Jeff Jarrett on William Regal’s safety concerns: ‘Wrestling is not going in reverse’
Jeff Jarrett has responded to William Regal’s safety advice to wrestlers.
Regal posted a lengthy statement to social media recently warning younger wrestlers about the impacts of being dropped on their heads and the long-term ramifications many wrestlers live with after their in-ring careers end.
Jarrett was asked about Regal’s statement during a recent episode of his My World podcast. He responded that he doesn’t believe wrestlers today are going to listen to older generations telling them to slow down or avoid taking risks.
Jarrett said:
“Athletes today, the evolution, they are bigger, stronger period, game set match. The style of wrestling is not going in reverse, in my opinion. The cadence, the speed.”
“My generation, it was just different. We worked seven days a week. It’s just how it was. But now house shows are going away, for the most part,” he continued.
“Yeah we worked a lot more shows but also in working the shows, I’ve worked more shows without a trainer than I have with them. At AEW, there is no less than seven at a show.“
Jarrett says that wrestlers today have more opportunities for preventative treatment than his generation did.
“I think you have to have not just reactive – if something is out of whack – I think you got to have preventative maintenance. I credit my mindset on not just cardio and stretching, but nutrition and preventative maintenance.”
“I just think that’s where it’s at. Our bodies are going through incredible things now. I mean, I’m not doing all that stuff, I’m 58. But the guys that are doing it, to me, you’ve got two choices. You are absolutely going to make Regal and Arn 100 percent true, because left untreated, or not figuring out how to do preventative – And I mean, real preventative. Stretching, being prepared for it, and doing all that. Really understanding that you’ve got to get prepared for your body to do that, and it’s in the gym.”
“I think the preventative part of it, Conrad. You ain’t putting the toothpaste back in the tube. That to me is delusional thinking. There is no chance in hell any of these guys are going to say ‘No, no, no, I’m not going to do that because of long term.’ Nobody. We didn’t do it when we were their age.”
“The extreme high spots and moves and the creative stuff, that’s not going backwards.”
Jarrett continued by saying that Tony Khan and AEW do a great job of having trainers available for its roster immediately after matches.
“Tony Khan does a great job. He treats it like a sports team. Like I said, five to seven trainers at every show. When you come through the curtain, they are there with a little hydration bottle and they are ‘How are you? How do you feel?'”
“That’s the real special sauce, the preventative stuff.”
Jarrett’s comments about wrestler safety begin around the 38-minute mark of the podcast. The below video is cued.
Ian Carey is a writer from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, whose work has been featured in NOW Magazine, The Huffington Post, and more. A lifelong wrestling aficionado born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, he has covered the industry for a decade and a half. He joined the f4wonline.com team in 2019.