Jeff Jarrett Believes Hulk Hogan Was Behind Finish To Their Controversial WCW Title Match

On the latest episode of the My World Podcast, former WCW Superstar Jeff Jarrett spoke about his infamous 10 second match with Hulk Hogan at Bash at the Beach 2000 where he laid down for Hogan, giving him the championship.

Jarrett talked about the day in detail, describing what it was like leading up to the match and not wanting to go out to the ring when his entrance music hit. The WWE Hall of Famer said constant doubt ran through his mind because he knew the storyline involving Vince Russo into his match with Hulk Hogan was just plain bad.

"I will remember this to the day I die vividly," Jarrett said. "I walked way off and I remember the area where I stood, I think my music played, I don't want to say all the way through, but it played for a long time. I walked way away knowing that I knew I could hear my music, I didn't want to be up at the Gorilla position, I didn't want to look at anybody, I didn't want to talk to anybody, I was thoroughly disgusted that this is what we were giving the audience. I thought the premise was just disastrous, I didn't think this kind of storyline would ever get over and it just felt bad and I wasn't into it. I want to say my music played and Mark Johnson was hollering 'Go, Go, Go' and I literally had thoughts about 'Do I really want to do this? Do I really want to go through this?' And I've seen the tape of me rolling out of the ring, that's about as disgusting a look, I felt that. I literally felt that this is bad T.V, this is really bad T.V."

Jarrett walked down to the ring and laid down for a disgusted Hulk Hogan to pin him and win the World Championship. After Hogan cut a promo about the problems with WCW and left, Vince Russo came to the ring and cut on promo on Hogan before announcing another WCW Championship Match later that night with Booker T and Jarrett. The Founder of TNA explained why he believed the angle had absolutely no chance of working out and criticized Russo for wanting to be involved with Hogan in a storyline.

"When we shot this angle, the angle, if we would've all laid this out, the angle was with a non-wrestler," Jarrett said. "The angle was with Vince Russo, that's so stupid. How are you going to get a bout? So what, Hulk Hogan beat Vince Russo with a leg drop. Whipty dee, it's irrelevant. There's no money in it, there's no ratings in it. Hulk Hogan slammed Andre the Giant, in context there's no money in this so why are we doing this?

"There is so many bad things about the storyline, Eric [Bischoff] was never seen on camera and there's some meat on that bone with Vince and Eric but there was no storyline between Hulk and I, there was no storyline between Hulk and another wrestler. It's all Vince Russo and he's going to go out and make this baby face promo of 'Hey, I'm doing this for the Young Blood,' no you're not. Not one person watching that or in the arena said 'Damn right, we're with you brother.' Terrible TV, terrible storyline with 0 chance of a pay off."

Before the match started and after Hogan made his entrance, Jarrett's music played for an extremely long time before the WCW Champion made his appearance. Jarrett detailed that he truly had doubts about whether or not he wanted to go out to the ring and questioned the decision to lay down for Hogan. Much like The Undertaker stated in an interview with ESPN about believing Hogan set him up in 1991, Jarrett also stated that he knew Hogan didn't want to work with him that night at Bash at the Beach in 2000.

"I got away from everybody because I really had to sit and think or I tried, this is bad but what do I do?" Jarrett said. "What are my real options here? You can't go out there and have a match with a guy who doesn't want to have a match. Do I really go through with this? Is there any upside to it?"

"He obviously didn't [want to have a match], he wanted to do the lay down deal. The person with the most power in the building that day was Hulk and he chose not to work with me, it's that simple. We could've done the DQ, he could've beat me, we could've done any of that."

Jarrett came back out later that same night to face Booker T. Jarrett lost for the second time that night, as Booker went on to win the World Championship. Jarrett spoke about how much caution he had about going through with the entire situation and ultimately said that it was terrible booking to have their top heel get beat like that twice in one night.

"There's no way to describe the trepidation that I had," Jarrett said. "Slick Johnson is probably the only person on earth that could give a glimpse into it. When I walked through the curtain, I had my game face on and I was going to work, but backstage, knowing what I was going to do and my music playing. I was really just second guessing the whole deal. Coming out and knowing, the people didn't know. They didn't know any of this and like any world title match with some build and build up to it, I was the heel and Hogan was the baby face.

"Me playing the tape forward and knowing this is what we're about to do and the reaction that was going to take place and I'm a part of it and not only that, they've got to see my ass back out here in 30 minutes to have another match? Guys, what are you possibly thinking? How do you want your hot heel to rebound from this when you're not going to make him bad with heat, you're going to disgust [the fans] to the umpteen degree. I'm the last person they're going to want to see, period. I'm the last talent they're going to want to see. Me having to go out, do this bs thing with Hogan but oh Jeff, go out 30 minutes later and get a hell of a reaction and you and Booker are going to tear the house down and now Booker is going to be the new champion. All in and out. Disaster, terrible writing, terrible booking and terrible thinking things through."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit My World Podcast with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.