Jeff Jarrett Recalls The Night WCW Was Sold To WWE
On March 26th, 2001, WWF and Vince McMahon announced the purchase of WCW live during the opening of Monday Night RAW. During the open, Vince came out and publicly announced the purchase and fired Jeff Jarrett live on air.
On the latest episode of the My World Podcast, Jeff Jarrett spoke about when he first heard WWF was purchasing WCW and what his immediate reaction to it was. Jarrett said he was on a plane when it first was announced and found out when he landed.
"Just hearing different things but nobody could really say exactly what was going to happen," Jarrett said. "But, I knew that that's when some contract talks started boiling up. Not with me, but with other guys like these things really selling. Basically who's going to be the crew and who's not going to be the crew and what's the middle.
"I knew my contract and who it was with but I did not know when I boarded the plane, I'm positive I didn't. I did not know Vince had bought it when I left Nashville on that Wednesday, got down there and connecting with people on Thursday."
Jarrett continued to talk about the reaction backstage to the news, saying a lot of the younger guys were very upset. At the time, wrestlers like Shannon Moore and AJ Styles were signed to WCW but were on short term deals unlike the major players in WCW who had guaranteed contracts with Turner that would pay them for many months. Jarrett said Moore was one of the young talents who came to him when the news was announced and said he never envisioned Turner not showing wrestling.
"Sort of the younger guys, they were definitely coming to me," Jarrett said. "They knew, I sort of knew what [the WWE] machine looked like up there. I'm like I have no idea what this is going to look like. The end all be all important question was: what does Nitro and Thunder look like moving forward, what is the answer to those kinds of questions of ongoing content creation. It was up in the air. I could not imagine, 12 year old Jeff, TBS had wrestling. Atlanta Braves and professional wrestling, I couldn't fathom a Turner without wrestling."
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit My World with Jeff Jarrett with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.