Jeff Jarrett Addresses AEW's Safety Protocols
AEW star Jeff Jarrett has been around the wrestling business long enough to know that the safety of a performer is the most important aspect of the in-ring aspect of the business. Wrestlers have each other's lives in their hands and one bad bump or misstep could be catastrophic, so safety is of the upmost importance. AEW as a company has come under fire in the past for wrestlers taking dangerous bumps and doing things that seem unnecessarily risky, but during a recent episode of his "My World" podcast, Jarrett revealed what the safety protocol in AEW is actually like, and how company President Tony Khan treats his roster differently to every other person he has worked for.
"Tony Khan does a great job, he treats [the AEW roster] like a sports team," Jarrett said. "Like I said you know, five to seven trainers at every show. When you come through the curtain, they are there with a little hydration bottle and they are 'How are you? How do you feel?' Now it's up to you to say 'Ah, I need a little work,' but whatever it may be, but that is–that's the real special sauce, the preventive stuff if that makes sense." Jarrett believes that mindset started to become more common during the late 1990s, and he even tried to push it further during his time in TNA. He also revealed that despite Khan being the boss of the company, the man who has the final say on a wrestler's condition is at ringside the entire time.
"The AEW mindset is [the] doc at ringside, he's got ultimate authority. Like if you have a bad bump and the referee thinks it's enough and you see him with the gloves if blood's involved, but there's a bad bump and all that, you know, the doc is there on headsets, and he can roll in and make the call, which is paramount to me." Jarrett rounded off by saying that there is a gray area when it comes to certain wrestlers saying that they can continue through injury or work around an injury, but that gray area is getting smaller as time goes on.
Please credit "My World" when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.