On a recent episode of his My World podcast, Jeff Jarrett discussed a variety of subjects centered around TNA in early 2003, including the Rock ’N’ Roll Express working as heels, Tony Schiavone’s one night stint in the company, AJ Styles referencing Raven’s past heroin use live on pay-per-view, and more.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
Jeff Jarrett on The Rock ’N’ Roll Express’s heel run in TNA: “God, and again all these like Wednesday after Wednesday after Wednesday, but I’m pretty sure Ricky (Morton) sold us on this. They wanted work. They are a monster name. We had America’s Most Wanted it’s a very easy natural rivalry veterans versus the up and comers and Ricky in his heart of hearts Ricky loves to be a heel. But obviously he’s a fantastic babyface, and now watching his son you can kind of see the threads of yeah Ricky wanted to be a heel and we wanted to give it a shot. Again, during this 2002-2003 during all the Asylum years we didn’t have the finances. We didn’t want the commitment of talent because we’re literally saying come work for us, we’ve got one day a week. There was no house shows in the plans at this time. So, we didn’t have guys, you know, I’ve said it a thousand times especially in these early days was we have in an opportunity for you and we’re going to present it to you and if you agree and we agree go do this Wednesday night and if it comes off great we won’t have to ask you if you want to come back you’re going to tell us.”
Jarrett on why Tony Schiavone worked in TNA for one night only: “The first thing that came to my mind and it popped up in the picture. I’ve never seen Tony Schiavone with facial hair ever. He looked so different like really, really different. I think he was always designed for a one and done. He still is the voice of WCW from late 80s till it closed the doors. So, when you already have Mike (Tenay) and Don (West) already in that seat where are you going to put a guy with the stature of Tony Schiavone, and you certainly aren’t going to make him a mouthpiece or a manager or any of that…”
Jeff Jarrett AJ Styles implying Raven used heroin on TV: “I wish I could recall all that, but it’s one of those things that my gut tells me Russo and Raven talked about it and said yeah let’s do it. AJ, being the great solider, said okay. You know, it’s one of those things that Raven’s character to me was defined walking in the door and so maybe they thought it was good for character development. I wish I had better recall on this specific night, but I don’t.”
Jarrett on Raven’s early run in TNA: “Well, you go back and look either Memphis or Attitude Era with Stone Cold or whatever. I don’t want to put it on one talent. Raven came in and the vibe felt right, and you’ve got a hot talent; hammer down if they can carry the segments. Because it’s the analogy are you going to try to sell five matches halfway or four matches a little bit better for three, but let’s go for one. Let’s get one match as hot as we can or at least head down that route. Raven could do it and that’s the decision we’ve made at least for this episode, but yeah when Raven came in the momentum on him was not easy to get, I mean it was easy to get started and we just kept going with it.”
