Great-ing Gimmicks of the Past: Jeff Jarrett, Barber – WWF, 1998
History
Jeff Jarrett was in a bad mood on the August 10, 1998 Raw. After all, the night before his manager Tennessee Lee (better known as WCW’s Col. Parker) had tried to have his tag team Southern Justice (better known as the Godwinns – Mark Canterbury and Dennis Knight) to attack Jarrett. Instead, Jarrett and Southern Justice had simply obliterated Lee.
Southern Justice was scheduled to take on the Legion of Doom that night. Hawk was suffering from personal issues, so he had fallen off the rampway. Southern Justice stopped to talk to him for a minute, and then attacked. That brought Droz (Darren Drosdoz) out to help Animal. That brought Jarrett out, who introduced Droz’s head to his guitar, and then shaved his ponytail off.
The next week we had D-Generation X taking on the Nation of Domination in a street fight. As the brawl went on, Jarrett and Southern Justice came out zoomed in on X-Pac (Sean Waltman), who Jarrett just coincidentally was facing at Summerslam. Southern Justice took X-Pac down, and Jarrett chopped a chunk of hair off of him.
On the following Raw we had Southern Justice taking on the New Age Outlaws. Before the match, X-Pac decided to have a little fun, so we got to see him taking a whiz into Jarrett’s boots.
During the match, Jarrett stormed over to the commentary table and demanded that X-Pac get out there. He also ordered the cameraman not to film his (bare) feet. Mark Canterbury came out to help Jarrett, which left Knight to get pinned. Finally Jarrett snapped and attacked the cameraman for ignoring his orders. When the cameraman was down, Jarrett shaved his head.
That brought us to Summerslam. On the Heat immediately preceding, Jarrett decided to warm up his clippers by shaving Howard Finkel bald.
Finally the match hit, and Finkel was out with X-Pac for moral support. The referee immediately sent Southern Justice to the back. Finally Finkel hit the apron to give the advantage back to X-Pac. That brought Southern Justice back out. They grabbed Jarrett’s guitar, but were caught by the referee. While the ref sent them back to the back, X-Pac blasted Jarrett with the guitar and got the pin.
After the match, Jarrett got shaved by X-Pac, Finkel, Droz, and the Headbangers (who enjoyed putting tufts of hair on their bald heads).
Raw was preempted to Saturday the next week, and D’Lo Brown was defending the European title against X-Pac. Jarrett came out and started brawling with X-Pac to get the match thrown out. Then Kane and the Undertaker (who were on another rampage) hit the ring to go after D’Lo. The Rock came out to calm things down, but D’Lo cleared out and Rock got chokeslammed.
Jarrett was back out to take on (2 Cold) Scorpio in the main event. Jarrett was ready to get the win when X-Pac jumped him to return the favor from earlier in the night. That brought out Kane and Undertaker, who dropped Scorpio. Then they spotted Vince McMahon and went after him.
That was pretty much the end of the angle. Jarrett and Southern Justice would continue to brawl with X-Pac and the New Age Outlaws on and off through the Breakdown pay-per-view, where Waltman would be suffer an eye injury from a Jarrett guitar shot.
Analysis
A hair vs. hair match often offers a wrestler a chance at a makeover. Jarrett at the time was in desperate need of one. He had had basically the same look (and character) since 1994 when he’d first debuted in the WWF as a country singer. He’d jumped to WCW in 1996 with basically the same look, although the singing part of his character was abandoned.
In late 1997 Jarrett returned to the WWF, with a slightly tweaked look. Now his hair was pulled back into a ponytail and his gimmick was showcasing his arrogance, as well as an alliance with Jim Cornette’s NWA contingent. In 1998, the NWA angle was fizzling out, so Jarrett joined forces with Tennessee Lee and returned to the good old country singing Double J.
At this point in time, the WWF wanted to move Jarrett in more of a bad ass gimmick, and Jarrett’s current look didn’t fit it. The hair match enabled Jarrett to come back with a sleek new hairstyle that better fit his new gimmick.
Where are they now?
Jeff Jarrett would leave the WWF in 1999 and return to WCW, where he would remain until the company closed in 2001. Jarrett would go on to work with World Wrestling All-Stars until that company closed its doors as well. In 2002, Jarrett and his father Jerry Jarrett founded (NWA) Total Nonstop Action, where he remains today.
Mark Canterbury would leave the ring for years shortly after this due to a neck injury he suffered from a botched Doomsday Device. In 2006, Canterbury went to Ohio Valley Wrestling as Henry O. Godwinn in hopes of making a WWE return.
Dennis Knight disappeared from WWF television at the same time as Canterbury. He finally returned and was placed in the Undertaker’s Ministry of Darkness as Mideon. Following the end of the Ministry, Mideon wound up coming out and wrestling as Naked Mideon, wearing only a strategically-placed fanny pack. He was released from the WWF in 2000. Today Knight still competes on the independent scene, and competed in several WWE dark matches in March of 2006.
Sean Waltman (X-Pac) would remain with D-Generation X until the stable collapsed in 2000. Following that, he joined forces with Prince Albert (A-Train) and Justin Credible in X-Factor, which lasted until Credible defected to team ECW during the InVasion. X-Pac would go on to join the new NWO in 2002 and wound up being released later that same year. Waltman (now calling himself Syxx-Pac) had short stays in both TNA and Xtreme Pro Wrestling later that year. Waltman continues wrestling not only in US independent promotions today, but he is also a regular with the Mexican AAA promotion as X-Poc.
Next Week
A contest to see which WWF superstar’s the legitimately toughest? Brilliant!
