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 bringing CM Punk in TNA during the early years of the promotion.
Jarrett said, “I’d love to have this fantastic, crazy story that I spotted him and scouted him, and me and Sting — we didn’t talk about it yesterday. But you know, the reality is my dad was running into territory. Talent came in, talent went out, talent came in, talent came out. You know, Sting and Hellwig, their very first territory, they didn’t last but about four or five months if that. And he had to let him go. But it was the next step and Sting, as we discussed, went down, hooked up with Watts and Eddie Gilbert, and the rest is history. But it’s all part of the growing pains, if you will.”
“Punk though — again, during a time when we had, oh boy. Not to be redundant here but you know, one day a week ROH was going, independents were beginning to go. We had a few independents in the UK. But it was a different vibe, a different scenario. But Julio Dinero — putting those two guys together. I loved Julio, he was a bump-taking fool. And Punk, his very nature in conversations — and Conrad, you know that. You’ve been in sales your entire adult life. When you meet someone they, for lack of a better word, curb appeal, natural charisma, just kind of the opening ‘Hello, how are you doing’ body language? Punk has always had that. And some people have different auras that they give off. Some more cocky or arrogant, or likable, or even standoffish. To me, Punk always had — easy to talk to, might be the first — engaging, that’s the better word. Punk’s always been engaging. So these early formative years, and I saw a promo not too long ago of a Ring of Honor promo he did. The gift of gab, I think the seed is always in somebody. You’ve gotta grow it, water it, nurture it, blossom it. And then you have to get the right opponent. And then you gotta do it again, and again, and again. Nothing replaces reps in this business, and we were a part of Punk’s early reps.”
On hearing about the fight between Punk and Teddy Hart at the White Trash Cafe:
“So I’ll give the white for new My World listeners. So you know, the Wednesday night shows, early days of Asylum. The first — I don’t know, four [or] six shows we had catering. And the Asylum was on the Tennessee State Fairgrounds. And you had to walk — I don’t know, four [or] six… gosh, you had to walk a couple hundred yards to go from the Asylum to where the kitchen was, and the mess hall or the concessions. But anyway, that’s where they originally had catering for us, or we used that part of the fairgrounds. But it’s a pretty good walk. But it was crappy food as well. Right at the bottom of the hill, so it’s maybe 30 yards from the front door of the Asylum to the bottom of the hill was a meet and three…”
“But anyway, the meat and three was the White Trash Cafe. And it made it really easy — they loved our business. We paid them X amount of money every week, gave the guys tickets. You go in, get their food. And you know, I’m not gonna say everybody liked it, but it was certainly an upgrade. And it had that kind of southern hospitality and you got you a piece of pie on all the ice till anyway, so you’d go to the bottom hill, Conrad, I had just left and walked up to the back to the top of the hill when the shenanigans broke out. But certainly, you can imagine that I heard about it instantaneously. ”
On Teddy Hart.
“But you know, ol’ Teddy — and as time has gone on, and I’m certainly not the only one. I’m sure Eric and others have talked to Ted and maybe been in a relationship where you’re potentially going to hire the guy. But you know, I think the first time I met Teddy was at a Calgary house show for the WWF [in the] late ’90s. But Ted is another guy that has — I’ll call it a unique personality. But man oh man. As time’s gone on, I’d say that turns to some mental health issues, and it’s a damn shame kind of where he’s at. But in these early days, I had no idea.”
On the fight itself:
“As I was reading the research, there was some prior bad blood, or quite a bit of bad blood beforehand. But that didn’t factor into who we were bringing in or not bringing in. And maybe that’s a little bit of — I don’t say old school, but look. We want to put on the best Wednesday show, and you show up to work. And if you got a personal issue, we talked about Shane Douglas and Funker having an issue that I wasn’t aware of at all. But we didn’t have any idea or people didn’t tell me, or if they did tell me — and I’m not saying they didn’t. I’d say ‘Hey man, they can do what they can and fight each other in their off time. Just don’t bring it to work.’ And I’ve always kind of had that mentality, folks. Show up, be professional and get your work done. And if you do cause trouble on-site, you damn sure better have some leverage. Because you just don’t need that at work, because you don’t want to have that work environment.”
“Now 2024, it’s a completely different set of circumstances. But in 2004, it was still a set of circumstances. You don’t want nonsense going on at work. And when I heard about it, I’m not sure. Both Harris brothers were working for me at the time. But old Donnie, I can just imagine they came to me, and probably Bob Ryder probably had three or four different versions. And I’m sure the old Danny Rooster was trying to get all the scoop and figure it out. And I don’t know, whoever else would have been around that would I would have probably asked, ‘Hey, give me your version.’ And then look, at the end of the day. Both of them could go to work that night. ‘Donnie, we need to have a conversation with them. That s**t doesn’t need to happen on our clock.’ What they do after hours is on their own, but they bring drama into work. There’s enough struggles day in and day out. Running a wrestling show doesn’t add to the craziness.”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
