Jerry Jarrett, a booking genius whose style of television with the emphasis on interviews and skits as opposed to matches was in his era the closest to modern wrestling, passed away this morning at the age of 80.
He had been battling cancer of the esophagus, and passed away undergoing treatment this morning according to a family friend.
Jarrett, whose mother worked in the wrestling office with Nick Gulas and Roy Welch and later became one of the first woman wrestling promoters in the United States, was around wrestling his entire life. He promoted spot shows as a teenager, worked in the office, and was one of the youngest bookers in the country by the late 1960s.
After a run as one of the top three babyfaces for Gulas & Welch, with perennial partners Tojo Yamamoto and Jackie Fargo, Jarrett stepped away from the ring full-time.
After feeling he was swindled in a business deal by Gulas, Jarrett started up his own promotion in 1977. By this point Jerry Lawler was the top star in the promotion with Jarrett doing his best work in creating Lawler as the King in 1974. With Lawler and announcers Lance Russell and Dave Brown siding with Jarrett, and Jarrett getting the NBC affiliate, WMC-TV to take the television show, they dominated the Memphis market, the most lucrative city. After a few years, Gulas' company closed down and Jarrett controlled the market until times changed and territorial wrestling was basically done.
Because unlike most promoters, who either paid for their own television production and would give the stations a tape, or years later, actually had to buy the TV time, which in the long run became economically unsustainable, Jarrett was paid for television because the show drew big ratings. For most of the period Jarrett promoted, the Championship Wrestling television show on Saturday mornings was a local institution. During the late 70s and early 80s, more than 20 percent of the homes in the metro area watched the show and more than 70 percent of the television sets on during that time period were watching the wrestling show. It was by far the highest rated wrestling show in the country on the back of Lawler, the announcers, and the unique cast of characters and booking.
Jarrett and Lawler would rotate as bookers, usually every six months. Eventually, after Lawler made a power play with Russell, Jarrett cut Lawler in for 50 percent of the promotion.
Jarrett stayed alive until 1997 when he sold the company. He also booked in Georgia during a hot period in the 70s, promoted the Dallas promotion, and along with son Jeff, started TNA Impact Wrestling. The Jarretts had to sell the majority interest in that company to the Carter family after a few months due to heavy money losses and Jerry had a falling out with Jeff and was gone three years later.
Jarrett had many different ideas through the years to get back in wrestling, but none materialized. He ran a construction company after selling his Tennessee company, which folded shortly after. He attempted to purchase WCW in 2000, but was unable to do so. When Vince McMahon feared he was going to jail after being under a federal indictment for steroid distribution charges, he brought Jarrett in with the idea that if he was convicted, Jarrett would run the company. But McMahon wasn't convicted.
Jarrett was voted into the Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame in 2018.
