By Scott Bowden
July 17, 2003
By the book
Vince Russo will lead NWA-TNA to its demise in a New York minute
In 1986, young referee Jeff Jarrett was officiating one his first televised bouts from the WMC-TV studios in Memphis, a squash match involving hot heels Buddy Landell and Bill Dundee. As if his surname didn’t tip off even the densest mark to the 18-year-old’s legacy, Jeff’s boyish looks mirrored that of Jerry Jarrett, the longtime owner of the territory.
The relationship between father and son at that point hadn’t yet been choke-slammed down our throats on Memphis TV, a smart move. Jerry Jarrett had probably already made up mind that he wasn’t about to face a similar fate suffered by many promoters—like his former business partner, Nick Gulas—who often pushed their sons before they were ready at the expense of killing the territory.
Ask many old Memphis workers, or fans for that matter, who was the worst worker to disgrace a ring in the territory and many will say…Scott Bowden. But a close second would be George Gulas, Nick’s son, whom the veteran promoter insisted pushing almost immediately as a top babyface. Just one problem: George was not an athlete, and had very little ability in the ring. Nonetheless, George usually went over the heels of the day around the area, although initially Nick tried to hide him in six-man tags with Jackie Fargo and Tojo Yamamoto. Later, George graduated to being part of a young tag team—the Jet Set—with a young Bobby Eaton, who was already building a rep as a talented worker. Even NWA World champ Harley Race was brought in to work with George. Race was one of the all-time greats at carrying lesser workers to great matches, but even George had to be a lost cause with the champ.
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At first, most of the fans didn’t notice how pitiful George was. But as he worked more and more single bouts, the fans wised up. Nick was killing the territory with his son’s push on his end of the territory. Jarrett, who controlled the other half of the area, most notably Memphis, wasn’t about to let that happen. The final straw: Nick decided George had headlined enough on his end and wanted to ship him off to Memphis for Jerry to book. The promoters had a bitter split, with Fargo and Tojo siding with Nick, while young star Jerry Lawler went with Jarrett.
Attendance at George-infected shows continued to drop, while Jarrett was hitting his stride as a not only a promoter but also as a major player in the business.
It was these experiences from the ’70s that shaped Jerry Jarrett’s decision in 1986 to have announcer Lance Russell only casually mention Jeff’s training to be a wrestler while the kid was getting his feet wet as a ref. (For those who know later how this all turned out and how strong Jeff was pushed by 1990, be patient.)
On this Saturday morning in Memphis, with the big-haired Bartlett High School cheerleaders (like there were any other kind) in the front row (no wonder everyone behind them was standing up), Landell and Dundee were dishing out a beating to jobbers Jim Jameson and David Johnson that was even more brutal than usual. The heat on Dundee was already hot as a Lawler fireball, as the Superstar had dethroned the King two months earlier in a loser-leaves-town bout after tossing “industrial-strength ink” in his eyes. As Landell and Dundee continued to work over the lifeless Jameson, the ref intervened. Jeff was sucker-punched for his trouble and left for dead. Yes, one punch would have killed the “usual” referee in those days. But not Jeff the Ref. The young Jarrett showed his spirit, picking himself off the canvas and tackling Landell like he was a schoolyard fight. But the bullies of Memphis wrestling would have none of it. As they double-teamed Double J Jr., daddy Double J hit the ring. And then he hit the heels. But the heels hit back. Hard. Even more notorious, Dundee punched Jerry in his “one good eye.” The story went that the aging promoter had gone blind in one eye…and here were these dastardly heels trying to take out the other one.
Later, Jerry Jarrett emerged from the dressing room hysterical, literally crying over his inability to defend his own son. And since the elder Jarrett obviously couldn’t get it done anymore as a wrestler, he was bringing back the man one who could avenge his son: Jerry Lawler. It was a tremendous angle. Two nights later in Memphis as part of a team with “Dirty” Dutch Mantell, Lawler returned in front of SRO crowd to thrash Landell and Dundee. I believe this was the last true sellout (approximately 11,365) for the wrestling promotion at the Mid-South Coliseum. (They came close with the Lawler vs. Idol hair match, which drew about 9,500. Lawler’s AWA title win over the late Curt Hennig attracted about 8,500.)
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The promotion was originally planning to have Lawler gone longer, but attendance crashed to Gulas-like levels using replacement babyfaces like Austin Idol, Dirty Rhodes (don’t ask), Terry Taylor and Big Red Reese in the interim. It was inevitable they would eventually run the dad-failing-to-save-his-son angle with the Jarretts, much like the promotion did years ago with Tommy and Eddie Gilbert, who I believe busted his cherry—juicing for the first time—at the hands of Buddy and Ken Wayne. In that one, the Waynes handcuffed Tommy to the ringpost, forcing him to watch the beating. Good stuff—hot stuff even. While some may say they rushed it a bit with the Jarretts since Jeff had yet to debut as a wrestler, it was incredibly effective because the heels were way over. Besides they needed an angle to bring back Lawler to spark attendance without using the tired Midnight-Rider routine and killing the stipulation.
A few years after Jeff’s debut, it would get a little tougher for Jarrett to see that his son wasn’t as over as say, the Fabs of the ’84 were, but then nobody was. Of course, that “Jeff Jarrett—the Poster” promotion that aired relentlessly on TV shortly after Jeff’s wrestling debut didn’t help him at all in getting and probably killed him with the male crowd. (Eventually, Jeff did get over OK with the male audience after the Stud Stable injured him but he continued to wrestle with a cast.)
The Jarretts recently tried the same father/son angle on NWA: TNA. The skit, er, uh angle, started with Legend doing a stupid impersonation of Vince Russo. Actually, since Russo is such an idiot, it may have been spot-on—hard to say. At any rate, in an angle we’ve all seen too many times (Nash as Arn, McMahon as Flair…hell, even Funk as Flair years back) Russo comes out in drag. Well, at first that’s what it looked liked. In reality, he was supposed to look like Double J, circa 1993. In one of the worst performances I’ve ever seen—especially by a group trying to be a player—Russo does a bad impersonation of Jeff’s bad gimmick in the WWF. Jeff runs out to make the save, Legend intervenes, and the two give Jeff a beating.
SIDE-NOTE SLAM: I hate to nitpick here. Really. (Oh, who am I kidding? I love to nitpick.) I thought Jeff’s hair was beyond gay years ago, but this current style makes him look like a Memphis jobber after his first bleach job—think Ripley Prim and Ric McCord. I’m only saying for a guy who's this talented and is expected to carry the promotion, he sure doesn’t look like a star.
Now…if Jeff doesn’t look like a star, then what the hell does that say for Russo? Not a helluva lot. But then I suppose Russo’s actions -— booking everything around himself despite his inability to cut a promo —- do indeed say a lot. Bookers tying all the key angles around themselves is nothing new, of course, but at least most had some semblance of talent. With Russo, we’re talking about the same guy who gave himself the WCW title. Even thought that belt had already been ruined months before, Russo switch had to be one of the worst title changes of all time -- which again, is saying a lot.
To (thankfully) close the segment, babyfaces make the save, and Jerry Jarrett tends to Jeff in the ring. This time, however, there’s not much emotion from Jerry or the fans here. Mainly because nobody gives a fuck about Russo. Poor Mike Tenay did his best to make us care, but there’s only so much an announcer can do.
It’s incredulous that they’ve held off on Jerry Jarrett getting involved in an angle until now, and then they waste it like this. I suppose the angle did garner an emotional response in one sense. It’s what we call negative heat. Channel-changing heat. Russo, however, subscribes to the philosophy that there’s no such thing as a negative publicity because it gets people talking around the water cooler. (WWE guys like Jerry Lawler say that all the time, too.) My answer to that: Who cares if people are talking about a shitty product?
Rest assured, dear marks, this is no angle a la Roddy Piper. I think Russo is a no-talent piece of shit. And while I never saw George Gulas work, I can’t imagine Double G could have been any worse than Russo. Funny thing is Russo is such an idiot he probably thinks this is a stellar review.
To Jerry Jarrett: Please heed your own wise observations about Nick Gulas and the demise of his operation. Fire Vince Russo before it’s too late. Many like myself are counting on NWA: TNA as the only alternative in the business. And believe me, we could damn well use it.
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