Jeff Jarrett's Dark Experience Gave Him A New Perspective
2022 has come and gone but what a year it was for WWE Hall of Famer, Jeff Jarrett. Jarrett's career resurgence, however, came with an uphill battle. When he was released from his role as a member of the WWE creative team in July 2021, Jarrett describes this time in his career as "a really, really dark time."
"I view things differently, and in a lot of ways, I don't want to say but I was off the market, you know?" Jarrett told Fightful. "I wasn't active and doing things, but over the last couple of years -– and I've documented it on My World -– from the Hall of Fame and then working in international and the live event department in WWE and just doing certain things, and kind of just my life circumstances, I made a decision about, I don't know, about 18 months ago, 'You know what? I'm going to get in the best shape that I possibly can and just see what happens.'"
Jarrett was like a vagabond, traveling from promotion to promotion and applying whatever knowledge and skills he had to what the company needed. In the same year, he appeared in Lucha Libre AAA, GCW, and AEW, while he also competed in Ric Flair's last match, and also made a return to WWE.
"If I would have told you this time last year [about me going to AEW], we would have all said, 'What are you smoking? Are you out of your mind?' But, to me, the AEW situation -– and hats off to Tony Khan," said Jarrett.
The wisdom he's gained
Working with a collection of new people comes with a set of challenges no matter what your profession is, but when you've been in an industry as long as Jeff Jarrett, you're instantly someone people feel comfortable coming to for advice even when you're a new guy. "If someone wants to engage, I'm more than willing to ask questions. I ask questions first and then give some advice. I don't ever give advice without, kind of, understanding more of the situation, but experience says that."
Another important aspect to focus on, according to Jarrett, is experiencing everything to the fullest; if something is painful, embrace it, and the same if it brings joy. "I went a lot of years with a lot of experiences and I never stopped to process and say, 'What can I learn from that?' And then, 'What role did I have in either making that a success or a failure?' Probably, more importantly, as a failure."
Jarrett has been in the world of professional wrestling for nearly 40 years now and, with his highs and lows, knows that it isn't always easy to "pick yourself up." But he implores newer stars to do just that because that's when you build character. "At the end of the day, we want to do it our way and, you know, life is just that way. You're going to have to have some experiences, you're going to have to have some failures. Learn from those failures."