When Kurt Angle Found Out: Karen & Jeff Jarrett

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Vince Russo recently took to the airwaves with his brand new Truth With Consequences podcast and in usual Russo fashion, pulled no punches. While the relationship between Karen Jarrett, her ex-husband Kurt Angle, and her current husband Jeff Jarrett is currently on great terms, things weren't always that way. Once upon a time Karen was married to Kurt; but, that didn't keep Jeff Jarrett away, much to the chagrin of Dixie Carter and the IMPACT Wrestling locker room. Russo exposed what it was like to work for IMPACT Wrestling during one of its most tumultuous times.

Russo exposes how the soap opera like scenario threatened to rip IMPACT Wrestling apart at the seems and how it forever altered the course of IMPACT's history. Russo was close to both Angle and Jarrett and provides a unique intimate view of what it was like when Kurt Angle found out about Jeff and Karen and all hell broke loose.

First, there were the parties. Neither Vince Russo nor Kurt Angle liked to participate in the after-show parties. It never was Russo's thing and Angle was a serious athlete that wanted to keep in tip top condition, in order to maximize his in-ring performances. It was something he learned when training to represent the United States as gold medalist Olympian. Part of Angle's unexciting; but, effective routine included going to bed early. His then wife, Karen, didn't share the same philosophy and she often enjoyed being out until the wee hours of the morning with Jeff Jarrett.

According to Vince Russo,

"Jeff had the reputation of being the last one at the party. Karen Angle liked to have a good time. Kurt Angle was a professional and when Kurt would do the show Kurt would want to go back to the room and go to bed. This was when Kurt and Karen were still married. So, a lot of times Jeff and Karen were the last two closing the party down while Kurt Angle was sound asleep and that’s how the relationship began."

With Karen increasingly spending more time away from her then husband Kurt Angle and having more late-night fun with Jeff Jarrett, rumors began to swirl backstage and in the locker room.

Eventually those rumors made their way to Kurt Angle's ears:

"At that time Jeff’s in charge of creative. Dixie’s in charge of the business. No matter what people think, I’m working for Jeff. I’m reporting to Jeff. Jeff was, at that point, 100% in charge of creative. Rumors start spreading and Kurt gets a hold of these rumors. Who knows what the conversations were between he and Karen? Who knows if Karen ever owned up to it? I don’t know."

That's when things became exceptionally difficult for Kurt Angle. With the entire locker room now knowing what his wife was doing behind his back, Angle could not contain his emotions any longer. Something drastic must certainly be done and would inevitably follow.

The rumors began to overwhelm Kurt Angle and that's when the gold medalist decided that he could not keep his emotions bottled up any longer. Angle would make a last ditch effort to fight for his wife and his family. He made his way to Jeff Jarrett's hotel room where the two future WWE Hall of Famers would have a heated confrontation that left Jarrett shaken and in tears:

“All I do know is that there was a night in Orlando where –must have been 11 or 12 o’clock at night – I got a call from Jeff Jarrett and his voice was quivering. He was like, ‘I need to talk to you. You’ve got to come up here.’ I went up to Jeff’s room and evidently right before I went up there Kurt Angle, more or less, made his way in Jeff’s room and Jeff was in a hotel room with a very irate and upset Kurt Angle.”

After the confrontation, Kurt Angle was at his wit's end and while things may not have become physical between he and Jeff Jarrett, Angle still wanted out of the company Jarrett had molded into his image. Things were personal now. Jarrett was coming after Angle's wife and family. Angle went over Jarrett's head and threatened to quit IMPACT Wrestling:

“I give Kurt Angle, right there, all the credit in the world for keeping his cool; but, he sent a message to Jeff, ‘Brother, I know what’s going on.’ I know Jeff, at that point, denied it, but Kurt knew what was going on. Jeff told me what happened. That night there were all kinds of meetings because Kurt wanted to quit. I know he met with Dean Broadhead. I know he met with Dixie Carter. Eventually they talked Kurt down and he stayed with the company. It was destroying a company. It’s none of my business. I don’t want anything to do with that. Of course, it’s a tough position for me. I’m working with Jeff. Jeff’s my friend of 20 years. I’m very good friends with Kurt. He’s probably my best friend on the roster. Very very difficult situation. To give Jeff his due, Jeff’s a tough guy. Jeff will give you a beating. This is dangerous because if something physical would have broke out, it would have been over right then and there.”

Jeff Jarrett was still not owning up to his part in the whole affair, at least not publicly. After Kurt Angle threatened to quit the company, Dixie Carter asked Jarrett point blank, if there was an affair going on between he and Angle's wife. Jarrett simply continued to deny what was obvious to most of the locker room:

“Jeff was still not owning up to this. I didn’t want to know. Me and Jeff never ever ever discussed it, ever. I think he just really needed to talk to somebody [He called me up to the room] because he was just that freaking shaken and now this thing had really gotten out of hand. Kurt meets with everybody that night. Kurt stays. Dixie’s irate. Jeff, now, gives Dixie his word, ‘There’s nothing going on between me and Karen. There’s never been anything going on. It’s all in Kurt’s head. There’s nothing going on with me and Karen.’ I think there is a perfect way to this. I think you’ve got to come clean. When they say, ‘The truth will set you free,’ that’s the only way. At that point, for Jeff to say, ‘Yes, I’m guilty. I’m sorry. I made a mistake.’ But, on the other side of that coin, if Jeff and Karen are in love, Jeff and Karen are in love. Obviously this wasn’t a one night deal.”

Dixie Carter, at her own peril, believed him.

Dixie Carter was in denial. She wanted to believe Jeff Jarrett, so she did. Giving him the benefit of the doubt; however, was a big mistake and soon Carter was publicly embarrassed by her own denial:

“I got up early in the morning and I had time to kill. I was at WalMart and I was looking at the action figures at about 8 in the morning. I get this call and it’s Dixie [Carter]. I never heard her like this in her life, ‘Why the F didn’t you tell me? You made me look like a fuc*ing moron. You’re supposed to have my fuc*ing back. I thought I could trust you.’ I could not get a word in edge wise. I did not know what she was talking about. I’m like, ‘What are you talking about?’ Evidently, Jeff had a party at his house and he invited Dixie Carter to his part, so now Dixie Carter walks in to this part and Jeff and Karen are hosting this party like they’re a married couple. I was thinking that Jeff Jarrett is not stupid. I don’t know if they thought that the mask would be off under the guise of a party with all these people there; but, they were clearly hosting the party together. What probably upset her more than anything else is that she felt like she was made to look stupid in front of everybody. In other words, when she went to this party and Jeff’s closest friends were there, they all knew. She walked into this party completely blindsided. Knowing Dixie, the one thing that upset her most is that she was made to look stupid. [She took it] very personally. This is Jeff. He set the precedent early on that even though Dixie Carter and her family’s money was running the business, Jeff made it a point early on to make Dixie feel inferior. He made her feel very very inept and very paranoid and very stupid when it came to the business because he did not want her getting involved with his side of it. She had a complex with being afraid to speak up, being afraid to give her own opinions, being afraid she was going to say something stupid and she was going to be laughed at.” 

Dixie Carter had enough. After being publicly embarrassed by the manipulative Jeff Jarrett for the very last time, Carter sent the future WWE Hall of Famer home and to add insult to injury, fired his friends too:

“They send Jeff home. He is done. So now Jeff is gone. To get back at Jeff the first people she sends home are Dutch Mantel and Jim Cornette. She was so freaking upset and irate with Jeff – those guys were there because they were Jeff’s guys. Dixie Carter would not have hired Dutch Mantel and a Jim Cornette, if there was no Jeff Jarrett. Now the only ones left are me and Matt Conway. Matt Conway was an intern that started at TNA. Dixie, more or less, put Conway on the creative team as her spy. Matt Conway would go back and tell Dixie everything that was going on. Now, up until this point how many times is Jeff Jarrett champion? How long is Jeff Jarrett champion? I can’t blame him for that [booking himself on top] because the psychology that Jeff is thinking about at the time is, ‘This is my company. This is my livelihood and no one is gonna do this better than me.’ I get that. He should think that way. Now that Jeff was gone, there were gonna be no veterans that were gonna go behind my back and bury me because the veteran was Jeff Jarrett.” 

 At any point in time, Kurt Angle, an Olympic gold medalist, could have torn Jeff Jarrett limb from limb; but, despite the feud between the two reaching such personal and heated heights, things never became physical. Angle could have also utilized the situation to his own advantage backstage and in the locker room to not only elevate himself; but, to further assassinate what was left of Jeff Jarrett's character. Angle, instead, kept it classy and kept things private behind closed doors:

“It was horrible. Kurt Angle would never publicly cause a scene. Remember when I told you he went up to Jeff Jarrett’s room? He could have done that in front of everybody. He could have embarrassed Jeff in front of everybody. What would Jeff have done? Jeff’s a tough guy. Jeff can kick my ass and Jeff did kick my ass at one point. Kurt could have made a scene in front of the entire locker room. That’s not what Kurt did. Like a man, he handled things behind closed doors one on one. Now, there were times – very few times – where I know Kurt would reach a boiling point. He would get me to the side and he would get it out; but, again, that just goes back to – you talk about professional, if that were anybody else that situation would have been 1000 times worse, if it were anybody else.” 

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(Transcription Credit: Michael McClead, Cheap Heat Wrestling)

With Jarrett gone, Dixie Carter was now fully in charge of the company; but, her confidence was rattled after dealing with Jarrett for so many years. According to Russo, Jarrett's attempts at silencing Carter went a long way in shattering her confidence, so she reached out to wrestling legends in Jarrett's absence.

The first was WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross, who Carter wanted to bring in to be the actual general manager of IMPACT Wrestling. Ross would have maintained creative control over the roster and offered his decades of experience to improve IMPACT Wrestling. The deal with Ross; however, fell through.

Eventually Carter, due in large part to her shattered confidence, reached out to Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan. The two came to IMPACT Wrestling, forever altering the company. All of this was due primarily to the Jeff Jarrett/Kurt Angle/Karen Jarrett incident.

Readers interested in listening to Vince Russo's Truth With Consequences in its entirety may do so below:

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