Jeff Jarrett speaks on the future of AEW.
The WWE Hall of Famer was a recent guest on the Battlegrounds podcast to discuss how AEW helps younger talent in the company evolve, stating that the industry is much different these days than when he was coming up.
You know, when you think about that, you’re talking about the evolution of developing talent. Well, the business continues to evolve. You see our guys, not that Jon Moxley needs reps, but he just went to Japan. You see us working with CMLL. I’m currently going down to AAA in Mexico. Like I just said, the relationships with New Japan Wrestling. Our talent are exposed, the Ring of Honor brand. To take it a step further down from that is the different independents. There’s an independent promotion in Cleveland that I’m currently working with. Guys have their opportunities. When you mirror it, because I think we’ve come from an era of I’ll call it late 90s that when there was really too big and how the business was, you either work for one or the other. Those days are truly in the rearview mirror. So now you kind of look at the opportunities and you kind of look at the music business. It used to be, you know, three, four, maybe five labels in the music industry ran not just Nashville, but New York and L.A. You were on one of the big three, one of the big five. That’s how you got your music break. Those days are gone. So all forms of entertainment, whether it’s music, whether it’s truly comedy, wrestling, it doesn’t really matter. Again, it goes back to what we carry around in our pockets. With the different apps, you can expose yourself to your audience in a major, major way. I think that’s what talent have to have the mindset. I think it all starts doing the ears with talent on how do they want to become successful? emotionally engage with your audience. It drills where I say that often on my podcast, how does the talent grow their fan base? It’s all through emotional connection.
Jarrett was last in action on the July 3rd edition of AEW Dynamite, where he battled Adam Page in the quarterfinals of the Owen Hart memorial. Despite a great effort, Jarrett was defeated by The Hangman and knocked out of the tournament.
Check out his full interview below.
(H/T and transcribed by Fightful)
