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- Pro wrestling loves a juicy bit of backstage drama that can be made into a kayfabe storyline, and fans themselves can’t get enough of any sort of peek behind the curtain. For Impact Wrestling (formerly known as TNA), one of the most high-profile angles based on real life involved the relationship between Kurt Angle, Jeff Jarrett, and Karen Jarrett. On top of the scandalousness of it, it’s of huge interest because of how it contributed to a major change in Impact as a company. There’s still more to discuss beyond what originally came up in this article, so let’s take another look at this relationship, its real-life fallout, and how it played out on television.
Kurt Angle married Karen Smedley in 1998, and they would be married until 2007 when they separated and then would divorce a year later. Kurt Angle joined TNA Wrestling a year before the separation in 2006, during this time Karen Angle started to become an on-screen character in TNA, accompanying Kurt Angle to the ring for his matches and even having storylines of her own.
Meanwhile, Jeff Jarrett married his wife Jill in 1992. Tragically Jill was diagnosed with breast cancer in the late 1990s and unfortunately passed away on May 23, 2007, a year after Kurt Angle had joined TNA.
UPDATE: 2023/05/17 19:40 EST BY DANNY DJELJOSEVIC
Pro wrestling loves a juicy bit of backstage drama that can be made into a kayfabe storyline, and fans themselves can’t get enough of any sort of peek behind the curtain. For Impact Wrestling (formerly known as TNA), one of the most high-profile angles based on real life involved the relationship between Kurt Angle, Jeff Jarrett, and Karen Jarrett. On top of the scandalousness of it, it’s of huge interest because of how it contributed to a major change in Impact as a company. There’s still more to discuss beyond what originally came up in this article, so let’s take another look at this relationship, its real-life fallout, and how it played out on television.
When The Rumors Started
Sometime after Angle joined TNA, rumors began to swirl around the locker room that Karen Angle had started dating Jeff Jarrett in late 2007, after the death of Jill and after Karen had separated from Kurt. Then TNA President Dixie Carter confronted Jeff Jarrett about the rumors, which Jarrett absolutely denied.
The story wasn’t over then, however, as in 2009, a TNA employee anonymously called into the Bubba The Love Sponge radio show. The full transcript of the call can be read here, but the caller would tell Bubba the Love Sponge that Karen Angle was in a long-term relationship with Jeff Jarrett and that she had moved in with him along with her (and Kurt’s) children.
As a result of the truth coming out, Dixie Carter suspended Jeff Jarrett for lying to her.
The Fallout
Following the Slammiversary pay-per-view. Jeff Jarrett ended up vanishing from Impact television after the early July 2009 episodes of TNA Impact. Rumors began to surface about the nature of Jarrett’s leave from Impact, but it was ultimately revealed that it was Dixie Carter’s decision. The Impact boss was reportedly furious over the revelation that Jeff Jarrett and Karen Angle had, in fact, formed a relationship, and the fallout over it went beyond a suspension and some presumably awkward meetings.
In fact, it ended up changing the whole backstage power dynamic in Impact Wrestling. While Jarrett was suspended, Carter apparently cleaned house, getting rid of those who were construed as being loyal to Jeff Jarrett — most notably Dutch Mantell, who was responsible for booking the Knockouts Division at its peak. On top of that, when Jarrett finally returned to Impact six months later in early 2010, he no longer had the backstage power he once wielded, and functioned purely as a performer.
In an interview in 2009 with the Howard Stern Show, Kurt Angle admitted that he had been “cheating on Karen” during their separation in 2007 and that Karen was also dating another wrestler at the time as a means of getting back at him. When exactly Jeff Jarrett and Karen started dating and how long it was after Kurt and Karen’s separation as well as Jill’s death is unknown.
The Kurt Angle And Jeff Jarrett Feud
In 2010, Jeff Jarrett and Karen got married in real life, thus playing into the storyline. Wrestling storylines have attempted to blur the lines between reality and kayfabe in the past, but this one reached a whole other level. Jeff and Karen Jarrett would have segments at their home with Kurt Angle’s children. In the segments, Jeff would force Kurt’s children to call him, “Daddy Jeff.” The kids were very young at the time and it was very uncomfortable to watch them do segments like these. To blur the lines even more, after the segments with his children took place on TV, Kurt Angle would tweet statements like this:
"The 'Jarrett' segments on TNA Impact were appalling. It made me look like a deadbeat Dad which I am not (I can assure you). And it made Karen and Jeff look like the perfect American Family. MY kids were calling Jeff 'Daddy Jeff'. NOBODY will ever replace me as the Father of my kids. You want me to look like the bad person? Don't forget who wanted the divorce! I didn't walk away from my family, Karen did. So keep your little 'act' going on TV. It's amusing to me, but don't think for a million years that my fans are buying this crap."
Was the statement in kayfabe? Probably, but there is no doubt these segments were cutting very close to the bone and made almost all the segments with Jeff and Kurt’s children very awkward to watch. However, the storyline ran for many months on Impact, and whatever personal issues Kurt and Jeff had were left firmly in the back, and they worked to create some amazing matches together.
Jeff Jarrett & Kurt Angle Clashed In Several Big Matches
In the fall of 2010, Jeff Jarrett ended up turning heel and becoming a founding member of the Immortal faction, with his stated motivation being that he wanted to get back at Dixie Carter for taking away all of his power in the company he started. From there, Jarrett set his sights on Kurt Angle, and the two began to feud over their real-life issues.
Their first encounter was an “MMA Exhibition” match at Genesis in January 2011, which saw Kurt Angle getting a DQ victory thanks to Jarrett fighting dirty. From there, Karen Jarrett began showing up on Impact television and getting involved in the storyline. This featured some very awkward moments in addition to the aforementioned “Daddy Jeff” stuff, like Angle being forced to walk his ex-wife down the aisle for an in-ring vow renewal ceremony.
After a few more pay-per-view matches, the feud finally came to an end in mid-2011 with a Parking Lot Street Fight that stipulated that Jeff Jarrett had to pack up and move to Mexico by himself if he lost. Jarrett did indeed lose, but he ended up coming back a month later with the AAA Mega Championship.
What Is Their Relationship Now?
Over 10 years later, Jeff and Karen Jarrett are still happily married, and Kurt Angle remarried in 2010 to actress Giovanna Yannotti, with whom he now has five children.
Speaking on his unique family situation, Jeff Jarrett would say this on the Insight Podcast with Chris Van Vliet, "In my world, that’s family. It’s personal. It goes without saying, in 2010, I spent more time in the ring with him, he has spent Halloweens here at my house. He has five kids, that’s hard to imagine. I’ve got three biological, he’s got five biological. It’s family. Obviously, we all have our ups and downs, our ins and outs. So, it is what it is.”
It was a bizarre real-life story that thankfully seems to have all worked out happily in the end.