he was trying to get Shawn and Hunter, ‘Come on, guys, let’s just work the main event, even if it’s three or four bumps, and get out of there.’ That didn’t happen. Memorable night, to say the least, in the Pyramid.”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
