Pro wrestling history is full of families that have contributed multiple generations of talents to the business. There’s the Anoa’i family that now has fourth generation talent emerging in WWE’s developmental system. There’s Randy Orton emerging as the most accomplished third-generation star of all time. There are daughters of wrestlers like Charlotte Flair, Natalya, and Carmella claiming the spotlight.
Jeff Jarrett is enough of a veteran—both as a wrestler and management figure—that he’s something of an institution in his own right wrestling now. However, he’s also the son of a former wrestler and promoter Jerry Jarrett. The two generations of Jarretts have had their ups and downs and a winding road through their collective time in the business.
Jeff Jarrett: The Promoter’s Kid
Jerry Jarrett had a respectable run as a professional wrestler, but his greatest claim to fame will always be as a promoter and booker. As Jerry Lawler described in his book, It’s Good To Be The King… Sometimes, the two of them spent years working in tandem to book the Memphis territory, typically working like a tag team with one booking for about half a year, then stepping aside to hand the reins to his partner. The arrangement kept both men fresh and relieved stress from managing talent and being responsible for not only the creative direction but the health of their business for months at a time. Jarrett’s work was well respected enough that he was purportedly set as the backup plan to lead WWE’s booking if Vince McMahon had gone to prison in the early 1990s.
So it was that his son Jeff had a leg up on getting involved in the family business because of the roots his father had already planted. Jerry introduced his son to the Memphis audience by way of reading a Rudyard Kipling poem. Double J shared on his podcasr that he thought it was a bit antiquated as a way cutting a promo at the time, but that the poem and his father’s meaning have only grown more powerful to him with the passage of time.
Jerry Jarrett’s influence got his son a foot in the door wrestling in Memphis, and likely helped him on his way to bigger stages. There were some challenges that came with being the promoter’s kid, though, as Jeff faced some backlash from colleagues and critics for perceptions of nepotism. Most notably, Steve Austin took issue with Jeff poked fun at his reaction to a disappointing paycheck, which was widely rumored to have contributed to Stone Cold rejecting Double J as a challenger at the height of his run years later during the WWE Attitude Era.
Jerry And Jeff Jarrett Start TNA Together
Jeff Jarrett was the driving force behind founding TNA. One of the pieces of the company’s history that has grown lost to the sands of time, though, is the integral role his father played in helping him. Jerry actually published a book composed of his journal entries from the time, The Story of the Development of NWATNA: A New Concept in Pay-Per-View Programming where he chronicled his thoughts on organizing the company, finding funding, securing talent, and early booking efforts.
While it’s clear Jeff respected his father’s input to involve him so integrally in the launch of his promotion, it’s also clear the two didn’t completely see eye to eye with one another on a number of factors. As Jerry wrote about, he felt Vince Russo was a poor creative contributor to bring into the team early on, and fundamentally disagreed with choices like booking main event talents to appear early in the show. Moreover, Jerry saw Russo’s previous booking of Jeff in WWE and WCW as one of the reasons why it would be hard for TNA to book The King of the Mountain as a credible top star.
Jeff Jarrett Pays Tribute To His Father On His Podcast
Jeff Jarrett has had a career like few wrestling legends before or since, much of which has come to light via his My World podcast. Jarrett has openly acknowledged he and his father didn’t always see eye to eye and that he takes issue with some versions of events Jerry portrayed in his book. There’s nonetheless also a clear undercurrent of affection and respect each time Jeff discusses him.
This was particularly true of an exchange from episode 52, titled From Hell to the Hall of Fame. Therein, Jeff recalled a collapse due to substance abuse issues, and how quickly his fortunes turned from that low point and being exiled from WWE to being invited to join the WWE Hall of Fame shortly after. Remembering this series of events and the career that led him there, Jeff was audibly emotional remembering the Rudyard Kipling poem his father had used to introduce him to fans. The poem is all about learning from failure and persevering, and it’s clear the father and son understand one another’s greatest successes, steepest falls, and overarching journeys on a profound level.
Jerry and Jeff Jarrett don’t tend to come up all that much in discussions of wrestling’s greatest father and son pairs, but perhaps they should for their significant impact both on screen and off on a wide swathe of wrestling history. Regardless, it’s clear the two have a powerful relationship with one another, and many of Double J’s successes owe to input and influence from his old man.