Jeff Jarrett's return to wcw

[Ubermensch]

I believe it was on the rise and fall of wcw DVD that Jeff Jarrett was singled out at toward the end of the DVD, suggesting his push had a large part to do with the demise of the company.

I think in large part this has to do with jarretts alleged extortion of the intercontinental belt and refusal to wrestle his last match without the payout. Vince obviously made a point to blast him on the last episode of nitro. Furthermore, jarretts involvement with the Tna also made him a target. I believe Hogans DVD also features the match where jarrett laid down and let hogan pin him. While this was unprofessional on jarretts part, as well as Russos, I haven't heard many wwe productions telling the story of hogan refusing to lose that night. Yet we won't see hogans ego as a citing for wcws demise.

Jarrett came to the wcw in the midst of its decline. Despite this I feel like he was an effective heel when he worked with Steiner, and Hart early on. While jarrett won't ever get mentioned with the best technical wrestlers and promo talents, jarrett was a good wrestlers and a good heel. He was involved with virtually every heel stable angle that Russo could come up with in an attempt to inject a lifeblood into the company.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

Hogan gets his fair share of blame for the demise of WCW. Jarrett doesn't get hardly any. That's despite him being pushed beyond his capabilities in WCW. Not his fault, of course. But Jarrett is hardly the guy who was going to save them.

A good all round talent. Nothing more, nothing less. At a push, he's a one time world champion in a WWE era when they had two world championship belts. A thank you reign, just like what Christian had. And if he hadn't been greedy, maybe he would've got one as well.

 

[MrMojoRisin]

Jeff Jarrett wasn't the reason why WCW failed in the end, but you can bet that him holding McMahon up for a large one time pay day is why the WWE would like to paint him as a main reason for its failure. It wasn't alleged by the way. That is exactly what he did.

But at the same time, Vince Russo's insistence of pushing Jeff Jarrett down everyone's throats as the top guy in the company towards the end didn't help WCW one bit.

Jarrett was a very good mid card wrestler, and in smaller promotions could easily be a very good champion. But in a national promotion like WCW, after years of the fans being educated on him just being a mid carder? It looked weak, and it was weak.

Within a period of 43 days, Jarrett became a 4 time WCW World Champion. Of course that's not Jarrett's fault, but the hot shotting of the title, along with someone who wasn't the type of guy that should have been carrying the companies top title, really did a number on WCW.

What they should have been doing in 2000, was putting the belt on Steiner, and having him run with it. Instead, Steiner wasn't given a shot with the title until the end of 2000, and ironically carried the belt for the final days, when WCW was once again becoming a critical success, even though commercially there was nothing that they could do to save it anymore.

The difference is that Jarrett was never a star, and even though WCW was in the tank by then, the Big Bad Booty Daddy was one in 2000. Could he have turned things around? Hard to say, because the merger still happens, and Jamie Kellner still doesn't want wrestling on TBS anyways, but I think their last year of existence would have been better with Steiner at the top of the company instead of J E double F J A double R E double T.

 

[Ubermensch]

You're right, Steiner was much marketable as a heel, and moved beyond the Hollywood hogan character he was emulating at first. He had good mic skills, insane physique, and had good in ring skills when he could mesh in his wrestling throws.

Jarrett would have been better off aligned with Steiner and a US champion. I don't think Jarrett should have stayed Midcard he would have been good at the main event level, but not the weight of the company on his shoulders.

 

[New Hot Fed]

In my opinion, the way Jarrett was pushed in WCW was a case of all the stars being alligned for him:

-Russo was best friend with Jarrett
-Jarrett quit the WWF in controversy, he was on their PPV the night before
-JJ was a black sheep hot rod like Russo who was disrespected
-for Russo WCW needed new blood to use as invaders and JJ was that

Furthermore, we all know that JJ was not a Top guy but for Russo that was a statement that he could make anybody, trying to prove that the writer was more powerful than the talent. He also came from the WWF where they had lost all their star talent from 93 to 96 and pretty much had to make guys up to carry their shows. And with the WWF they had to make stuff up on the spot cause they had no money hire guys like WCW was doing. Russo was joining a company in WCW that was in the gutters too and had to make bold moves to bring it back up, like he and VKM had done during the Attitude Era.

And for that role that Russo wanted for his flagship wrestler, it couldn't have been any other than JJ.

But you know what, it's fitting. Cause it was a bad period for WCW and they got a champion that represented that. But it's true that it damaged WCW somewhat. Had this "New Blood" being represented by a more worthwhile guy, the shows would have been less dreadful.

 

[MrMojoRisin]

If it was just Russo's ego that he could make anyone, then Jarrett works... and you're right about the fact that they were best friends playing A LOT to do with that. Even going back to his Vic Venom columns in the WWF magazine, Russo always pushed Jarrett harder than anyone else.

But I disagree that it couldn't have been anyone else but Double J.

I've already stated my case for Steiner, but going by your reasoning, that wasn't an option because Russo didn't 'make' him. Steiner got that gimmick over on his own.

Mike Awesome would have been a good candidate. They had Shawn O'Haire (keep in mind that if the idea is to say he could build anyone, then anyone should be an option). Booker T would obviously have been a great choice. They had Dustin Rhodes at the time, and if they'd used him properly he would have worked (better worker than Jarrett).

They were thin on new talent they could mold, so if that's what Russo's game was, he didn't have the greatest options right then. But then again, that's part of his failure (not Jarrett's as the op wrote, since he was just a symptom and not the cause). Since he didn't exactly have the best talent available to create stars with, he should have allowed the talent he had to grow into it, and used the stars that he did have to prop up the card until those new stars got over.

Pushing Steiner as the #1 guy at the start of the year. Have him run roughshod over everyone. Then in June, when Goldberg comes back, you have a ready made, epic face versus heel matchup that can main event anywhere.

People like to try copying the WWE all the time trying to replicate their success for themselves. One thing they miss though, is even when the WWE was down in the mid-90's, they always had matchups at the top of the card that could main event anywhere. THAT's where they should have looked to the WWE. Have a matchup at the top of the card people wanted to see, and then people won't help but be able to notice what else you have going on too.

 

[Gavschenko]

What i've seen from watching wcw around that time the heat jeff had was unbelievable he was boo'ed out of the building everytime i've stuck a clip from youtube on imo and i aint a fan of his but he deserves to be champ if he can get that kind of reaction.

 

[Ubermensch]

Exactly. He was undoubtedly an effective heel. He already had good heat carrying over from the WWF when he would attack women etc.

Again, I think the Hart, Steiner, and Jarrett stable was a great idea, just not called NWO 2000, or Silver or anything close to that.

Piggybacking off my post in the other thread about the NWO. Hart should have carried the title more in 99, allying with Jarrett, and Steiner as a heel faction, and the older guys should have started to putting the younger bucks over and make the company more sustainable.