8 Wrestlers You Didn't Know HATE Each Other For Real
4. Stone Cold Steve Austin & Jeff Jarrett
What was at the root cause of the long-standing distaste between Stone Cold Steve Austin and Jeff Jarrett before their remarkably cathartic reunion podcast in 2022? The sins of the Father, the stupid words of the Son, or the stubbornness of the man who would later become the biggest star in the business?
As usual in wrestling, it's all of the above, and lots of reconciliatory conversations that didn't happen became lost to moments of bitterness that did.
It all began in Memphis, where Jerry Jarrett was so well known for his tight-fisted ways that allegedly upon telling his roster than he didn't want them on steroids, territory regular Dutch Mantell replied that "the way you pay us, most of us aren't even on food!". Austin backs this up, famously noting how he got by on raw potatoes and tuna on his way up, and the memories of those lean years were sharpened by one of Jarrett Jr's flippant remarks while the future 'Rattlesnake' stared incredulously at a lousy cheque.
Passing a comment along the lines of "keep staring at it, it isn't gonna get any bigger", Jarrett marked his cards with the future Stone Cold, and made his political situation worse when he referred to Austin 3:16 as "blasphemous" during the worked shoot promo he cut upon returning to WWE in late 1997. By 1999, both were more over than they'd ever been, but Austin's stardom was the sort that yielded power and his vetoing of a run against 'Double J' heightened the rift between Jarrett and a Jim Ross-led front office. That was one of many reasons why the former Intercontinental Champion chanced his arm on being Vince Russo's 'Chosen One' and perhaps inadvertently proving Austin's instincts shrewd.
That - years removed from the worst days and with dollars and water under the bridge - they were able to finally park the politics was refreshing in the extreme.