Jeff Jarrett Talks Finding a Happy Medium With Kayfabe

On the latest episode of My World With Jeff Jarrett, the WWE Hall of Famer talked about breaking kayfabe and more. You can check out some highlights below:

On the Natural Disasters going into the WWE Hall of Fame: “You know my first memories of big Fred — Conrad, you know right down here at the road from me, [in] Madison, Tennessee there was a Gold’s Gym that opened. And Big Bubba, as Fred was known in those days, and Goliath, a Pittsburgh boy. We teamed them up, and they had an apartment in that area. But there are legendary stories about Big Fred going in Golds, how strong he was. And I can — those stories at times, there’s a couple of Steiner stories and gyms I work at, guys that I’ve known through the years. But Fred’s stories are legendary, how strong he was back in the day.

“And then my man, John, I’ve made half of dozen, maybe more than that, but road trips in the WWF at the time. And I jumped in cars with him, and I really got to know his history. Because, man I was — you know me Conrad. I was, ‘Hey, man, tell me a little bit about this.’ And I learned about his Japan days. And John was a gentle giant, but you could really tell, that’s one man you don’t want to piss off. Because his athletic ability, kind of what his training was. He was a very fascinating guy. Intellectual, but a sweetheart of a guy. But yeah, it’s pretty cool. If you would have asked me before this Hall of Fame season, if those guys were in the Hall of Fame, I would say, “Oh yeah.’ I didn’t even really recognize they weren’t, so I do think it’s long overdue. They both had different impacts, so I’m happy for both of their families.”

On where the happy medium is when it comes to exposing the business: “So again, going back to my life experiences. But he taught me so much, and I think it’s applicable today as it was 37 years ago when I got into the business. I’m driving the car. My father’s sitting right next to me, Fargo in the back. But in a car full of old timers, and they used to — especially when I first broke in, they’d like to have fun with this. And we would order drive through and pull up to the window, and they’d say, ‘Hey, those are the wrestlers. I know you.’ My dad liked to really carry on about it. Fargo would do it and all this, ‘Yeah, we do all that fake stuff.’ And the lady working the drive through would be like, ‘Huh? What’d you say,’ ‘Yeah you know, wrestling, it’s fake.’ And the lady would just look at her, and I don’t know how many times I’ve seen this happen, going, ‘Oh no, it’s not. I mean, some of that stuff. But do you remember so and so tonight, that was real!’

“And it goes back to that quote, ‘Those who believe, no explanation is needed. Those who don’t believe, no explanation will do.’ And I’m not talking about the essence of, ‘This is true sport versus entertainment.’ If you want to be engaged, suspend disbelief, emotionally connected to a product? You’re going to do that. There’s nothing — I mean, you can say blade. You can say all those no-no words up there. If you want to get engaged, you’re going to. I’m going to go back to, it’s the character that at the end of the day, the talent that has an emotional connection can really sell and do anything. Because they have built a connection with their audience individually. That is something that I just think that a lot of times, is such a missed art or missed opportunity, or both. Is that at the end of the day — music business, comedy business, wrestling business. If you’re in the business of performing on a stage and creating revenue, that you have to have an emotional connection with your audience for them to put their hand in their phone and hit the Apple Wallet. don’t think that’s will ever — I just think the fundamentals that will ever change. So I don’t think there is any exact line. I think it depends on fan by fan and talent by talent. It’s — manl. To even have these kinds of conversations that these words are good and these words are bad. It’s getting on your high horse quite a bit. But it’s again, it’s subjective.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit My World With Jeff Jarrett with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.