Jeff Jarrett details his responsibilities with All Elite Wrestling.
On the November 2 episode of AEW Dynamite, Jarrett made his AEW debut by attacking Darby Allin, and Tony Khan subsequently confirmed that “Double J” was “All Elite”, as he joined the company both as an on-screen performer and the Director of Business Operations. Jarrett had worked with WWE as the Senior Vice President of Live Events earlier in 2022, but the company brought back Road Dogg to replace him in August.
Speaking on Talk Is Jericho, Jarrett was asked to describe what his role entails and how he’ll help AEW in his new role. He made it clear that he’ll be focused on non-televised live events, but he wants ensure that AEW is careful in its approach. Jarrett also noted that, for these shows, the company will be exploring markets that it wouldn’t choose for Dynamite.
“It’s a work in progress, and before we rolled tape, I was sharing with you about, before I took the job, I went out and did my own due diligence, really on the brand, not so much the wrestling bubble or social media, but from television. It’s very easy to see that the live event industry, which is one hats I’m wearing,” Jarrett said. “We’ll call it house shows, it’s not a four-letter word around here, which I love. So the house show business, I’ll call them the non-televised live events, I think that’s the proper terminology that I use when I’m talking to different promoters. But that’s right at the forefront, and that’s gonna be a situation that I wanna be careful. I’m a big believer in crawl, walk, run.
“If you jump into something and you guys, like you said, couple months in, that television deal and my god, hat’s off, it’s unbelievable, the success through the pandemic, which nobody could have planned on. But AEW, we come out the backside of that, and Arthur Ashe, or we could talk about a lot of live event success stories.… Getting into the non-televised events, I wanna be real careful that we strategically help with the guidance on getting, we call them candidly markets that Dynamite is not going to go to.
The WWE Hall of Famer highlighted the remarkable success of AEW Dynamite, as the Wednesday night slot is usually a tough sell. He then described how non-televised shows are at the top of his list, and he emphasized both relaunching Universal Studios and international projects as some of his priorities. Jarrett also stated that he expects to see plenty of international growth for AEW in 2023.
“Dynamite is at the top of the top. We’re not Garth Brooks or Taylor Swift, but we are a property that’s 52 weeks a year, that’s incredibly valued and incredibly successful. So that’s the driver of this brand, so to put shows in [smaller] markets, I hate to name markets because then all of a sudden, either ‘I didn’t get mentioned’ or we’re coming there. But no, that’s at the top of my list is non-televised [shows]. Moving forward into 2023, I’m super excited how we kind of launched Universal Studios, or relaunched, and it’s gonna be a paid crowd. It’s gonna have a whole new vibe to it.
“So Universal Studios, non-televised live events, and then some international projects that I’m working on. The growth of AEW internationally, not just the UK, India, Australia, South America, all through Asia, man, I think we’re gonna see a growth period just because pandemic, some parts of the world are still coming out of it, but a lot of growth to be done internationally.
Jarrett went on to highlight how AEW has been focused on the television product, and he’s confident that exploring new markets will help the company notably grow in 2023.
“The focus has been in the television product, and when you really look at the strength of the brand, and I know from the quick due diligence that I did, we have been to repeat markets already,” Jarrett said. “There’s a lot of new markets we’re going to in 2023, which, that is just such an understated value point that, ‘Oh you’ve never been to Laredo,’ ‘Oh, you’ve never been to El Paso, ‘ Oh wait, you’re going to Seattle.’ Seattle is a major market. Bay Area, that’s coming up, that’s huge.
“So the growth, I think 2023, I can already just see kind of the surge, and that’s just spreading our wings a little bit more because the focus has been on that Wednesday night Dynamite in 20 markets, 30 markets. Growth is gonna be an understatement, I believe.”
Jarrett and Jay Lethal will challenge The Acclaimed for the AEW World Tag Team Championship on AEW Battle of the Belts V. WrestleZone will have coverage of the show as it airs.
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