On a recent edition of his “My World” podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Jeff Jarrett discussed Dusty Rhodes’ tenure in TNA Wrestling, his relationship with Dixie Carter’s family, and more.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On Dusty Rhodes’ relationship with the Carter family: “To me, it’s pretty simple… the Jeff/Dixie relationship a lot of times sounds more complicated than it really was. And other times, the context of the situation really blew things out of control. But it was like a lot of business partners: very up and very down. And I’ve said it over and over and over on multiple different episodes, and I take full responsibility for not being aware of this one simple thing: goal alignment. Our goals in day-to-day operations of TNA Entertainment were not the same. So, as we rolled into 2005 — so, started in June of 2002, we had made the move to Orlando. We had done I don’t know, a little over two years, a little over 110 episodes of the Wednesday night pay-per-views. But a big part of those Wednesday night pay-per-views is, Dusty was living in Atlanta at the time. I think from a personal point of view, kind of going through some rough patches. His promotion, Turnbuckle, I think was up and down. But me and Dusty always got along really well. Actually much better than him and my father, but that’s a whole different matter. You know, they were at different stages of their life. But when Dusty started coming up, it was me and Dusty’s relationship. My dad was obviously there, but almost as a mentor, I wanted to always sound things off on Dusty. But most importantly, he was — this sounds so simplistic — not just a legends legend, but Dusty could tell a story on a week-to-week basis, and he could do the talking for four or five people in the ring legitimately at the same time. He could get the story over no matter what.
“So we used him, I used him a lot. Ol’ Dusty was so old school, I smile about and think about ’02, ’03, ’04; Dusty only had one deal. He had his money in cash ready when he walked in the door. He didn’t want to wait ’till after the show; he wanted it to be hand-delivered to him as he basically got to the arena. And that happened the entire time until we kind of got going to Orlando. But during that process — Dusty’s a Texan; the Carters are Texans. And so he started his conversations with Dixie, which obviously gravitated over toward Bob and Janice. And as things rolled along, things got really tense almost on a day-to-day basis between me and the Carters. Because the pressure was on. They wanted ROI, at one point we’re going to get into that. In late ’04, ’05, they basically — they never came out and said it. Well yeah, they did, but we felt like we were pushing them in a direction from a financial perspective that we weren’t really sure of, but they never came out and said that. But we told them, ‘Hey, if you guys are ready to get out, we’ll go search for money.’ And we did. I want to get too far in front of the story, but as those things were going along and we collectively — a guy named Sam Copeland was instrumental in getting the FOX Sports deal.”
On whether Dixie Carter saw what Dusty Rhodes brought to TNA: “How could you not mean? And what I’m saying is, not even — if you didn’t even watch the live component of the show. Just backstage, Dusty walked in. Guys come up to him talking. His charisma, him throwing out ideas. I’m sure she could even read the body language that I would say, ‘Hey dusty, what do you think about this or that? Or are we going this direction or that direction?’ Just kind of the respect we all showed him. But then obviously in the ring — and he certainly wasn’t doing any X-Division moves, but his charisma said it all. And his mouth, his promo skills said it all. So absolutely, Dixie and her family recognized, ‘We’re dealing with a legend here.’”
On how close the Carter Family got to pulling the plug on TNA in 2004-2005: “Now in hindsight, there is zero chance. They were invested. Look how it turned out. But when you get that sense of feeling, and you ask, ‘Hey, do you guys want out?’ And you you don’t really get the answer, then you kind of get the answer. And then you — in my mind and in my father’s mind, we said, ‘Hey, let’s not wait on them to make a decision. Let’s go find a partner. Let’s go find multiple partners. Let’s go do what we have to do to survive.’ And they gave their blessing. They [said], ‘Yep. See what you can do.’”
On Dixie Carter replacing Dusty Rhodes as booker with a committee: “Dusty getting in power, which meant he replaced me, or me and my father or you know — but it was really replacing me. It was — in [Dixie’s] defense, ‘Hey, we’ve got to change. We’ve got to do something.’ I said, ‘Then do what you think is best.’ And by this point, she had developed a relationship with Dusty. I think Dusty did some politicking, obviously. And Bob Carter, without question, ‘Hey, let’s give him a shot at this and see if something doesn’t change.’ And I can remember Dutch, maybe my dad. A number of people were basically saying, ‘Jeff, you’re going to do yourself a favor, because do you really think something’s going to take off?’ And I’m like, ‘Hell no. It’s not going to be the magic shot in the arm, the booking at this point. We’re on Fox Sports, we’re trying to get traction. Let’s just keep on down the road.’
“And then it just didn’t work out. Dusty, I don’t think after maybe two TVs, three TVs… But Dusty didn’t ever feel, I don’t think he ever really felt comfortable and enjoyed himself. And it was really kind of a six-month [run]? I don’t know, not long. And then it was, ‘Okay, that won’t work out because I don’t think’ — you know again, Dixie had an open ear to everybody. So the last person she talked to, and I’m not saying she listened to or made a decision. But you know, ‘Jeff was better than [Dusty].’ ‘Well, wait a minute. Didn’t you just say three months ago that Jeff needed to be out and Dusty needed to be in and vice versa and all this.’ And Dusty didn’t want to deal with all that drama, it’s like, ‘Either you want me to do it or not. Okay, so now Jeff was out however long ago, and now Dusty’s in, and now he’s out. What are we going to do next?’ It always happens. ‘Hey, let’s put together a committee. Let’s put together a committee.’ And that’s what they did. I mean, I think it’s that simple, ‘Let’s put something together.’”
