Revisited Rivalries: Jeff Jarrett vs Chyna

In the fall of 1999, Intercontinental Champion Jeff Jarrett issued an open contract for any WWE superstar to sign and challenge him for his championship. To Jarrett’s surprise, the ninth wonder of the world Chyna stepped up to sign the contract and accept Jarrett’s challenge. Over the next two months, Jarrett and Chyna would square off in a heated battle over the championship that explored misogyny, intergender wrestling and bribery.

Revisited

After regaining the WWE Intercontinental Championship at Summerslam, Jeff Jarrett issued an open contract that Chyna would accept. But Billy Gunn wanted to accept the challenge too, so in a match to determine the number one contender; Chyna defeated Billy Gunn to officially earn a shot at the championship. The match was then set between Jeff Jarrett and Chyna to take place at Unforgiven.

In the build-up for their encounter, Jarrett and his manager, Debra began having communication problems and he introduced Miss Kitty as an assistant to Debra. On the road to Unforgiven, Jarrett attacked the legendary pair of The Fabulous Moolah and Mae Young. He hit them with a guitar and put them in a figure four leg lock until Chyna ran down to make the save. Jarrett also faced Jacqueline in a match where he defeated her and followed up with a guitar shot afterwards. He later faced Luna in a match, and she received the same treatment, this time thanks to the interference from Ivory. Television star Cindy Margolis was a special guest on an episode of SmackDown, promoting her new show and Jarrett would apply the figure four leg lock on her too. He also did the same to Women’s Champion Ivory.

Jarrett continued to terrorize the women of WWE.

As Jarrett was about to put a figure four leg lock on a female member of WWE production staff, on the SmackDown before Unforgiven, Chyna ran down to hit Jarrett with a pan. She then took off his trousers and put them on herself before putting an apron on him. Their match at Unforgiven saw Chyna pin Jeff Jarrett after Miss Kitty handed Jarrett a guitar but Moolah and Mae got involved, Debra came down to the ring and grabbed the guitar and smashed it over the head of Jarrett. With Chyna celebrating, the decision was reversed after conversations between referees. Afterwards, an irate Chyna hit referee Tom Pritchard with a low blow and a pedigree.

The next night on RAW, a tag team match was made for Jarrett and Tom Pritchard to face Chyna and Debra with the conditions that if Chyna won, she would receive another championship match. With Jarrett down, Pritchard nailed Chyna with a guitar, but she fell on top of Jarrett and picked up the win.

On an episode of SmackDown, Jeff Jarrett had a shopping trolley full of household items and stated that he could defeat Chyna with any of them. Cindy Margolis was back in the crowd and Jarrett tried to get her in the ring but to his surprise, Moolah, Mae and Debra turned up and attacked Jarrett. Luna, Margolis and Jacqueline also got involved and got payback for his attacks on them from the previous weeks. Chyna also came down and to join in and support the women as Jarrett narrowly escaped.

Jeff Jarrett then forced Miss Kitty to face Ivory in a Mud Pitt match. Ivory won the match quickly, but Chyna snuck up behind Jarrett and pushed him in the mud as a form of embarrassment.

Jarrett and Chyna squared off in a Good Housekeeping match at No Mercy where the two utilized various kitchen items against each other. The finish saw Chyna pin Jeff Jarrett to capture the WWE Intercontinental Championship, marking the first time a woman had won a major WWE Championship outside of the women’s championship.

On working with Chyna, Jeff Jarrett has spoken previously on what a talent she was and how she helped influence the Attitude Era:

“Here at the top of it all [was] a female for the first time, and her look, and her charisma. That’s Chyna. I mean, she identified the Attitude Era in so many ways, and the storyline [of] me beating up women, and Cindy Margolis, and [Fabulous] Moolah, and just the whole build-up to that, and the mud match and all those kinds of things. It really was a fantastic creative story. I’ve nothing but fond” memories of all that, but man, what a tragedy. The documentary was heart-wrenching in a lot of ways. A lot of people say, ‘Oh, my God, why’d they document that,’ but if they can help one person, and it can help I can assure you, I feel like it will help a lot of people. Seeing Chyna, the megastar on TV, but realizing in everyday life she, in a lot of ways, was literally living in hell on earth. That’s tragic in so many ways.”

Jeff also claimed to have a great relationship with Chyna too:

“As far as a human being, you know, when DX formed, and then they got hotter and hotter and hotter. I was always — and the conversations that I would have with her were — in so many ways, look, Stone Cold identified the Attitude Era, and so did The Rock, and we could go on and on about the identifiable characters. When you look for the first time ever there, the look of Chyna, the faction that she was with, she identified the Attitude Era in so many ways, and her persona was really cool. I tried to help her on different things as far as timing and obviously, we got to work together and her having actually a match and all that kind of stuff. So I had a great personal relationship with her and she was so easy and coachable to listen to. If you watch that match back, the Good Housekeeping Match [from No Mercy 1999], you know, I had it in my mind, but I had business to take care of and we cover that on My World but you know, she’s just a phenomenal talent in so many ways, but I had a great relationship with her.”

The lead-up to the good housekeeping match at No Mercy is also surrounded by controversy. It was Jeff Jarrett’s final night with the company before moving to World Championship Wrestling. Jarrett was out of contract on that evening, and he discussed making a deal with Jim Ross and Vince McMahon on that evening.

“Jim comes to me and said, ‘We’ve done pen to paper and we’re thinking $150,000 will get it all cleaned up.’ I said ‘OK, alright Jim, $150,000 is what you think the number is. You sure?’ We more or less did a head nod, and I said, ‘Jim, let me think on this.’ He said, ‘I’ll be back, and let’s close this deal up.’ However much time transpired – he came back in and sat back down, and I said ‘Jim, remember how you changed the deal on me a year in? I understand all the reasons you did and I respect the hell out of it, but we kind of agreed but we didn’t really agree on 150. I don’t really agree with that right now, and I’ve had time to reflect on my last two years. So, if we’re going to get a deal done, this place [Gund Arena] is sold out and they’ve got a lot of WWE’s money in their box office. So, let’s double that and get me to $300,000 and give me the money out of the Gund Arena’s bank and not WWE’s bank and let’s go to work.

He didn’t like it. He said, ‘Nah, Jeff, we can’t do that.’ I said ‘Jim, look at me because I really want you to understand where I’m coming from, you’re absolutely right. You do not have to do this, Vince doesn’t have to do this. Nobody has to do this. I’m wanting my money, and I’m talking about multiple pay-per-views, I’m not under contract. Let’s just end this deal one way or another. You know as well as I do tomorrow my value in payoffs are not even remotely important. They’re kind of important today, but it’s y’all’s decision on how important they are, it’s not mine.’ He goes, ‘I’m gonna go to talk to the old man.’ 30 minutes go by, 45 minutes go by, whatever it may be. Jim and Terry [Taylor] walk up and go, ‘Go get your bag, get dressed, we’ll have it for you before you go to the ring.’ I had seen Chyna walking around multiple times. Not that it was my responsibility to be worrying about her personal feelings, but I did have some compassion for her. I really did because it was her night in so many ways, and she deserved every bit of it. She worked her ass off. She deserved everything she was getting that night.

It’s a massively important moment for Chyna’s career that she defeated Jeff Jarrett clean in the ring, it cemented her position within the company and the fans perception that she could go toe to toe with her male counterparts. It was also important to their storyline that the women, more importantly, Chyna, stood tall at the end.”

Miss Kitty changed alliances after No Mercy as she started to accompany Chyna to the ring and go by the name of The Kat while Debra left television until the new year. The storyline of Jeff Jarrett is undoubtedly a sensitive subject but Jarrett did get his comeuppance and solidified Chyna as an equal to her male performers as he left the company. It also allowed her to be fully invested in the Intercontinental Championship scene for the next year as a worthy challenger and champion.