Jeff Jarrett Had No Heat With Kurt Angle During On-Screen Feud Based On Real Life Problems

Jeff Jarrett knows what it’s like when real life crosses over into a professional wrestling storyline. Jarrett has been everywhere and done all there is to do in the sport. He continues to show up in unexpected places to this day. During his time with TNA in 2011, Jarrett had a wrestling feud that mirrored real-life blended in a very real situation. Double J was feuding with Kurt Angle. He was also living with his ex-wife and raising their children at the time.

Fans may have thought the scenes playing out on Impact were born from animosity between Angle and Jarrett. Jeff says that couldn’t be further from the truth. The two got along just fine.

Jarrett said it was Vince Russo who pitched the idea to have the two feud on his latest “My World” podcast. Russo knew that everybody understood and were approaching the situation like adults. Everybody involved was up for the storyline.

“Vince Russo called me. To defend Russo here a little bit here, or a lot, he knew the reality,” Jarrett said. “He knew as well as anybody that there was no animosity between me, Kurt and Karen. He knew we were raising Kurt and Karen’s kids in my house. Kurt had visited the house on Halloween one year. There was no real life drama.

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Russo said, ‘I have an idea’ (which was for Kurt and Jeff to feud on TV). I said, ‘Sure Vince, and what did Dixie (Carter) have to say about it? He said, ‘She’s on board.’

I said, ‘Okay, what about Hulk?’ He said, ‘He doesn’t care.’ I said, ‘So what’s the real story?’ He said, ‘Bro, ratings.’ I said, ‘Oh, so you’re circling back to this?’ He said, ‘Yes, we are.’ I said, ‘Well, I think the most important decision maker is Kurt. Where does Kurt stand?’

He said, ‘I’ve had the conversation and he’s up for it.’ I said, ‘Okay, well, you probably need to do your job.’ Karen is going to get paid and work out her own deal, her contract, and all that, so we had to work out the payments and all that kind of stuff.

The thing that shined a light on it. It’s no secret, and I was oblivious to how deep it was, but Dixie despised Karen. For her to bring Karen on as a character on the show, I thought, ‘This is really interesting.'”

Jeff Jarrett went on to say that Dixie Carter agreed to the idea to try to pop a rating. TNA was floundering on television and the company was feeling some financial strain. Carter was willing to do anything to keep the show going.

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H/T WrestlingNews.co