Jeffrey Leonard (Jeff) Jarrett (born April 14, 1967, in Knoxville, Tennessee), is an American professional wrestler. He is currently a part-owner of Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, where he is the reigning NWA World Heavyweight Champion.

Career

Jeff Jarrett has wrestled for various organizations including the WWF (he is a former six-time Intercontinental Champion, and one-time Tag Team Champion), and while it existed, WCW (he is a four-time WCW World Champion and two-time U.S. Champion). He currently wrestles for the company he co-owns with his father, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, and is the current NWA World Heavyweight Champion. He made his wrestling debut as a referee working for his father in the now-defunct USWA. It wasn't long, however, before he was making his own in-ring debut. Jeff's feud with Jerry "The King" Lawler got him noticed by Vince McMahon and he was signed by the WWF.

World Wrestling Federation (1993-1996)

When he made his debut in the World Wrestling Federation Jarrett was portrayed as a country singer wanna-be, allying himself with Brian Armstrong (best known as D-Generation X member "Road Dogg Jesse James"), then simply known as Jarrett's roadie. He managed to win the WWF Intercontinal Title on three seperate occasions. These reigns were traded back and forth with Razor Ramon and once with Bob Holly. Jarrett sang "With My Baby Tonight" live at In Your House II, however this led to controversy between the WWF and Jarrett as the planned plot was Jarrett was just lip synching for the Roadie. This was one of the reasons for Jarrett leaving the WWF as he believed it would make him lose his heat. He also lost the Intercontinental Title to Shawn Michaels in a classic bout in the same night. He soon grew tired of the country music gimmick and jumped ship to work for Eric Bischoff at WCW, Vince's closest competition.

World Championship Wrestling (1996-1997)

After his arrival in World Championship Wrestling, Jarrett quickly aligned himself with the Four Horsemen to fight the nWo faction. While in WCW, Jarrett held the United States Championship twice. He left WCW disgruntled by not being in the main event.

World Wrestling Federation (1997-1999)

He returned to the WWF, eventually reprising his old country music star gimmick and being managed by Tennessee Lee. Still not receiving fan reaction, he cast off the country music gimmick and his manager. During the 1998 Summerslam, Jeff Jarrett lost to X-Pac in a "cut your hair match." After having his head shaven, his gimmick was then repackaged. He aligned himself with the tag team Mark Canterbury and Dennis Knight - dubbed "Southern Justice" (formerly known as The Godwinns).

He was portrayed as somewhat of a misogynist with the catch-phrase "Don't piss me off!", and aligned himself with his friend, the late Owen Hart, with whom he won the Tag Team Championship. Though his gimmick had changed, Jarrett kept his trademark of smashing an opponent's head in with an acoustic guitar. When Owen Hart died, he won a match with the Sharpshooter, Owen's finisher, at the RAW is Owen tribute show. Owen was originally supposed to win the WWF Intercontinental Championship at WWF Over the Edge the night he died, and WWE booked Jarrett to win it instead a week later on RAW.

Later on, Jarrett feuded with Chyna before going back to WCW. He apparently quit after then-champion Stone Cold Steve Austin allegedly vetoed the proposed plan to bring Jarrett to the main event. Apparently, when Jarrett first returned to the WWF, he made a shoot comment on RAW which he stated that Austin's "Austin 3:16..." catchphrase was blasphemous. This did not sit well with Austin and he was said to refuse to work with Jarrett henceforth. There is also an incident between the two going back to Austin's early days which may have helped start the tension. According to industry insiders, Austin never forgot an incident that happened when he broke into the business and worked shows for Jeff's father, Jerry Jarrett. The story goes that Austin was sitting in the locker room after a show looking at his paycheck, which he felt was very small, and Jeff made a sarcastic comment along the lines of "it's not going to get any bigger by staring at it".

Legend has it that Vince McMahon forgot about Jarrett's contract coming up in 1999, and Jarrett was still Intercontinental Champion (his sixth reign as such) when it expired. Jarrett intended to jump back to WCW, but McMahon wanted him to drop the title. Jarrett requested McMahon pay him for the night and also give him all money owed to him in one lump sum to make a clean break (workers usually wait months for PPV and house show bonuses). In exchange, he jobbed to Chyna at No Mercy 1999 on October 17, making her the first (and only) female Intercontinental Champion. It is said that McMahon resents his gaffe with Jarrett's contract to this very day as it cost him in the ball park of $250,000. It was either pay Jarrett or risk him showing up on WCW with a WWF title belt around his waist.

World Championship Wrestling (1999-2001)

Back in WCW, he reformed the nWo (this time called nWo 2000) with Bret Hart, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, The Harris Twins, and Scott Steiner and eventually won the WCW World Heavyweight Championship several times. In a bout scheduled by then Lead Booker Vince Russo at the 2000 Bash at the Beach pay per view he was ordered to lay down so Hogan could win the title, on a live mic Hogan stated to Russo "You wonder why this company's in the damn position it's in, then you pull bullshit like this." In the chaos of WCW's final year, Jarrett would find himself on both sides of alliances with both Kevin Nash and Ric Flair. He was part of Ric Flair's Magnificent Seven heel group when WCW was finally purchased by Vince McMahon. He had been feuding with Dusty & Dustin Rhodes. WCW's inclusion into WWF meant Jarrett was once more out of a job.

World Wrestling All-Stars (2001-2003)

In late-2001, Jarrett wrestled in World Wrestling All-Stars in Australia and Europe. Jarrett would win the first WWA world championship. He was later stripped of the title. Jarrett would return to the WWA, during his first NWA World Heavyweight Championship reign. He defeated Sting for the WWA World Heavyweight Championship at the final WWA event on May 25, 2003, unifying the two titles.

Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2002-Current)

Jarrett is now a minority owner of Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, and a former five-time NWA World Heavyweight Champion. He has feuded with a wide variety of opponents in TNA, including Brian Lawler, Scott Hall, Raven, Monty Brown, Kevin Nash, Diamond Dallas Page, Jeff Hardy and A.J. Styles. He also had a brief run as The Kings of Wrestling with Kevin Nash and Scott Hall.

In early-2005, Jarrett formed a dominant stable known as Planet Jarrett with Monty Brown, The Outlaw and, later, Rhino. Jarrett also uses the phrase "Planet Jarrett" to refer to TNA as a whole, reflecting his real-life stake in the company and his prominent role within the promotion.

At Unbreakable on September 11, 2005, Jarrett guaranteed that he would get the title back by the time iMPACT! came to Spike TV on October 1. Jarrett made good on his promise quickly on September 15 when America's Most Wanted turned heel and helped him win the title against Raven at a Border City Wrestling event in Windsor, Ontario. The title change was then declared official by TNA Director of Authority Larry Zbyszko. He lost the title to Rhino at Bound For Glory on October 23, but regained it on November 3, 2005 on a special Thursday night episode of iMPACT!.

At Genesis on November 13, he tried to get Scott D'Amore to lure the premiering Christian Cage to his stable. Cage appeared to accept the offer at the end of the show, but an Unprettier to D'Amore and a 3D from Team 3D to Jarrett through a table showed he would not be a lackey to Team Canada or Planet Jarrett. On November 26, during his match with Kip James, the debuting Jackie Gayda appeared. Jarrett seemed frightened by her appearance and ordered her backstage. He pushed her, so she retaliated by slapping him. He was heard saying to her, "It's not what you think," which only led to her catfighting with his valet Gail Kim.

At Turning Point 2005 on December 11, Jarrett successfully defended the NWA World Heavyweight Championship in a rematch with Rhino. After the match, the lights went off, and when they came back on, a chair was in the ring with a black trench coat and a baseball bat.

Independents

At NWA Cyberspace, home federation for himself and several other TNA superstars, he won the Cyberspace Heavyweight Championship on April 30, 2005, and was billed as the Undisputed NWA Heavyweight Champion in that federation when he held the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.

On November 19 at the Above The Law event, Jarrett had to defend his Cyberspace title against "Wildcat" Chris Harris in a match made before Harris's heel turn and affiliation with Planet Jarrett (the World title was not on the line). Jarrett let Harris beat him with a Fingerpoke of Doom-style match, but NWA CS Commissioner Jasmin St. Claire immediately booked them for a three-way dance immediately with fellow Cyberspace wrestler "The Monster" Abyss. Abyss beat both and won the Cyberspace Heavyweight Championship. On November 30, Jarrett was "indefinitely suspended" from NWA Cyberspace for the incident. Jarrett also joined the International Assault tour of Australia, winning the World Series Wrestling heavyweight title while in the country.

Credit: Wikipedia.org