Jeff Jarrett Addresses Criticism Of AEW’s Texas Chainsaw Death Match
AEW delivered the first-ever Texas Chain Saw Massacre Death Match last week on Dynamite: Fight For The Fallen. The bloody match featured Jeff Hardy and Jeff Jarrett facing off in a brutal contest that was ultimately won by Jarrett courtesy of a distraction caused by Leatherface.
On a recent edition of his “My World” podcast, Jarrett addressed his victory over Hardy in the Texas Chain Saw Massacre Death Match.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On criticism of the Texas Chainsaw Death Match: “I’ll address the criticism first, because that’s probably what you want. I told the guy, my buddy in the gym this morning, who… he came up and said, ‘Man, why’ — and this shocked me, he’s like, ‘Man, there’s some people are out of shape online. What do you think about that?’ And I said, ‘Well let me ask you, why do you like it? Because you’re shocking me that you liked it.’ He said, ‘Well, when you hear the title Texas Chainsaw Massacre Deathmatch — right out of the gate, you know you won’t get any hurricanranas and German suplexes and all that. But he said he set the table and then he’s like, ‘Well, what are you thinking?’ And I said, ‘The biggest disappointment I would have had by far’ — and I told Karen this — ‘is if there would have been no feedback.’ The point is that there were people that this made them so divisive, that somebody cared so much or cared so much about the AEW brand that they tuned in to Twitter or Instagram.
“And that’s another point; Twitter is much more divisive, and — I’ll call it mean-spirited, than Instagram ever thought of. Because you read the different comments in YouTube, that’s a diverse audience, too… But the audience being so passionate about it, I love that okay, that lit a nerve. Not always good, some people just didn’t like it. But I loved it, I thought it was an honor to be in that type of integration. It was definitely out of the box. I thought Jeff Hardy and his entire crew, executed it to a T. And I’m not a horror movie guy. But Leatherface, that clip of him walking down the aisle and throwing the chainsaw, and he was supposed to be on our side but Sonjay got his ass kicked, and Karen got run off, and all the integration. Hook at the images in the background, production, across the board. It was a grand slam in many ways. And for those that didn’t like this kind of stuff, I will say this without question. It certainly will make you appreciate more, your four and five-star matches. So yes, it served a purpose to you as well. It will make you appreciate, ‘Hey, I don’t like that integration stuff. I like this stuff.’ So I’m super excited that just — mission accomplished.”
On AEW getting more than $100,000 for the sponsorship: “Just to let you in on this, the number that’s being reported online, that’s why I haven’t commented on it; it’s way low. It blew me away and like you said, the SummerSlam analogy, last year’s [Wrestle]Mania analogy. And gosh, when you look at just the wrestling industry as a whole… The sponsor’s exact words, ‘Incredible. Way over delivered.’ Okay, so that’s a win. It’s my understanding across the board, the network [was happy]… It’s not that this is the first. Certainly, it’s not going to be the last. But you know, when you build a deck and hey, ‘We did this for this client, this for this client, all that.’ Obviously, it goes without saying the top man, [Tony Khan was] super excited. And his sole decision [to donate the funds], that was up to him. That says so much to me when the funds go to Maui.”
On Tony Khan’s reaction backstage to the match: “[He had a] big smile. But look, this is super inside baseball. Knowing what you just said, the charity aspect, and the nuts and bolts of the value of just this integration. I mean, it’s a lot more than what’s been reported. Also, the avenue that this can take us that, ‘Okay, this is how Tony’s organization did this integration, so the next integration may or may not be as deep.’ But [it’s a] new frontier, new business development, new opportunities. I could go on and on and on. Tony said he loved it and was super pleased, but it goes much more than you know. Was it Tony’s cup of tea? Fake blood being poured on, real blood coming out of my head, and a guitar shot, kendo stick, backstage, or all that? I’m not saying that’s his cup of tea. I’m not saying that. From a business perspective, and that’s what all this is, [he was] super excited and was very appreciative of it.”
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