AEW's Jeff Jarrett Says No One Connected With Audience Like This Former WWE Star

WWE Hall of Famer Jeff Jarrett has lavished praise on TNA Wrestling's Jeff Hardy, claiming that the former WWE star connected with the audience like very few stars could.

Jarrett recently reviewed Slammiversary 2010 on his "My World" podcast, which took place a few months after Hardy returned to the promotion. The AEW star highlighted Hardy's charisma, stating that the fans were immediately drawn to him.

"I have said it in public and I have said it in private in creative rooms, when you have a room full of folks and you're talking creative, it's easy, from a creative perspective [to say], 'Oh, man, I don't know about Jeff. I'm not sure he can carry this promo off. Well, I'm not sure of...' all these kind of stuff. I always went back on — name me one guy that has the charisma that connects with the audience? If you want me to show merch numbers — great; if you want me to show social media numbers — I know we're early, early in the game, and we can do that now — but his metrics always blew folks away. The 'Charismatic Enigma,' the 'enigma' part I lean into heavily."

Jarrett recalled a conversation he had with someone in WWE's merchandise department during Hardy's prime, where the former WWE star seemingly dominated the merchandise section at arenas. He described those numbers as "Cena level" to emphasize how over Hardy was with the fans.

"There's only one Jeff — when he had that run in WWE and I could remember talking to a merch buddy of mine — not at his peak but in that area — over half the merch SKUs at the merchandise table at WWE shows when he was rocking and rolling, over half was Hardy products."

Hardy's second run with TNA lasted seven years and was more successful than his first run, before he had one more run in WWE.