Jeff Jarrett wasn't a fan of Don West turning heel in IMPACT Wrestling.
During a recent installment of his official podcast, "My World with Jeff Jarrett," the IMPACT Wrestling founder and WWE Hall of Fame legend spoke about not liking that Dixie Carter felt that West needed to turn heel so that the company had a heel announcer on the commentary team.
Featured below is an excerpt from the episode where "Double J" reflects on this topic with his thoughts.
“I hated it. I despised it. It made me furious. A lot of things were going right, the ratings were good, and Dixie (Carter) wants to say, ‘But Don West doesn’t make sense. We need a heel color commentator.’ No, we don’t. Don West in a lot of ways was the fan’s man because that’s what he was when he first started. He still is to this day. He’s an infectious voice that can show great energy and enthusiasm. That’s what it brought to the table. For whatever reason, whether Russo pitched it to Dixie or Dixie pitched it to Russo, to this day, I don’t really know, but they got on this kick. Dutch (Mantell) pulled me aside and he said, ‘I really want to know what you think.’ I said, ‘I think it’s insanity. I hate every bit of it. I think it’s wrong on every level and they are completely missing the point that yes, the TV product is the most important deal, but all of a sudden, Don is gonna be going to these live events, he’s a heel on TV, and he’s trying to sell merch?’ He was the rock star of the merchandise and the online sales department. Why fix something that wasn’t broken.”
Check out the complete episode of the My World with Jeff Jarrett podcast by visiting RealJeffJarrett.com. H/T to WrestlingNews.co for transcribing the above quotes.
