Sephiroth
Wade Wilson
Surviving
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Post by Sephiroth on Mar 9, 2015 5:51:21 GMT -5
The thread about Monty Brown had me remembering this. Granted, the Jarrett period seems like wine and roses compared to what became of TNA when JJ eventually parted ways with company. But nonetheless, those early days of TNA when Jeff Jarrett was booked at a level of dominance comparable to Triple H's infamous monster run certainly weren't what I'd call a high point either-all the better they got it out of the way early, I suppose. I've got nothing against Jarrett as a performer, but to me he was always an upper mid-carder, at his best as WWF IC or WCW US champ-in other words, he just wasn't WHC material. But it was not remotely shocking that he booked himself into downright monotonous dominance, given his position backstage at the time. But it was not without its cost, such as failing to develop TNA's first home grown, breakout star to his full potential. And while I certainly do not want to sound like I am reveling in JJ's misfortune in the tragic loss of his wife, that period of him being absent for upwards of a year was ultimately for the better of the company at the time, especially since he did seem to come back a more humbled man who was a bit more willing to move himself to the background. And not that I enjoyed Kurt Angle's run as the superman of TNA any more, mind you.
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Post by Chip Chipperson on Mar 9, 2015 6:01:51 GMT -5
I understand people aren't fond of Jarrett but what people tend to overlook is the fact that Jarrett was TNA's only really big reliable star for the first 3-4 years of TNA's existence. He was a guy with popularity and talent that the people in charge knew would always get heat and would always be there when he was needed.
As soon as TNA got on it's feet and managed to land Christian, Kurt Angle, Scott Steiner and Sting all in the span of about 12 months Jarrett quickly took the back seat and was semi regular for the rest of his run in TNA giving the top spot to Angle and letting him carry the company on his back.
So whilst I understand the frustration I don't think Jarrett's title runs were arrogance it was moreso the fact that every other heel TNA had was getting cheered and that Jarrett was reliable. I can't hate the man for being there when his company needed a reliable star on top.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 9, 2015 9:22:23 GMT -5
Be it TNA or WCW before it Jeff Jarrett is one of the more bullshit champions of all time.
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Post by "Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay on Mar 9, 2015 10:38:04 GMT -5
I understand people aren't fond of Jarrett but what people tend to overlook is the fact that Jarrett was TNA's only really big reliable star for the first 3-4 years of TNA's existence. He was a guy with popularity and talent that the people in charge knew would always get heat and would always be there when he was needed. As soon as TNA got on it's feet and managed to land Christian, Kurt Angle, Scott Steiner and Sting all in the span of about 12 months Jarrett quickly took the back seat and was semi regular for the rest of his run in TNA giving the top spot to Angle and letting him carry the company on his back. So whilst I understand the frustration I don't think Jarrett's title runs were arrogance it was moreso the fact that every other heel TNA had was getting cheered and that Jarrett was reliable. I can't hate the man for being there when his company needed a reliable star on top. I think your timeline's a little off, because didn't Sting debut in 2003, Christian in 2005, and Angle in 2006? That aside, you have a point. And honestly I grew up as a wrestling fan with Jarrett main eventing WCW so it's always worked for me. |
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Post by Chip Chipperson on Mar 9, 2015 17:14:43 GMT -5
I understand people aren't fond of Jarrett but what people tend to overlook is the fact that Jarrett was TNA's only really big reliable star for the first 3-4 years of TNA's existence. He was a guy with popularity and talent that the people in charge knew would always get heat and would always be there when he was needed. As soon as TNA got on it's feet and managed to land Christian, Kurt Angle, Scott Steiner and Sting all in the span of about 12 months Jarrett quickly took the back seat and was semi regular for the rest of his run in TNA giving the top spot to Angle and letting him carry the company on his back. So whilst I understand the frustration I don't think Jarrett's title runs were arrogance it was moreso the fact that every other heel TNA had was getting cheered and that Jarrett was reliable. I can't hate the man for being there when his company needed a reliable star on top. I think your timeline's a little off, because didn't Sting debut in 2003, Christian in 2005, and Angle in 2006? That aside, you have a point. And honestly I grew up as a wrestling fan with Jarrett main eventing WCW so it's always worked for me. You are correct that Sting debuted in 2003 but he only made I believe 4 or 5 appearances and TNA couldn't afford to have him full time. He debuted with the company full time in 2006. Christian was 2005, Steiner and Angle were 2006. From like October 2005 until October 2006 TNA had Sting, Christian, Angle and Steiner all sign so Jeff was able to take the back seat. Before October 2005 the only real "name" guys that could carry a company were Raven (Who wasn't a huge name), Rhino (Again not a huge star), Kevin Nash (Unreliable in the injury department), Scott Hall (Personal demons still running rampant in 2005) and a couple of young guys such as AJ Styles (Who was pushed but never quite appealed to the outside fans at that point), Abyss (Who was still working his way up the card), Monty Brown (Way too green in 2005) and a couple of others who either weren't ready or not popular enough. |
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Tony Schiavontay
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Post by Tony Schiavontay on Mar 9, 2015 17:23:56 GMT -5
Him not dropping it to Monty Brown was one of TNA's first major mistakes imo. The guy was awesome and the fans were dying to see it. I actually thought Jeff was a solid heel and probably his best work, even if he's still never been a main eventer in my eyes, but he just stayed there for way too long.
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Post by Kevin Hamilton on Mar 9, 2015 17:34:42 GMT -5
You could at least sorta, kinda, justify HHH's Reign of Terror. Jeff's never made sense. The guy's a talented wrestler, but to be the unstoppable world champion like he was in those early days was just really laughable, and probably stifled TNA's growth quite a bit.
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Post by Kevin Hamilton on Mar 9, 2015 17:36:15 GMT -5
Him not dropping it to Monty Brown was one of TNA's first major mistakes imo. The guy was awesome and the fans were dying to see it. I actually thought Jeff was a solid heel and probably his best work, even if he's still never been a main eventer in my eyes, but he just stayed there for way too long. Absolutely. Brown could've been huge for them, and the face of their brand. |
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Post by One-Armed Drummer of Defrebel on Mar 9, 2015 17:37:15 GMT -5
Jeff Jarrett is probably one of the worst top guys of all time for me, heel or face.
He was never believable in his position, held the title like a billion times without doing anything interesting, and was a pretty glaring problem in early-TNA.
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Post by Chip Chipperson on Mar 9, 2015 17:40:32 GMT -5
Him not dropping it to Monty Brown was one of TNA's first major mistakes imo. The guy was awesome and the fans were dying to see it. I actually thought Jeff was a solid heel and probably his best work, even if he's still never been a main eventer in my eyes, but he just stayed there for way too long. Absolutely. Brown could've been huge for them, and the face of their brand. Monty hadn't even been in TNA for a year when he challenged Jarrett. Despite being over with the Impact Zone he wasn't ready to win the belt and be the face of a national company with under a years TV experience. |
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Post by Kevin Hamilton on Mar 9, 2015 17:43:51 GMT -5
Absolutely. Brown could've been huge for them, and the face of their brand. Monty hadn't even been in TNA for a year when he challenged Jarrett. Despite being over he wasn't ready to win the belt. Sure he was. I don't believe in any sort of time factor of who's "ready". By that rationale, WCW should've held off on someone like Goldberg too. Brown was the hot hand that could've been a homegrown star for TNA. |
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Post by Chip Chipperson on Mar 9, 2015 18:00:15 GMT -5
Monty hadn't even been in TNA for a year when he challenged Jarrett. Despite being over he wasn't ready to win the belt. Sure he was. I don't believe in any sort of time factor of who's "ready". By that rationale, WCW should've held off on someone like Goldberg too. Brown was the hot hand that could've been a homegrown star for TNA. Goldberg is a different story. WCW traveled around the United States regularly and Goldberg was getting popped every night and becoming more and more over. TNA was running a sound stage in Orlando in front of 900 fans and whilst Brown was indeed over there was no way of telling if the average fan who watched TNA on television and didn't attend the Orlando taping's would be into him. I'm sure we all remember how over Eric Young was when he won the World Title last year but as soon as TNA left the Impact Zone for PPV's and TV taping's the audience quickly didn't care about him. That could have been a problem for Monty Brown which could have resulted in loss of ratings which could have resulted in TNA's momentum stalling. |
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mcmahonfan85
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Post by mcmahonfan85 on Mar 9, 2015 18:15:33 GMT -5
Absolutely. Brown could've been huge for them, and the face of their brand. Monty hadn't even been in TNA for a year when he challenged Jarrett. Despite being over with the Impact Zone he wasn't ready to win the belt and be the face of a national company with under a years TV experience. all they did was run shows in the Impact Zone. if he was over with them, thats all that really mattered. not exactly like Jarrett as champ was bringing in huge numbers for Fox Sports |
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Post by Chip Chipperson on Mar 9, 2015 18:33:58 GMT -5
Monty hadn't even been in TNA for a year when he challenged Jarrett. Despite being over with the Impact Zone he wasn't ready to win the belt and be the face of a national company with under a years TV experience. all they did was run shows in the Impact Zone. if he was over with them, thats all that really mattered. not exactly like Jarrett as champ was bringing in huge numbers for Fox Sports But that's not true. You need to cater to a national TV audience and a national PPV audience. The 900 people in the Impact Zone aren't enough to know how Monty would do in other markets and if others would like him. |
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Push R Truth
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Post by Push R Truth on Mar 9, 2015 18:47:46 GMT -5
Jarrett shouldn't have ever been anything other than a transitional world champ. He was fine as a midcard champ. This Jarrett was awesome:  |
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Tony Schiavontay
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Post by Tony Schiavontay on Mar 9, 2015 18:56:02 GMT -5
Him not dropping it to Monty Brown was one of TNA's first major mistakes imo. The guy was awesome and the fans were dying to see it. I actually thought Jeff was a solid heel and probably his best work, even if he's still never been a main eventer in my eyes, but he just stayed there for way too long. Absolutely. Brown could've been huge for them, and the face of their brand. Can you imagine a title vs. title feud between he and Joe in 05-06? Goddamn does it make me so sad comparing the direction TNA could have gone vs. the way the did end up going. |
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Post by Starshine on Mar 9, 2015 18:56:07 GMT -5
Jarrett wasn't as bad as when Triple H was on top in that while he may have been booked too strong, he never outright hurt the guys he was working with. The Monty Brown thing is probably the exception to that, but it was more the ill-advised heel turn that hurt him than failing to win the belt.
Also at the time TNA also had the advantage of the X Division being the strongest it had (and has) ever been. So while the main events tended to be slow, plodding affairs, they could rely on the X Division guys to help carry the brand.
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mcmahonfan85
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Post by mcmahonfan85 on Mar 9, 2015 19:01:59 GMT -5
all they did was run shows in the Impact Zone. if he was over with them, thats all that really mattered. not exactly like Jarrett as champ was bringing in huge numbers for Fox Sports But that's not true. You need to cater to a national TV audience and a national PPV audience. The 900 people in the Impact Zone aren't enough to know how Monty would do in other markets and if others would like him. there were no other markets. they only people they ran in front of was Orlando, and if the Impact crowd is always behind him, then he comes across as being on television as being someone to get behind. as for the "nation tv market", they were on Fox Sports on Friday afternoons. when adults were at work, and kids were at school. don't think they were ever destined to usher in a new boom period with that time slot, so them pulling the trigger on Monty Brown wouldn't have hurt them. |
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Post by Gerard Gerard on Mar 9, 2015 19:06:44 GMT -5
I remember his feud with Christian in early 2006. Namely the bit where Jarrett called Christian a "midcard comedy act" with a straight face. For that, to me, Jarrett will always be an A+ performer.
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Emmet Russell
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Post by Emmet Russell on Mar 9, 2015 19:43:32 GMT -5
I feel they missed a huge chance with Raven in 2003.
He should have been the guy that beat Jarrett for the title and had a long reign. Instead, Jarrett had to overcome the odds and defeat about 9 other people, handcuffs and steel chair shots all in the same match. Raven was never the same after that match.
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