Jeff Jarrett Blames Lack Of Leadership In WCW For Toxic Environment It Became

Throughout his lengthy career, Jeff Jarrett has worked for just about every major promotion in wrestling, including at WCW near the company's end. On the latest episode of "My World," Jarrett discussed winning the WCW World Championship in 2000, and took some time to share his thoughts on what led to the negative backstage environment in the promotion's waning days.

"It was no advanced planning, no advanced booking," Jarrett said, discussing the period after he just jumped ship from WWE to WCW. "It was: show up every week and [see] what's gonna change." Jarrett described a revolving door of creative figures in control of booking following the brief departure of Vince Russo, and just a few months after leaving WWE for WCW, Jarrett felt that his "honeymoon period" was over by January 2000.

"The lack of leadership was so prevalent, and created such toxicity between staff, administrators, [and] talent, to a certain degree," Jarrett continued. "It was a complete mess." Jarrett later recalled wondering what the chaos in WCW was going to lead to, as performers did what they could to keep their strong paychecks coming in, but without any actual leadership behind the scenes. That chaos quickly worked its way into the product itself, arguably leading to the downfall of WCW.

"It was, at this point, very clear that the inmates were running the asylum," Jarrett stated. "I think the audience knew it, and so then: how do we capitalize on this?" The company got a soft reboot in April 2000, with Russo returning, Jarrett becoming WCW World Champion, and a radical shift in storytelling on TV. Over the following year, as opinions on WCW's creative direction continued to decline, talk of a sale increased. In 2001, WCW was sold to WWE, marking the end of an era in professional wrestling.

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "My World" with an h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.