How WWE Has Changed Since Jeff Jarrett Last Wrestled On Raw
Ahead of a WCW run besieged by belligerent booking, Jarrett enjoyed one of his most fruitful spells with WWE as he had one foot out of the door. October 11th's Raw was his final appearance on the flagship for nearly 20 years, and his final physical interaction until last and this weeks' skirmish with Elias.
Everything that followed - WWE's swallowing and regurgitating of WCW, the birth and near-deaths of TNA/Impact Wrestling during his complex tenure at the top of it, the rise of NJPW in the west - bizarrely, featured Jeff Jarrett in some fashion, and all served as pivot points that drove the thriving wrestling industry to where it is today. Ironically, it was Jarrett that looked as though he'd end the story on the fringes, working independent dates and selling gold through his Global Force Wrestling brand as all the big hitters broke a million records and drew some dimes without him.
Vince McMahon - on one of his proudest nights - had a major axe to grind, and drove it square into the head of Jeff Jarrett. Only in such damning circumstances could a person be forced to make work for himself, so sure that the offer would never come again from his industry's biggest employer. Had the rumoured $300,000's worth of back-pay and merchandise money Jeff had held McMahon accountable for before dropping his Intercontinental Title on his last night with the organisation been worth an entire future without the revenue stream?
In a word, yes. In two and a made-up one, Listen Up Slapnuts. With his sales pitches as well-worked as his punches, Jarrett has found his way back to McMahon's broadly tender embrace. A Hall Of Fame induction in 2018 has morphed into a producer and part-time wrestler's role in 2019, celebrated in grand fashion with a Royal Rumble-to-Raw arc with Elias that should hopefully get the contemporary crooner more over than he was before.
Win-win-win, then, not least because Jarrett's newfound spot in WWE restricts All Elite Wrestling's access to one of the industry's keener minds. The cynical leanings behind his public dismissal are evident in his rehiring, but 'Double J' has grafted his way through the tumult yet again. And he'll - ahem - toast his next chapter by wielding his infamous acoustic equaliser against the latest performer to work the all-singing aesthetic. Country singer Jarrett was due to be exposed as a miming fraud at the height of his 1995 fame, but - like countless other boybands that were more about their preening than their pipes - he's fermented like a fine wine.
Everything changes, but Jeff. Take That, WWE.