WWE Hall of Famer Jeff Jarrett spoke on his My World podcast about a wide range of topics.
During it, he talked about his feelings on the triple cage match he had at WCW Slamboree 2000 at the time against David Arquette and Dallas Page in a triple threat match.
In the match, Kanyon ended up being thrown off the cage. This event was booked at the same building, Kemper Arena that Owen Hart fell to his death one year earlier:
“Going into this a couple weeks out, when I knew I was going to be in the arena, I knew that I was going to go up three cages. I’m not going to say I had this crazy fear of heights, but I wanted to get as comfortable as possible knowing that I was going back into Kemper Arena, going back into all things that had happened the year before. The emotions of Owen, I had completely suppressed 100%. On the flip side, I knew that I was going to have to climb, literally, I think the top of that cage is 62 feet. Owen had fallen from 81 feet. I knew I was going to have to be working at the top of that building, and I wanted to get comfortable. I worked with some psychologists, and in a lot of ways, I had a lot of comfort climbing the cage and getting comfortable with it. I addressed that from a business perspective that I had to go perform in a peak performance. I addressed that, but, yea, I knew going in it was a unique set of circumstances.”
“Bad taste. Poor taste. You talk about living in a bubble, not thinking about it. A lot of folks, and I was aware of this at the time, and certainly there were a lot more folks aware of it, that when Owen’s accident happened, they thought it was a stunt. A lot of people left the arena that night at the WWE event weren’t really sure what they just witnessed. Here you are 12 months later, and you’re going to have someone fall off the top of the cage, falling 20-30 feet. There was just no upside to it creatively, publicity-wise, or execution of the match. To this day, I would love to know, ‘Why did we do that?’ I say we as a company, WCW. What was the upside to doing that?’
H/T to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription