Jeff Jarrett recalls Vince McMahon's stunning backstage reaction after their infamous WWE contract standoff

After years of success in WWE and WCW, Jeff Jarrett paved his own path in professional wrestling as a co-founder of TNA. But had he not stood his ground in contract negotiations, one of wrestling’s most pivotal promotions might never have been born.

Jarrett’s departure from WWE (formerly known as WWF) is an infamous story, often told as the moment when Jarrett “held up” WWE Chairman Vince McMahon ahead of his final match with the company in 1999. The story goes that Jarrett demanded $200,000 without a contract for his final match against Chyna — an Intercontinental Championship match — at that year’s No Mercy pay-per-view. However, that isn’t the whole truth, as Jarrett clarified on Monday’s edition of “The Ariel Helwani Show.”

“It is fascinating how some people say, ‘Jeff Jarrett held Vince McMahon up.’ Really think about that. Nobody’s going to hold Vince up for — I mean, it’s outlandish, it’s ridiculous,” Jarrett told Uncrowned.

“It was proposed, ‘Hey, Chyna’s going to have her first match,’ or whatever it may be. So there really was a collision course between the male chauvinist deal [many characters were portraying] and ‘here comes Chyna.’ So that sets the course.

“One of the pieces of the puzzle that people just kind of gloss over was that Vince McMahon was taking his company public. And so the summer and early fall of that year, he was out literally going around the world. He’d go to ‘Raw,’ and then he’d get on a plane and do more bank — he’s out prepping to sell and take the company public. So I was dealing with J.R. [Jim Ross] in my contract negotiations.”

Any direct confrontation between Jarrett and McMahon simply wasn’t the case, Jarrett said. Jim Ross was effectively the middleman, organizing deals behind the scenes.

Ross had to keep the roster on track and everyone happy while McMahon was scattered. Jarrett was comfortably occupying the mid-card during a time when pro-wrestling was arguably at its height in WWF’s “Attitude Era.” That put him in a less-than-favorable spot, he said, compared to superstars like The Rock or Stone Cold Steve Austin.

Yet, it all still worked out in a roundabout way.

“Contract negotiations were not going well,” Jarrett said. “Then we’re building, and we’re building, and we’re building, and we’re building, and my contract’s up. They have a pay-per-view and they advertise [the match]. And my contract expires on a Saturday night, and the pay-per-view is on Sunday. The right hand being creative and the left hand being talent relations, and Vince not there for the most part, [he and Ross are] not talking to each other; they kind of put themselves in a unique position that worked in my favor.

Jason Kempin via Getty Images

“The pay-per-view was coming up, and I had a choice. The month of September, I knew that Jim was not going to cave. He wasn’t going to move on his number in negotiation. And I thought, ‘I get it.’ The business — ’99, if you really think about it, [the business] was red hot. If I wasn’t going to get a bump, and I’m not going to say a considerable bump, but a bump from where I was at, I knew that J.R. wasn’t going to play ball with me.

“OK, so let me figure this out,” Jarrett continued. “So I did a deal with WCW and J.J. Dillon, and [we’re] off to the races and agreed on a term. And so when I did that, I was like, ‘OK, so I’ve got my deal done. Now I’m champ. How do I leverage this?’ And so I walked into the building on Sunday, and Vince called me on Thursday on my voice machine. Called me on Friday, three or four times, called me on Saturday.”

Jarrett’s decision was made at that point. He was headed back to WCW despite still holding the WWF Intercontinental Championship, so he intentionally ignored McMahon’s calls, he said. Had he been wanted by WWF, Jarrett believes he would’ve known it earlier.

“If Vince wanted me so bad, he should have called a month before. Maybe he didn’t know, maybe he did,” Jarrett said. “But I know from what I’ve heard afterward, he was pissed off. But that being said, go in the building that day and we’ve got a situation. Terry Taylor and Jim Ross come up to me and said, ‘How we doing?’ And I said, ‘Well, I’ll tell you how we’re doing. You guys know this business as well as I do. I’ve got three pay-per-views in the pipeline.’ Because back then you get paid on 90 days. So I’ve got three pay-per-views, I got a U.K. [show], I got four or five house show runs or whatever the deal was. I said, ‘I’d like to get paid tonight, because when I leave here tonight, I’ve got zero leverage, and you guys can shuffle paper and you can give me zero payoffs, $1 payoff. I have nothing, no legal recourse.’ Because I had talked to my attorney. And they go, ‘OK, then how do you want to do this?’ I said, ‘I want my money tonight.’ ‘How much is that?’ I gave him a figure.

“Chyna’s walking around and wanting to go over the match and like, oh my God, bless her heart, but, ‘What are we doing? What are we doing?’ And so Jim said, ‘Well, we’ve got to go talk to the big man. Let me go get it approved.’ He goes in, talks to Vince. He comes back. ‘Jeff, come here.’ And Terry Taylor’s with him. They sit down, said, ‘Alright, man, we’ve got a deal. Why don’t you go get your bag? Get ready with Chyna.’

“I said, ‘Jim, I’ve got one more thing to share with you.’ [He said,] ‘Yeah, what’s up Jeff?’ I said, ‘Do you remember, I signed here in ’97? This is ’99. Do you remember what happened between year one and year two of my contract?’ He looked at me and he said, ‘Well, what are you talking about?’ I said, ‘My wife got breast cancer. Linda McMahon — not Jeff — Linda McMahon came to you and said, ‘Jeff can be on TV, but he’s not to make one house show. Not one. I don’t want to interfere with Vince. I don’t want to interfere with TVs, but he’s not going on the road for house shows. He needs to be home with his wife.’

“And I said, ‘So because of that directive of Linda, I didn’t meet my downside. I did not meet my downside number. And you came to me and said, ‘Hey, Jeff, you didn’t meet your downside. We’re going to cut your pay in year two.’’ And I said, ‘I have a sick wife, and you’re going to cut my pay, and it wasn’t my doing. I was willing to work. So you kind of reneged on the deal. Well, Jim, we just came to an agreement. I’m reneging on this.’

“He just sat there, and I said, ‘Double that number.’ He said, ‘Ah, Jeff.’ I said, ‘I totally understand. I totally understand if you don’t want to do it.’ He goes, ‘Let me go talk to Vince.'”

The deal was ultimately agreed to, and Jarrett went on to work his match with Chyna, losing the championship. Jarrett said Ross never asked him whether he was threatening to dip out early and avoid the match altogether. It wasn’t in Jarett’s mind either. He knew his father would have torn him a new one, and he prided himself on his professionalism and respected the business, so the match would have happened regardless.

But Jarrett still played hardball and won, doubling his pay that night, for a number he didn’t clarify.

When Jarrett was stretching before the match, McMahon found his way to Jarrett backstage. The then-WWF boss gave him his money, and they went on their ways.

“Vince walked around. Three-piece suit, smiling from ear to ear, pulls out the check from the venue,” Jarrett said. “It wasn’t a [parent company] Titan [Sports Inc.] check; it was from Gund Arena, and he gave me the check, and he said, ‘I appreciate you doing business for the night. Now go kill ‘em.’ Hands me the check. I ran, and Road Dogg said, ‘What are you doing?’ I said, ‘I’m going to lock this damn thing in my car, in the rental car.’

“Anyway, that’s the story. I didn’t hold him up.”

Read More