On the latest episode of My World, Jeff Jarrett was asked whether there’s a rule of thumb for how long a wrestler needs to be on television before they can become a genuine draw. He drew on advice passed down from his father and Curt Hennig. You can check out his comments below:
On what his father believed:
“Some old man, this is territory days again — the same rules don’t apply, so I’m going to be the first to say I don’t want to be clipped up and have these timelines used. In the territory days, the old men believed that to really do something right, a talent had to be on TV and in the cycle of making the towns a minimum of six weeks before he wanted to shoot an angle with them, and really three months before he did a personal issue or a championship. I asked him these kinds of questions — what is the timeline? And look, you kind of have to play the hand you’re dealt. But he felt you had to have that amount of time.”
On what Curt Hennig told him:
“Curt Hennig’s the first guy that told me this. He was working shots, and he’d just become Mr. Perfect, and they’d done the vignettes. He’s talking to my dad and I’m sitting there listening, and he’s like, yeah, Vince has a fundamental belief: a talent’s got to be on TV for a year before he ever considers programming them and really putting them in storylines. If he hotshots it, all it is is kind of a mask.”
On his number for 2026:
“I don’t think a talent can really create the emotional attachment to the audience in under five years. I’m not saying that’s a hard line, but to really move the needle — I think if in 2026 you’ve got to have five years of TV time to define that character, because there’s so many options and so many wrestlers.”
On why it’s harder now:
“’90s Attitude Era, you probably had 30 WWF folks, give or take, and probably 30 to 40, maybe 50, because you had luchadors on WCW. Let’s just say less than 100 that were quote unquote wrestling TV stars. How many would you say today, with AEW, WWE slash NXT, TNA, MLW, however many independents you want to throw in there, CMLL, New Japan, Rev Pro, wXw in Germany? Do we get close to 1,000? Let’s just say 500 to 750 folks that you could go consume online. That’s where it’s completely changed.”
On the global scale:
“The options are, and the world’s much bigger. It’s no longer just the US, certainly not the territory. Now you’ve got a global stage. There’s promotions in Australia. There’s promotions in India. There’s promotions in South Africa. It is a big, big world out there. And to cut through that clutter and really make a difference to the promotion you’re working for — it’s never been more difficult. I’ll say that.”
