WWE Hall of Famer Jeff Jarrett, who currently serves as the Director of Business Development for All Elite Wrestling (AEW), recently appeared on an episode of his podcast, “My World with Jeff Jarrett.” During this episode, he covered several topics, including the upcoming WWE Netflix series titled “Unreal,” which will provide a behind-the-scenes look at WWE’s creative process.
Jarrett said, “I’m going to use a quote here. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard this, but Dutch Mantell and myself used to joke and everything — I don’t know where this quote was coined, but I heard it from Dutch first. You know how I like my reality television? Because this show is reality TV, quote unquote. But I like my reality television, well-scripted.”
On WWE already exposing the business:
“A lot, or all of them [are scripted]? I would say all. So look at the end of the day — it was said three generations ago. It’s sports entertainment. So hey folks, that cat’s out of the bag there. And so I’m not sure what we’re going to see and what format, and all that kind of stuff. But there will be people that watch this, [who think] that it will be 100% scripted, that go, ‘Yeah, that’s it. That’s real.’ And then there’s going to be some stuff– flip this around — that is absolutely 1,000% authentic, captured content that we’ll kind of call, quote, unquote real that people are going to go, ‘Oh, good God, you’re going to insult our intelligence. You really think we believe that?’ That kind of is the nature and the magic of our industry in that, no matter what they show? I think at the end of the day, it’s going to be real and well-scripted. And I say that out of total respect. I think at the end of the day — because I’ve been asked quite a bit about this. I think ‘insulting’ is the word I keep coming back to. Are we insulting the fans in the presentation of how it’s done? Like, ‘Hey guys, you dumbasses, this is scripted.’ Or is it done out of respect? My gut tells me it’s going to lean into — its shoulder programming. So if it doesn’t support the WWE brand 100% across the board, they’re spitting in the wind. But I just don’t think they’re going to do that. Maybe we’ll see, but I think it’s going to be excellent support programming.”
On the evolution of the business:
“The next evolution is the format and peeling the curtain back and presenting it in a real compelling, biting way that has a little bit of doc style, a little bit of reality show, a little bit of authenticity. And then it’s got to have pro wrestling. But look, it’s getting a lot of news. It’s got talent talking. It’s got the trades talking. It’s got fans talking.“
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
