Jeff Jarrett is turning babyface. These words seemed foreign to us a few months ago. Can Jeff Jarrett actually be the good guy? In most circumstances, of course he could. Almost anyone can successfully turn babyface. In this case, the outcome of the turn is far less predictable. The heat surrounding Jarrett isn’t entirely the product of effective heel promos and cocky mannerisms. His heat is actually so intense because of some of his real life practices.
This is not the first time I have written a column questioning something about Jeff Jarrett. Chances are good that it will not be the last. Part of this will be an extension of what I’ve written before. Some of it is about current events.
In 2002, legendary promoter Jerry Jarrett formed TNA: Total Nonstop Action. His son Jeff was made a major player in the company to nobody’s great surprise. The fledging company made its revenue entirely through weekly Pay-Per-Views on Wednesday evenings. This was a big money loser. So much that investor Health South Corporation pulled out. Desperate for save TNA, Jerry sold controlling interest to Panda Energy, a company that creates and maintains environmentally-friendly power plants.
Internal power has swayed to various leaders and committees since then. However, even though Jerry is no longer running the show, his son Jeff still has serious stroke. The Carters, the owners of Panda Energy, have given Jeff a lot of authority because he appears to know what he's doing. He has spent his entire adult life in professional wrestling, so yes, he does have strong knowledge of the business. One small problem with that: he's a wrestler on the active roster and has given himself the most TV time, the most title reigns and the most exposure. The current booking staff consists of Jarrett, Dutch Mantell and Vince Russo. This means he could theoretically be out-voted by Russo and Mantell.
Here are some basic facts about TNA history: Jeff Jarrett has been NWA Champion six times. The only wrestler who has even come close to that is AJ Styles. He has been NWA Champion three times, but two of those three times were only month-long "reigns" anyway. His only reasonably long reign, by the way, was ended by Jarrett. Not only that but Jarrett also holds the longest title reign as well: June 2nd of 2004 until May 15th of 2005. Practically an entire year. Let's look at it one more way. Since the first NWA title win in TNA history (at the hands of Ken Shamrock) on June 19th 2002 until today, November 25th 2006, Jeff Jarrett has been in possession of the NWA World Championship about 60% of the time.
He had become a kind of permanent champion. Much of last year and often this year, the Impact Zone TNA fans finally had enough. Known for being “smarky” at times, they began to chant “Drop the belt!” at him rather than boo his heel act in the traditional way. The fans threw trash at him as well. At first, I thought this was great; a white hot heel in the same vein as the old school champion with legitimate heat. However, when it did not actually help ratings or buyrates and actually upset the fans, I figured this may not be good for business. Jarrett recently dropped the title to Sting. The rumor mill has claimed that TNA head Dixie Carter made the decision to keep Jarrett out of the title picture based on evidence supporting that he has not been a ratings draw. Seeing the same thing over and over again can do that.
Shortly before dropping the NWA World Championship, word broke in the Wrestling Observer that Jarrett wanted to be turned babyface. This seemed insane at first. Jeff Jarrett a face?! The idea, although this may have changed since word first got out, was to have Jarrett stay off television for a few weeks or months and then return to team with BG James. Now that James is involved in the Voodoo Kin Mafia, it is uncertain as to how that will affect these plans. The other part of the plan involved getting Jarrett sympathy by talking about his wife’s real life battle with cancer. This is probably still on.
Here is what has happened in the early stages of Jarrett’s face turn already. Directly after losing the title to Sting at Bound for Glory, Mike Tenay put over Jarrett as the man who made TNA. He instantly started treating him like a babyface after that match. The following episode of Impact had Jarrett conduct a teary, soap opera music promo about how hard he worked to make TNA what it was and how he had to go away to deal with personal matters. He did not say it directly, but that is expected to be the wife. He also wished Sting luck in his title reign. Again, Tenay talked up Jarrett like a babyface. It was the quickest and least-explained face turn in recent history.
Now comes the interesting part. The waiting and the payoff. That is, the waiting to see how the fans will react to Jeff Jarrett after getting a few months off from him and dealing with his babyface persona. Will they maintain their internet smark dislike of his booking practices, boo him regardless of his face/heel status and throw trash at him? Will they feel legitimate sympathy for his real life plight and cheer him? Will they just cheer him for being a good babyface (if he can do that)? There are so many ways this could go. It is even more interesting and unpredictable than John Cena’s odd crowd reactions this year because WWE fans were only booing Cena’s persona and indirectly the booking surrounding him. TNA fans were booing Jarrett the man and booker. Not just the character.
If you hate Jarrett’s practices, and there is a fair chance that you do, will you cheer him? To be honest, the more I think about it, the more I think that I might just do that. Why? Because I’m a sucker. Also because I want to think that his stepping down from the main event position was not entirely against his will. I want to think that he knew it was time for other heels like Abyss and Christian Cage to get their shots as the top bad guys. I want to think that this is permanent and that he knows it is high time to step aside and that there is nothing else for him to do as TNA’s top heel for the forseeable future.
We’ll find out if that is true early next year. I want to think this. I just don’t know it.
