WWE Hall of Famer Jeff Jarrett addressed Vince Russo recently saying on his podcast that Jarrett worked him on the latest “My World” podcast:
Conrad Thompson told Jeff Jarrett, “Let’s talk about somebody whose mind we wish we could read at different times. I didn’t tell you I was gonna bring this up, but I feel like I need to because I’ve heard, I haven’t seen it, but I’m getting DMs from folks who are saying that based on our non discussion of a discussion that was happening on another platform, that your man, Vince Russo is doubling down on a whole lot of Double J talk.”
Conrad continued, “So now folks see Eric (Bischoff) and Ric (Flair) going back and forth, and they think ‘Well, Conrad’s just working a bunch of feuds.’ I think the implication there is that this Russo thing with you and him is building towards something. We do not, as far as I know, I don’t have anything planned for some sort of big payoff or collision course. We didn’t even have it necessarily listed as a topic. I’m sure we’re going to talk a lot about it on today’s show. But it feels as if he sort of got his sights set on talking about Double J. This is your show. It’s called My World. Is there any response you’d like to provide about anything that you’ve seen?”
Jarrett responded, “I kind of thought we had an understanding, but we are 50/50 partners in My World. I see no upside in it. Let me get this out. I get it. I really do get it. I’m going to look directly in the camera and say, well, you mentioned feud and all of that. Here’s the reality and the fallout. Did you see Road Dogg’s tweet? He said something to the effect that they’re having a riff, and I’m thinking Brian hasn’t listened, he hasn’t watched, he doesn’t really know the full context, and that’s okay, but do you think we would have ever brought this up if Vince had not said, ‘I worked him?’ I wish Vince Russo, and I’ve told him this by email, I’ve told him this at a couple of signings, I probably should have brought this up, he just wants to manufacture all this stuff. Somebody contacted me and said, ‘Hey, I’d like to get Vince Russo for a signing.’ I texted Disco and I said, ‘Disco, what’s Vince Russo’s email’, and he sent it to me. It’s the same one he’s had forever but I didn’t know if he still had the same one, so I forwarded it off. So there’s no hard feelings. Vince, I wish you nothing but the best. I hope you are happy in life. I would have never responded to Conrad had I known all this silliness is exactly what I thought, almost to the T that I said last week that I’ll be very curious to hear his response, but maybe he didn’t take a look at the man in the mirror, like, what’s his role in all of this? Conrad, you got me doing it again. It’s just, you talk about culture and bad juju. Road Dogg thinks there’s a riff and all this kind of stuff.”
“I’ll say this. I truly believe Vince believes everything coming out of his mouth. I have no doubt in my mind. So I’ll just diplomatically, and I’m happy for him. He has his version of his truth, or it’s his truth. Maybe that’s better said. I have my truth or my version of the truth. I agree to disagree. There’s no doubt in my mind. Go on with your life. Be happy about it. But he wants to start saying that I worked him?”
“So I had a guy who does my analytics on the deal. I said, ‘Do me a favor. What kind of traction is all this getting?’ He said, ‘Give me a few minutes.’ He came back. ‘Zero traction. It’s 8, 10, 15, 20 people, whatever it may be. It’s not a topic of discussion. It’s little to nothing’, and here we are given more time to it, but it’s silly.”
“He screenshotted two tweets that Vince put. One was something to the effect that he left the wrestling business 11 years ago. Something like that. The following day, he said something about he’s happy to say that he’s writing for two wrestling websites. So let me ask you, Do you think Dave Meltzer is in the wrestling business? Do you think Wade Keller is in the wrestling business? Conrad said, ‘I do.’ They’re wrestling journalists. I believe you’re a wrestling podcaster. I’m a wrestling podcaster and business development and international and partners in WrestleQuest. I’m a lifer. I’m a 36 year veteran in this wrestling industry. But Vince wants to say, it’s kind of a perfect example, that he left the wrestling business one day, and he said he’s not in it, but he’s making a living out of it, and I was just like, okay. I’m happy for Vince. I really want him to be peaceful and I hope like hell that his paywall and Patreon and whatever he’s doing to get hits, he obviously brought us up or brought me up as a topic that I worked him to drive money because he put it behind a paywall. I wish him nothing but the best in life. I truly, truly mean that. But Road Dogg, there is no riff. I agree to disagree and we’ve moved on with our lives. I hope he’s happy. I’m very happy. I’m very grateful. It’s that simple. Conrad, now that we’re on it, what is the upside to discussing him? I’m curious to hear your response on that?”
Conrad replied, “I know he’s an important part of your life story. He’s ingrained in what we’re going to talk about in today’s topic, your return to the WWF in 1997, and of course, the first time you became the world champion. He’s been a major figure in the history of this show, whether it was TNA, or WCW, or the WWF. But last week, what happened is we talked about it, and you said, when Janice said something along the lines of, ‘How do you think Vince will do this time around?’ You said that on the show last week. So Vince Russo responded to that on Twitter and said, ‘Jeff never contacted me that entire time. When Dixie reached out, I needed the job to support my family. I had no idea what Jeff’s role was in the company. He hadn’t called me in over a year.’ He would also respond to another tweet that says, ‘Hey, didn’t Jeff Jarrett completely shoot down the opportunity to be on the same show as you on Sportskeeda? He said he forgave you but just refuses to have a conversation with you, just weird. He said, Oh yea. I forgot that. Good point.’ Even now, since you and I have been on the air tonight here on Sunday night live for adfreeshows.com, he wrote, ‘Man, I knew what a certain someone from Nashville was talking smack about me this week, it wasn’t going to bid well for the Titans. Bro, you mess with the Italian bull, you get the Italian horn.”
Jarrett said, “The Sportskeeda thing, it’s again, kind of a microcosm. He believes that. That is a bold faced lie. He’s acting like he knows, like, bro, bro. He’s acting like he knows the negotiations.”
Conrad added, “I know what happened there. We don’t have to spill the beans, but I’m on your side. That’s not the way it happened.”
Jarrett continued, “He literally is like, ‘Yeah, I forgot about that.’ He plays the self pity card. I believe it’s potentially a generational thing. I don’t know, but he loves, ‘Oh, yeah. That happened to me.’ Wait a minute, what’s your role in this Vince?’ ‘Nothing’ He then says, ‘I took the job with Dixie, which I totally agree. He made a decision, without question, with all the water on the bridge, and I’m not disagreeing with it, but he made a decision, without question, to take a job over a friendship. There is no gray area here, and I’m happy that he did. I’m absolutely happy that he did because it wasn’t any one set of circumstances. It wasn’t the Janice (Carter) comment. It wasn’t creative. It wasn’t me finding out things that he had told Dixie. It wasn’t things finding out that he had told Dutch and talent and D’Amore and Borash and Glenn Gilbertti and I can go down people who he thinks are his friends or my friends or a collection of it, all of them. I guess you could say it was an instance after an instance after an instance after an instance that I’m going, maybe I have not really looked at this accurately. I’m gonna go back to him saying that I used him. What? I used him, so he’s telling me that just like I held Vince up with a 357. Vince, if you don’t write this segment today, I’m gonna blow your brain. What? I can’t believe we’ve given him time again. I really can’t Conrad. I really can’t.”
“This is, maybe I would have, maybe not, but certainly I’ll say in the last five years, I really hope him and his wife and his kids and his grandkids, I hope they have the happiest life that they can possibly have. I sincerely mean that. I really wish them nothing but the best. But it’s just like, he’s talking about the Titans which I chuckle because at the end of the day, the Titans, I think they have a bad juju and a bad culture going on.”
“I know my audience doesn’t want to hear it, or so my analytics guy says. It’s a tiny bit. Maybe his audience, yes, or, I don’t know. I’m not going to talk to you about his audience. But a very, very, teeny, tiny part of my audience wants to hear it because who wants to hear, I’ll call us grown men, talking about nonsense? I mean, going back to him, ‘Bro, he worked me’, but I’m gonna put it behind my paywall and work you guys.’ Oh, okay. I gotcha. Makes total sense.”
“For the last five years, I’ll just say my hobbies, Conrad, are reading psychology, stoicism, philosophy, all these kinds of stuffs and it really starts with leading yourself, and before you can lead yourself, and Conrad, I’m really gonna get deep here, before you can lead yourself, you have to have the ability to be self aware and look inward instead of outward. That’s why I said, like, ‘What is my role’ and you know, to get into the serenity prayer. God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I can’t change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Okay, that wisdom to know the difference, that’s that kind of barometer there.”
“A lot of folks in my past, I know, and that’s what I’ve said, I’ve screwed up in every, there is not one relationship that I’ve had in my 55 years of living, that I haven’t been at fault at, you know, some degree, some more than others, obviously. So growing as a person, because I want to grow as a leader, and that doesn’t mean just business. I’m talking about as a human being, as a father, as a husband, as my work with Salvation Army, all that kind of stuff. But at the very core of it is psychology and philosophy and everything that goes with it. So I would say over the last five years, thousands upon thousands of hours of reading, and research, and counseling, and all that kind of stuff, so it’s a part of my DNA. When I go about life, whoever I’m having a conversation with, I can’t help but, I’m a much better listener. That is probably one of the greatest gifts sobriety has given me is being able to listen. If you just listen to what someone says, they absolutely will tell you so much about what’s going on inside of them. That’s why I said last week that I would love for Mr. Russo to look at, what is his role? I’m not saying that he’s going to come, no, matter of fact, you said it at the top, he doubled down and went the other way, and then you’re saying he’s tweeting and now he’s talking about the Titans. Candidly, he’s got serious, serious, and I’m speaking from experience, he’s got serious mental health issues. There’s no doubt in my mind, and I’ve said it for years.”
You can listen to the complete podcast below:
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
