On a recent edition of his “My World” podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Jeff Jarrett revealed how his pairing with Owen Hart in WWE came to be in 1999.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On how his pairing with Owen Hart in WWE came to be: “You know, that is actually — I wish I had like the aha moment or how it all came together. But you really have to go back [to] ‘context is king.’ When – I’ll just call it the Attitude Era got rolling, and the programming of Raw and Nitro, especially Raw. They had, we’ll call the Austin thread. And then for a while it was the Austin thread, and the DX thread. But a lot of times, it was the Austin-McMahon thread, and then a lot of — I don’t want to say just Shock TV. But as we get into this episode, and Connie, you’ll kindly shout out some match times. It was really the first time — I can’t say the first time. But you know, enhancement matches would go two or three minutes. But when you ever put a competitive match on TV, for the most part — and I know Nitro was doing maybe seven or eight-minute matches for competitive.
“But man, these segments were so quick, and there was so much turnover. And they were outlandish characters. We’re going to talk about Public Enemy today we’re going to talk about, I mean we’re right in the — Conrad, you know this better than I do. But wouldn’t you say ’98 was just the apex of the Attitude Era as far as just a rocket. Everything was going on, there were so many different things that went on. And it [was] just kind of how the dominoes fell that I was having a singles career and coming out of the Robert Fuller set of circumstances, the Aztec, Indian. And Owen, kind of the same thing. He had been paired and different things. Then all of a sudden, they had an idea to put us together. And me and Owen, I do remember we were both like, ‘Hell yeah, this will be fantastic. Let’s go for it.’ And it just kind of fell into place. But there wasn’t any grand master plan at all.”
On his experience as being a tag team star: “I’d never been a tag team wrestler, that you would — I was never a tag team wrestler. And Owen, yes he was teamed with Coco and Bulldog. But they were basically two singles coming together. It was never like a Marty and Shawn, or The Bushwhackers. We could come up with all kinds of tag teams. Owen and I were without question, two single guys coming together with our own identities and everything that went with them. But we — you know, like you said, I had been in all kinds of tags and six mans my whole career, but I’d never worked as a tag team.
“And when the idea came about, and me and Owen kind of looked at the roster top to bottom and looked at the teams. And we knew DX was right at the top. And there were multiple other teams, there were also some youth coming up. The Hardys had transitioned into — they were, I don’t know exactly what year. But they were certainly full-time. And the Brood was coming along. Anyway, a lot of tag teams were being developed. And Owen and I knew that, from the heel side of things, there was going to be a lot of opportunity. And it just, for lack of a better word, we knew before we got together that it would click.”
On whether he was concerned about his WrestleMania 15 payoff due to him being in a tag team: “Not really. Because this is, to me, when things really started to transition as far as that. Because the first year of monthly PPVs, In Your House would have been ’95 or ’96. So probably ’96, you could just kind of see that the transition had taken place that outside of WrestleMania, even SummerSlam, Royal Rumble, Survivor Series, those didn’t have near the cache that they had when there was just four. And I kind of think that was the very, very beginning of that if that makes sense, in that I wasn’t overly concerned. And I was elated in a lot of ways that, ‘Okay, they put the belts on us–‘ What is this? January? ‘All right. I think if we have a tag title match, we might not lose at ‘Mania at this point.’ So no. But I think Kevin, certainly through ’95,’96, probably even still, you knew that that did dictate everything. Payoffs, where you are going, where you were thought about from the very top of the management system. You just kind of knew your lot on the card. That began to change in my opinion, ’97,’ 98 that again, it was ‘Mania and everything else.”
In a recent episode of his “My World” podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Jeff Jarrett shared some insights into how his pairing with Owen Hart in WWE came to be in 1999. Jarrett discussed the context of the wrestling industry during the Attitude Era and how it influenced the decision to team up with Hart.
During the Attitude Era, the programming of Raw and Nitro was dominated by storylines involving Stone Cold Steve Austin, DX, and the Austin-McMahon rivalry. The matches during this time were often short and focused on shock value and outlandish characters. Jarrett mentioned that it was during this period that he and Hart were brought together as a tag team.
Jarrett emphasized that their pairing was not part of a grand master plan but rather a result of circumstances falling into place. Both Jarrett and Hart were coming out of different storylines and had been paired with various partners before. When the idea of teaming them up was presented, both wrestlers were enthusiastic about it.
Jarrett also discussed his experience as a tag team wrestler. He mentioned that while he had never been a tag team wrestler before, Hart had some experience teaming with Coco and Bulldog. However, their partnership was different from traditional tag teams like The Rockers or The Bushwhackers. Jarrett and Hart were two singles wrestlers coming together with their own identities.
When they decided to team up, Jarrett and Hart looked at the tag team roster and saw opportunities for them as heels. They knew that DX was at the top, but there were other teams emerging, such as The Hardy Boyz and The Brood. They believed that their pairing would click and provide them with significant opportunities.
Jarrett also addressed concerns about his WrestleMania 15 payoff due to being in a tag team. He explained that by this time, the wrestling landscape was changing, and monthly pay-per-views had become more common. The significance of events like SummerSlam, Royal Rumble, and Survivor Series had diminished compared to WrestleMania. Jarrett was not overly concerned about his payoff and was actually excited about the possibility of winning the tag team titles and having a strong showing at WrestleMania.
Overall, Jeff Jarrett’s insights shed light on the circumstances that led to his partnership with Owen Hart in WWE. Their pairing during the Attitude Era provided them with opportunities as a tag team, and they believed that their combination would be successful. The changing landscape of the wrestling industry also influenced their expectations for payoffs and the importance of events like WrestleMania.