In a recent interview with WrestleTalk, Jeff Jarrett delved into the abundance of metrics that wrestlers and promoters often tend to judge their product and work by. Emphasizing how the live audience in arenas is by far the most important and reliable source of how the product is being received, Jarrett said,
“I still believe at the end of the day, the best barometer is going out into a live arena, with your paying audience – and I think there’s a huge disconnect when you have a paying audience vs a non-paying audience.”
Double J cited Ric Flair’s Last Match as a notable example of how people can be quick to judge, mostly negatively, anything without viewing it at all. He said,
“A lot of times, you go to the Ric Flair (retirement) match, I’m just using that because it just popped into my brain, the criticism that was received. I think there’s a couple of different buckets – people that were there live, people that watched it on pay-per-view, and people that saw clips online, and then there’s some people that just read about it that hadn’t seen any of the three.”
JJ added that while he respects the viewpoints of all fans, his work is mostly influenced by the reactions of the live audience. He said,
“They all have a different viewpoint, so I respect all of them, but also I have to take into account as a 37-year veteran, when you really, really drill down, listen to your audience, and then make the best decision.”
