Jeff Jarrett Previews Dark Side of The Ring’s TNA Episode, His Reaction To Being Approached

The season premiere of Dark Side of The Ring will be a three-part TNA episode, and Jeff Jarrett recently shared his thoughts on it. The show returns on Tuesday with two of three episodes on TNA and Jarrett, going into Jarrett’s story and the promotion’s bumpy history.

Jarrett appeared on Insight With Chris Van Vliet and recalled his reaction to being approached for the episode. He noted that he wasn’t a Dark Side of the Ring fan at first, but grew to like it over the years. You can see highlights below:

On Dark Side of the Ring’s TNA Episode:

“What’s bizarre is I have been a fan of the show, but I wasn’t out of the gate. Because look, being a third-generation guy, it has told stories that don’t reflect maybe the best light on the industry. But as you kind of dig in season after season, I remember Dutch Mantel enlightened me, and then, of course, the Owen episode, and just different episodes, and I’ve done a few. It’s done in an in-depth, very respectful way.

“So when they approached me it was like, ‘Oh, wow, I’m being approached about a Dark Side of the Ring.’ And I’ve watched plenty of episodes, and a lot of folks candidly don’t get the opportunity to maybe talk about the light side. There’s a dark side, but my story, as it sits today, it went through some dark components, but coming out of it, I’m very grateful. So, when they approached me, I thought it was really interesting. And you just assume one episode, and we got into, ‘Hey, we may end up doing two episodes.’ And then, ‘Hey, we may end up doing three episodes.’ I first thought it was on me, and then when you hear — I’ll call it the other part of the story, the back story, or whatever it may be, that kind of came to light, Evan [Husney] had planned to kind of do a TNA story, and then maybe a Jeff story. Then as they got into it, the network was like, “Hey, man, this is the story.’”

On His Story Being Intertwined With That Of TNA:

“Well, it’s funny, we were talking before the cameras rolling about being misunderstood. Being fired, and I’ve been let go, fired numerous times. But the reality was Vince did “fire” me on TV, but I was still going to have a contract for the next seven or eight nine months. So that was a storyline that has grown that Jeff got fired, started TNA. The reality was I was paid through the end of October, and when that was over, I kind of sat back and said, okay. I never made a call to say, ‘Hey JR, Vince, you got a job for me?’ You just kind of look back and know your place in the industry and go, you have no leverage, none. It certainly wasn’t a wrestler’s market. Vince, without a number two, there is no number one. It was Vince owning the entire game, and so that is really the thought process that went through my mind is there’s a real opportunity here. So it’s just one of those things that TNA, just the narrative that is out there, as you say, it built out of desperation. I believe it was built out of an opportunity.”