During a recent edition of his “My World” podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Jeff Jarrett commented on Dusty Rhodes’ role during the early days of TNA Wrestling and how much of a mentor he was to those he worked with.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On the best advice he got from Dusty Rhodes: “A big proponent of, ‘Hey, you got this two-hour show for the Asylum shows? Laser in on one — literally one — one story. One match, one star. How are we going to get this guy over?’ He says, ‘Just building stars.’”
On Dusty’s role in the early days of TNA Wrestling: “He was just a big believer in just — my dad would use the old analogy, ‘The spotlight has got to get more intense but smaller and smaller and smaller, so that the audience understands what you are selling.’ Dusty had a big belief in that as well that — he liked AJ. He liked a lot of our talent as things evolved. He didn’t know what he was getting into, and would often say that. But he was, ‘Hey man, Jeff, you are — ‘ Ad I look on those days as, he was on the payroll and coming up as a talent and all that kind of stuff. But he was also served as a — you know, I’m hearing stuff from my dad. I’m hearing stuff from Dutch. I’m hearing stuff from you name it, all kinds of folks.
“Dusty was basically a mentor in that he didn’t have a dog in the hunt at the time. He wanted to help. He was having fun, and he enjoyed his — you know, it was a Wednesday night, so it was a payoff. But he really, as a executive producer, if you will, ‘Stay focused on on one thing that will bear the most fruit.’”
On the latest episode of his “The Snake Pit” podcast, WWE Hall of Famer and AEW talent Jake Roberts commented on what made Eddie Graham so successful as a booker and how he was able to adjust to Graham’s influence on how he worked matches.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On what made Graham so successful as a booker: “He took it apart man, and put it back together. You know, he made it a whole new thing. And he could write out — he could give you a match that would last 20 minutes, and he’d have 15 minutes of moves in it. So you had to pay attention.”
On Graham’s approach: “He just laid it out. And you went out and did it, man.”
On adjusting to Graham’s influence on how he worked matches: “It wasn’t much of an adjustment for us, because we get to do our own thing. And the bit we got was very, very flexible. We could take it and go a different direction if we wanted to. Do what we did, you know. But we were given just a shell and then, you know, given the finish. And that’s basically what we had to hold to.”