Wrestling legend Jeff Jarrett is a valued member of the All Elite Wrestling roster as AEW Dynamite celebrates its 5th Anniversary this Wednesday night on TBS. Five years ago, Double J was a WWE employee – and watched the premiere episode of AEW Dynamite at the old Titan Towers with his co-workers.
On the latest episode of his My World podcast, Jarrett recalls his first impressions of AEW, and the surreal sight of WWE power brokers getting their first glimpse at their new competition.
The first episode of AEW Dynamite took place Wednesday, October 2, 2019, at the Capital One Arena in Washington D.C. About 250 miles north up I-95, a late-night creative meeting was being held at WWE HQ. Jarrett recalls them taking a break to see what Tony Khan was serving up. The first thing he remembers was how fresh the product felt.
“The freshness… it brought back so many memories since a non-WWE program had been on cable television in prime time.”
Jeff Jarrett on his first impressions of AEW Dynamite when it launched in 2019
AEW’s first primetime broadcast had him reminiscing about TNA Wrestling’s early days on Spike TV in the mid-2000s. Jarrett had worked with a lot of people in AEW previously, including Cody Rhodes, Keith Mitchell and a lot folks on the production side.
Drawing parallels to past moments in wrestling history, Jarrett likened the excitement to the debut of WCW Nitro, which competed against WWE’s Monday Night Raw.
Potential From Day 1
Jeff Jarrett is a third-generation wrestling promoter and knows quality when he sees it. Nobody was expecting “perfect,” but AEW accomplished what it set out to do. For all the hype up until that point, the first Dynamite delivered and it’s no accident that the company is still going strong to this day.
“You knew from day one that man, this thing’s got some juice behind it,” Jarrett said. He explained that AEW had all the pieces in place: the talent, the financial backing, and equally important, a television partner that believed in the product.
More: My World with Jeff Jarrett Podcast
Results from the first AEW Dynamite
Here are the results from the first-ever AEW Dynamite episode that aired on October 2, 2019:
- Cody defeated Sammy Guevara
- MJF defeated Brandon Cutler
- PAC defeated “Hangman” Adam Page
- Riho defeated Nyla Rose to become the first AEW Women’s World Champion
- Chris Jericho, Santana and Ortiz defeated The Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson) and Kenny Omega
