On the latest episode of My World, Jeff Jarrett was asked whether WCW giving him a world title shot when the WWF never did still stings — and instead took full responsibility for why the world title picture in New York closed to him. You can check out his comments below:
On where he was headed before he walked:
“We talk about the what-ifs, Conrad. If you look at my first IC title run — many times, like they took Michaels off the road, and Vince said, I want you to work with Kevin. So I was the IC champion facing the world champion. I wrestled Bret. So I was on the trajectory to get into the world title picture. I walk out over creative differences, so I did take myself out of the picture. And the reality is, I never got back.”
On who he blames:
“I can point fingers. I can point at myself. I can point at others. I walked in, did that promo. Good old Stone Cold was not happy with me. I was certainly not anywhere even close to the IC title picture at that point. So it’s not like I was shocked or thought, why the hell aren’t I in the world title picture in the WWF? At the time, I hadn’t earned it. I wasn’t positioned in any of that.”
On what Vince McMahon actually wanted at SummerSlam:
“When you go back and look at the SummerSlam of when I walked out, and he wanted — and I get it, like wisdom, just age, time, experience. What Vince really wanted at SummerSlam was Double J versus Double J. He’s the promoter. He who writes the checks writes the rules. That’s a hard lesson for me to learn, but I absolutely took myself out of the picture. So I don’t resent him. Do I resent myself and my old man a little bit? Yeah. But hey, live and learn, man. Life turned out just fine. The reality is, incredibly blessed, incredibly grateful. But I am solely responsible for taking myself out of the picture.”
On what he thought he was protecting:
“I didn’t want to rush. I thought there was a lot of equity in the Double J character. I thought we were rolling. I thought that in so many ways, maybe do another song, but maybe let me and Brian tease, tease, tease. Because in my mind it was, Vince, we haven’t even teased a breakup. We haven’t done this, we haven’t done that.”
On what McMahon told him later:
“When I went back and worked with the hiccup with Ahmed and all that, to start back up there, we got on the phone and just had a brief conversation. And he said, well, pal, I know this about Jeff Jarrett — if he tells me that it might be raining outside, I probably need to take my umbrella, because it’s raining. I said, what? He goes, I knew that you were kind of not jiving with the switch, but I had no idea you were ready to walk out. And he didn’t. So, lack of communication. My biggest downfall, my biggest screw-ups in my life, are not communicating.”
On whether it’s his single biggest regret:
“When you look at what really changed the trajectory — and again, I don’t live in regrets and resentment, all that kind of stuff — but that, for sure, is the single biggest misstep decision I made.”