Despite his time with WWE not ending on the best of terms, Jeff Jarrett will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame over WrestleMania weekend.
WWE broke the news via NBC Sports on Monday. Jarrett, Goldberg, The Dudley Boyz, Ivory, and Jarrett have now been confirmed for the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2018, with the induction ceremony taking place on Friday, April 6, in New Orleans, Louisiana.
“I would have never dreamed that in 2018 I’d be going into the Hall of Fame,” Jarrett told NBC Sports. “But as I’ve sat back and looked I said, ‘Welp, I guess there are some things that are just meant to be.'”
The 2018 WWE Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, will be the first time Jarrett has appeared for WWE since No Mercy 1999, where he dropped the Intercontinental Championship to Chyna in his last match before leaving for WCW. Jarrett’s contract expired on October 16, 1999, one day before his scheduled match with Chyna. Chyna later alleged in her autobiography that Jarrett and Russo colluded in order to delay Jarrett’s title defense until after Jarrett’s contract had expired and that Jarrett had subsequently made a deal with Vince McMahon for $300,000 in order to wrestle without a contract. The way he handled the situation financially apparently led to Jarrett not being in McMahon’s good graces until recently.
After WWE bought WCW, McMahon infamously fired Jarrett on television. In his interview with NBC Sports, Jarrett called the moment “just good TV.”
Jarrett added, “It’s a business and I knew that I was going to be getting paid on my Turner contract for about another eight or nine months, so I didn’t even think to address it that night.”
Jarrett went on to create TNA with his father in 2002, and he was involved with the promotion for most of its history until departing Impact Wrestling last year. He entered WWE-sponsored rehab last October due to issues with alcohol and returned home in December.
According to a report by Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated, the decision to induct Jarrett into the WWE Hall of Fame was pushed for by Triple H.
Triple H tweeted about Jarrett’s induction with the following.
Born into this business, @RealJeffJarrett not only led a decorated career, but created opportunities for new talent around the world. Congratulations, Double J and welcome to the #WWEHOF. pic.twitter.com/b64xcz1TVK
— Triple H (@TripleH) February 19, 2018
Jarrett has more allies in WWE. AJ Styles and Bobby Roode remain grateful for the opportunities Jarrett afforded them in TNA, and it is worth noting that some of Jarrett’s closest friends in wrestling are Kevin Nash and Scott Hall, who are both close with Triple H.
In this interview with TMZ Sports, Jarrett revealed that WWE called him back in January to discuss the induction.
News on Jarrett’s induction was also announced on Raw. Here it the video package that aired.
0 comments