On the latest episode of My World With Jeff Jarrett, the WWE Hall of Famer talked about the importance of maintaining the prestige of the NWA World Heavyweight Title alive in the mid-2000s and more. You can check out some highlights below:
On being the NWA World Heavyweight Champion: “I had a conversation the other day that got in-depth. He’s an AEW main eventer. I’ll just leave it at that. He kind of got into all the questioning on, he says like, ‘Tell me a little bit about why and everything that goes with it.’ And I said, ‘Well, starting a new promotion in the circumstances that we did, I knew it was going’ — you know, it goes without saying, it’s a completely different era that we’re in now. It was coming off the Attitude Era, and wrestling was a four-letter word. Sponsors wouldn’t touch it. And so I wanted to kind of create — you know, we’re writing a story. And so the story had to begin with something. And we could have created from the beginning, the TNA Championships, Heavyweight and Tags and all that. But I chose — and, you know, I had a pretty lengthy debate with my father off and on for a month or two about this. And I said, ‘Well, there’s a lineage with the NWA Title that goes way, way back.’ So I thought that at the time, NWA was far from the glory years. It had — you know, it just with WCW being created in the early ’90s. Since that time, NWA, it would — you know, I don’t say fallen off the map, but for lack of better words, it had.
“And so I went to them and I said, ‘I think there’s a deal here to be made on — it’s a win, win. It kind of gives us some credibility as an upstart. And then you guys, it’s going to give you exposure.’ And so we came together and did a licensing deal, and it all worked out. And when we as a company, TNA, got to the point that we — really, in a lot of ways, Spike — we had to kind of move through that. We had to own the IP. And I think we served the NWA well, and the NWA served us well. It was time to go our separate ways. But my opportunity — you know, that’s the belt. Me and Conrad have talked about this on previous episodes of My World. The NWA World Heavyweight Champion was legitimately the world title that I grew up on. My father, it’s the title that he was an enormous fan of. His favorite champion was Dory Funk. And whether it’s the Funks or the Briscoes or Dusty Rhodes or Ric Flair. And you know, we can go way back and all the other past champions. But it was an honor for me, because I always looked at that — and I got to defend that title in New Zealand and Japan, Puerto Rico. Had a match in Puerto Rico against Ray Gonzales. So there’s so much history in that belt. I wore it with great pride, no doubt.”
On whether Shane Douglas was treated wrong by WWE: “I knew he had gotten sideways with some folks, and it wasn’t the greatest environment for all parties involved for whatever reason. But I don’t really have enough firsthand knowledge to know — I don’t want to say ‘who’s right and who’s wrong,’ but how all that got off on the wrong foot. I will say this, though. When you look at the different characters that were attempted to be developed from really the beginning of the New Generation. And he was certainly getting toward the end, you know, it was probably a year before the Attitude Era, if you will. There was a lot of personas, characters, and gimmicks that were just — candidly, the audience was not going to be attracted.
“And you know, they had seen Shane Douglas, however you want to say it, the Dynamic Dudes, but they had seen him on TV before. And this character was pretty much damn near impossible to get any traction. So kind of, Shane had two strikes against him coming out of the gate. And I’m not pointing fingers or saying it’s anybody’s fault, but it goes without saying, there were some gimmicks that were given to folks that were just — I think, even the folks who created them, would say, ‘Yeah, that the timing of all that it just wasn’t there.’”
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit My World With Jeff Jarrett with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.
