During a recent edition of his My World with Jeff Jarrett podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Jeff Jarrett spoke about the impact Lance Russell had on his wrestling career and how Russell changed the game in Memphis wrestling forever.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
Jeff Jarrett on Lance Russell’s impact on Memphis wrestling: “To properly do this, I won’t do it justice. For me personally, the role Lance played in a young babyface, we’ll get to that. But to get sort of a set point for Lance Russell, I don’t want to say her was the first but I’m not aware of – you had Gordon Solie and different eras and different territories around the country. But Lance, he was an executive. He was the program director of the ABC affiliate. We’re gonna talk about it, but if there’s no Lance Russell, there might not be a Jerry Lawler. If there’s not a Jerry Lawler, what is the Memphis territory in the modern era from 1975, 1976, 1977 to early 90s? Lance was one of those guys – a businessman with an uncanny ability to conduct interviews, be a show host. He had a style all onto himself.”
On learning from Russell early in his career and working with Russell on promos: “Lance would always pop his head in on his time schedule because we just had that relationship. He’d ask, ‘Hey Jeff, what have you got? Do you want me to ask anything?’ A lot of times, I’m like, ‘What are you gonna ask Lance?’ We would just have a give and take. But Lance would always – the difference little nuances that he would [add]. ‘Is there something I need to wrap up? Are you gonna walk off and finish it?’ Just the whole emotional flow of everything. He taught me so much by the questions he asked. There were many Saturday mornings where he could tell I was lost, and Lance would take right over from the promo and do a recap. Lance was the guide, but he always wanted to know the emotion of where we were going. He would congratulate me and go, ‘Really good emotion out there. That sold some tickets.’ Just the mindset. He was teaching without even realizing he was teaching a lot of times.”
On Russell’s legacy in wrestling: “Accomplishments come and go, but the giving of whatever it may be, that’s the only thing that can last for eternity. I know that’s a heavy saying, but I think about Scott Hall and the teachable moments we discussed. Lance Russell, the nuances of, ‘Hey man, I like to have a good time as much as anybody,’ but the authenticity of how to craft a promo or how to craft this and that. It’s the things that you passed down from generation after generation. We’re in the sellers of nostalgia. Lance continually gave. He did that promo at that Memphis show – he did it at ringside. Lance was a giver of his talent in many, many ways.”
