Jeff Jarrett has fired back at critics of AEW and more specifically the promotion’s women’s division.
On the July 26th episode of AEW Dynamite Britt Baker took on Taya Valkyrie and a sign reading “Book the women’s division better” was shown on television. Meanwhile, Saraya also liked a Tweet that criticised the booking of The Outcasts.
This brought to light once more a common criticism that AEW doesn’t do enough with its women division. However, Jeff Jarrett believes that such criticism is out of line. Speaking to WrestleTalk, Jarrett said that social media plays a huge role in how things are perceived, even if it’s an unreliable and biased source.
“The way social media, to me, has progressed and evolved, in my opinion you have to have an understanding on reading it. In that, it’s not just the professional wrestling industry – here in the United Kingdom, I hear there’s a hot button called politics, I’m saying that sarcastically, but in America, the political… the divisiveness.
The ability to (say), ‘Hey, I’m gonna tell you something, and you better agree with me, and if you don’t agree with me, shame on you’, that permeates society now. So that’s obviously in social media.
So I think you have to take whatever opinion is given on social media, you have to take that with a grain of salt, and really try to drill down and say – and I’m a data junkie, I’m an OCD guy, I’m dialed into that – but Twitter has an audience that has one mindset. SnapChat, Instagram, YouTube comments, they’re all diverse, they’re not universal opinion. You can break it all up. So the criticism you have to take as one metric.”
To illustrate his point, Jarrett recalled being part of Ric Flair’s final match in 2022, a match and event that drew a mixed response. Double J said that viewpoints changed whether or not people were in attendance. Switching back to AEW, Jarrett noted that he sticks to a wrestling staple — the best measure of how successful something is, comes from fans who’ve paid to see the show.
“So as it relates to the AEW criticism, they’re gonna criticize it this week, and next week they could be universally praising it. So you have to take the yin and the yang, you have to take the good and the bad, and just kind of move through it. You cannot discount it.
If you just completely sweep it under the rug, that doesn’t do your business any good. But you also have to learn how to filter it as well.”
When Did Jeff Jarrett Join AEW?
Jeff Jarrett has enjoyed a remarkable career that’s taken in spells for just about every major promotion in the world, often more than once.
In 2022 Jarrett found himself back in WWE working as Senior Vice President of Live Events, although he was replaced in August and replaced by Road Dogg. From there the veteran headed to AEW, signing with the company that November. Now that he’s All Elite, Jarrett works as Director of Business Development as well as appearing on-screen.
H/t to WrestleTalk