Jim Ross Recalls Being the Scapegoat in Jeff Jarrett Contract Situation in 1999

On a recent episode of his podcast, Grilling JR, Jim Ross discussed how Jeff Jarrett left the WWF (now WWE) in October 1999 because his contract expired and he wanted to join WCW. The deal was up on October 16, 1999, the day before his scheduled match with Chyna at No Mercy. He demanded to be paid for past events he worked on and did so before dropping the Intercontinental Title to her. Ross was the Head of Talent Relations at the time. Here are the highlights:

Jim Ross on the Jeff Jarrett situation that led to his departure: “Well, it was awkward. To me, it was awkward. The whole Jeff Jarrett thing was awkward. And it’s funny — you know, some people might assume that good ole JR and Jeff Jarrett don’t get along, which is not true. We get along fine. You know, it’s just that it was just a course of doing business and the decisions he felt he needed to make. So you know, he got a lot of money out of it. But it was very uncomfortable. And that’s where my staffing — and now that wouldn’t happen, because they got a big staff that can manage all these things, and not one guy that’s broadcasting and doing PPVs, weekly TV, payroll, all that stuff. So anyhow, those are some challenging times.”

On Jarrett: “He’s still a hell of a hand. He’s one of the best in-ring performers that AEW has. So it just was bad timing and bad decisions. I should not have let it get to that point, but I did, unfortunately. But he wanted to leave. What do you do Conrad, when you have somebody who works for you who wants to leave? It’s hard to make that decision. It’s really daunting. They want to go. So how do we help them go? And we helped him go with an expensive mistake.”

On whether Jarrett wanted more money: “He wanted more money. It’s partially ego, and he wanted to make more cash. And the opportunity to make more cash was there. As you said, he was on target to exceed his 350 on a $250,000 guarantee. So you know, it’s just one of those things, Man. I think we all made mistakes in that deal.”

On being the scapegoat: “I was the scapegoat in that whole situation. And some of it honestly was my fault. And I didn’t pursue Jeff as fervently as some would expect; that may just have been on me. You know, the money he wanted and the terms and all that stuff were commensurate with a top guy. I didn’t pursue Jeff at that time, [as] a top guy for WWE. And I may have made another mistake. You know, this job is not foolproof. You know, there’s a lot of decisions made on the run, and you got a boss that is a unique cat. He changed his mind. You know, I’ve had that happen a lot of times. ‘You know that talk we had the other day about so and so?’ ‘Yeah.’ ‘Forget what we talked about, I don’t want him.’ ‘Okay.’ So that kind of happens a lot, so you just had to regroup. ‘I thought you said I was going to get this!’ ‘Well at that time if you’d accepted the offer, that’s what you would get. But you didn’t.’ But you know, I fully take my share of the blame for the whole ordeal. It was a train wreck, and it was an unnecessary train wreck. But we got through it. We got through it. You know, it was not good for the locker room.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit the Grilling JR podcast with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.