Jeff Jarrett Recalls How His TNA Return Came About in 2009

On the latest episode of My World With Jeff Jarrett, the WWE Hall of Famer talked about how his TNA TV return came about in 2009 after he left the company the prior year following the backstage drama with Kurt Angle and more. You can check out some highlights below:

On Dixie Carter’s power play that led to his first TNA departure: “Dixie knew the Kurt-Karen relationship. The marriage had long been over way before this when it became — you know, when me and Karen started dating, Dixie maneuvered herself, and I’ve said it multiple times on the podcast. She took this opportunity to do her power play.”

Jeff Jarrett on how his TNA TV return came about in 2009: “We had the Hulk meeting, and ‘Hey, Jeff, we’re just kind of trying to work through things.’ And she would try to throw heat on the attorneys, and, ‘We just don’t know.’ And she tried to throw heat on Kurt. Kurt didn’t give two shits about it… that relationship was long over. It was what it was, move on down the road. And so she kind of gave me the runaround on different answers, but I didn’t ask. Because at that time I was like, ‘Okay, here’s — I’m still the single largest shareholder of of the organization. We’re going to come to some kind of either agreement or separation. Let’s just kind of play this out.’ And one afternoon, one night, I get a call from Vince Russo. ‘Bro, what’s up?’ ‘Hey, Vince. What’s going on?’ ‘Hey, this is kind of what we’re thinking.’ ‘Okay. ‘Well, we’ve got Hulk and Eric in, and at this time’… I asked Vince and he’s like, ‘Hey, man, we want to bring you back creatively as a talent.’ And I’m like, ‘Okay, do you know any other things?’ And he goes, ‘My understanding, the lawyer’s going to call you and kind of deliver you.’

“So I’ll jump into that real quick. A lawyer eventually called and said, ‘You’re going to start back in January. Here’s what we want you to focus on: live events and international. We think you can be — you know, help the company out the most there.’ I said, ‘I actually agree with you. Because I kind of see the writing on the wall. And you’re going to have Russo in there, you’re going to have Hulk in there.’ Before even Eric was a part of it, I knew Eric was basically working for Hulk. And then of course Dixie — you could just see all of the pieces of the puzzle moving down… So I’m gonna work on international and live events. And it was really odd that the way Russo teed it up. ‘Hey, man, this is — we want to bring you back under this and the new regime, and…’ ‘Okay.’ At this point, I wasn’t told about the six-sided ring. I wasn’t told about just the positioning or anything. It was, ‘Hey, we want to bring you back.’ And that’s when it was, ‘Hey, man’– and again, I think we joked about this. I think I’d gone a couple of days without shaving. And, ‘We want you to have a look that you’re kind of — you know, just disheveled and not really engaged in work at all.’ I’m like, ‘Okay.’ I said, ‘Vince, I don’t grow a very good beard, but I’ll do my best.’”

On not doing a straight series of matches with Kurt Angle when he returned: “Dixie was afraid of it… Dixie despised Karen, that simple. For real. Vince Russo, when he called me the first night, ‘Bro, the money is Jeff, Kurt and Karen.’ I can’t do the accent. ‘Okay. Where are we going to go with this?’ ‘Well, bro, we gotta get you back in here first.'”

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.