Jeff Jarrett has issued a warning to any wrestlers willing to listen: if you continue complaining, especially on social media, it won’t lead to anything positive.
This tendency for wrestlers to complain on Twitter, Instagram, and elsewhere hasn’t gone unnoticed. Recently, Darby Allin referenced it in a promo on Dynamite and it got a huge reaction from both the in-person crowd and from fans online.
And while this could’ve been dismissed as an innocent joke, the fact remains that some people in the wrestling business do indeed have a tendency to complain loudly and frequently.
And according to Jeff Jarrett, doing so could spell disaster for one’s career.
“Excuses and complaining isn’t a business strategy” – Jeff Jarrett
Jeff Jarrett spoke to Jonathon Zaslow and took the opportunity to warn some of his AEW co-workers that they risk staying in booking purgatory if they continue their complaining ways.
“That’s the nature of the beast. In any sport or any entertainment, if you’re in a Hollywood movie, everybody wants to play the lead. If you’re on a basketball team; Steph Curry changed the game completely.
Everybody wants to be Steph. Everybody can’t be Steph. Everybody wants to be Jimmy Butler coming off the Heat win. That’s not a reality. What it does do is, people can channel their energy, and that’s where the competitiveness is.
Guys not getting enough TV time, guys fighting, scratching, and clawing. You can do two things; you can bitch about it and whine about it and get on social media and complain all you want. That’s not going to progress your career.
Like any sport, if you’re going to be in that complaining group, you’re not going to be around long in the business. Time will pass you by overnight. That’s what I try to tell other guys; bitching won’t get you anywhere. Excuses and complaining is not a business strategy. Getting in there and busting your butt is,”
Additionally, Jeff Jarrett explained that while complaints might be more noticeable because of the omnipresence of social media and how it magnifies them, he also noted that this isn’t a new issue. To him, social media simply amplifies the voices of the same sort of people who complained in the past, just in different places.
“Years ago, talent that didn’t have social media and liked to complain, where did they complain? They complained at the nightclubs, at the gym, in the dressing room. It’s all the same.
Now, the double-edged sword is, these guys complain, they don’t understand, they’re creating a narrative of who their character is. Guys in the years gone by that complained, when they stepped through the curtain, that’s what the public consumes this as.
Now, when you peel the onion back and this guy is complaining or bitching, that kind of defines their character. You are literally giving the audience the opportunity to vote yes or no on, ‘Am I going to spend my money and my time and get emotionally engaged in this character?’
That’s the reality. Some folks, as we speak, they learned their lessons the hard way, unfortunately.”
h/t Fightful for the transcription