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Hall of Fame 2018


flyonthewall2983

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If you watch Jarrett's late WCW and TNA stint, it's not the case, really.

 

Jarrett never booked himself as a great wrestler having epic matches. He established a formula (Double J Special I call it) usually ending with tons of bullshit and guitar shots. Some sucked pretty hard, especially when his pal Russo wanted to make him Steve Austin and when Jeff was coasting, but some were actually quite entertaining and fun. But it was far, very far from the bloated HHH main-event formula style from the early 00's, when he was "teaching how to work" to everybody.

 

Plus, the exploding guitar, when you accept his absurdity, is actually a fun spot which give a great visual and sounding effect, while the fucking sledgehammer was the worse, most stupid and illogical weapon ever and it never looked any good because unless you actually kill a guy with it, well...

 

They were indeed two overpushed upper mid-card guys working on top of their respective promotion at the same time, which makes it interesting to compare, but to me, Jarrett's highs were much more fun and varied. Hell, he's still half responsible for one of Michaels best match ever.

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I know people's tastes & opinions may vary, but I thought Jarrett's 2011 was a fucking blast. The "Double J, Double M-A expert" shtick was fun shit from the start, and then the whole six-month program with Kurt Angle was WAY more enjoyable than it had any right to be. It could have been terrible, but they seemed to strike up a great chemistry right away - going all the way back to their previous program in '08/'09, but I really found Jeff's character work to be on another level by 2011. The MMA stuff, the coupling with Karen, and just the overall act felt much more polished.

 

The feud featured A LOT of rematches and extra stipulations, but the finishes were creative and entertaining enough to keep me invested through the whole thing.

 

I'm someone who definitely prefers southern fiery baby face Jeff over country music villain Jeff. And, while I originally dug his Don't Piss Me Off facelift, that whole run wore out its welcome by the time he started veering into the Slapnuts horse-shit.

 

All that being said, I believe it was right around that 2011 TNA stint where I finally bought into Jeff as a main event level heel. It felt like he really put all the pieces together, despite no longer being involved in the World Title picture or anything by that point. His whole heel act was just worlds better than his tiresome Planet Jarrett days - although, at times, I honestly think some of those matches were good fun in an overblown, overbooked WWE style way.

 

I honestly think Jarrett just gets a lot of residual hate from those fucking awful reigns up top in WCW. Because I didn't mind him as a mid-carder in the Fed, and a good chunk of his TNA stuff isn't as terrible as it's made out to be.

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I honestly think Jarrett just gets a lot of residual hate from those fucking awful reigns up top in WCW. Because I didn't mind him as a mid-carder in the Fed, and a good chunk of his TNA stuff isn't as terrible as it's made out to be.

 

I think it's his WCW run combined with him overpushing himself during the early days of TNA.

 

I remember people aching for Jarrett to lose his title to Raven on one of the PPVs, but it didn't happen. In retrospect, a junkie like Raven was at the time probably couldn't be trusted with the responsibility. Raven ended up winning it anyway though, I think. Typical "LOLTNA" stuff, I guess.

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I really enjoyed Jarrett's babyface title run in TNA, including the Raven match, and also the MMA stuff with Angle later. I never cared for most of his WCW run, although his ladder match with Benoit at Starrcade 1999 may be my personal favorite match for either guy. His stuff with Owen and Debra right up until the Chyna match was good. Having watched 1995 RAW again, he really felt like one of the top guys in the company during that period, even though he was kept in the IC title picture. Hardest part watching him in that era is his awful ring outfits and gear, it'll make you blind!

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During his initial 93-95/96 run Jarrett's only win over a big star was over Hall at RR 95. He lost to all the top guys of that time. Clean as a sheet. He had to struggle to beat Bob Holly. I don't think he was able to recover from that in WCW or when he came back to wwf in 97. He was seen at a certain level. All the attempts to elevate him past that certain level felt forced and the people knew it.

 

To me it goes back to how he was booked in that initial wwf run

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I think Jarrett is underrated and people never give him a chance because 'never drew a dime lol' bs. He was supposedly a top three merch seller with the Slap Nuts stuff, or so I have read (Torch iirc). Also, fuck anyone who thinks Jarrett going in to the HOF is some kind of crime. If Rikishi and Koko and the Attitude Era women can go in then Jeff Jarrett deserves to go in.

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I really hated his misogynist gimmick in WWF (and it carried over a little in WCW too), and that lead to an admittedly irrational hatred of him no matter what he was doing after.

 

But I don't have a whole lot of objection to him going in (since there are some obviously real misogynists in already), mostly because of how curious I am to see him on WWE programming, with a live mic and expected to speak no less.

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I just watched the video package. Not one mention of being WCW champion. Pretty much nothing after 1999. It's very clear that Jeff Jarrett isn't getting inducted. The character Double J is. Which is fine, but I didn't think it'd be QUITE that clear. If you heard the Something to Wrestle show about him, you got the sense that the company line was that he was never bigger than when he was that character.

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I really hated his misogynist gimmick in WWF (and it carried over a little in WCW too), and that lead to an admittedly irrational hatred of him no matter what he was doing after.

 

That was all Russo living his fantasies through him. It did carry a little bit at the very beginning of TNA but thankfully it went away.

 

So, who's inducting him ? Road Dog ? Kurt Angle (...) ?

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