The following is an excerpt from our new feature, Inside The Royal Rumble 2. Please check it out in its entirety, and see our video feature at the top of the page
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For years, Royal Rumble surprises have been a mainstay in the match. With debuting stars and legends making their way in for the match. That variety show aspect coming back into play. In 2019, Jeff Jarrett rejoined WWE as a producer and popped up in the Rumble as an in-ring performer.
"From the Hall of Fame the previous year and fast forward twelve of months, the discussion and, at times lack of discussions and I’ll say one-on-one discussions, it literally came about because I left—the very condensed version that goes into it—I left my house, either a Thursday or Friday morning, and was in the gym, got a text, ‘Hey, can you talk?’ ‘Sure.’ I said, ‘Let me finish my work out,’ went out to the car, took the call and that was like nine days before Royal Rumble," said Jarrett to Fightful.
The last-minute nature of these surprises is a shocker in its own to many, Jarrett included.
The co-host of Ad Free Shows' My World Podcast, Jarrett remembered the conversation. "I’m like, ‘You realize that event is next weekend? Thanks for the head’s up. I’m glad I’m still in the gym and ready to go.’ But, no, the call came quickly and the layers that go into it and then really, quite frankly, what transpired out of that is a cool story. Conrad a couple of times over the last sixty days when we just touched on things and had some text exchanges, and I’ll say, you just wait until the mic’s hot on this one. It’s one of those stories that’s going to be exciting."
There were plenty of different iterations of Jeff Jarrett across WWF, WCW, NWA, and TNA, but the 1995-1997 horribly striped gear prevailed as the big return presentation. We asked Jarrett if he had to have special gear made.
Well...
"Now, Sean, you are really telling on yourself," Jarrett joked. "If you watch, you would have known that ain’t new gear. I mean, I cracked up. I’ll leave this, when we get to that episode, some comments were made through headsets and that question was asked. They said, ‘Where the hell did he get this?’ Somebody said that and then the answer was, ‘He dug it out of his pack rack closet.’ I’ve never thrown anything away. What’s funny is that hat, that is the original hat that they saved. So, hat’s off to the WWE warehouse. But, that hat has seen its better days. But, no, that was all original gear."
The aforementioned Chelsea Green also had her outfit good to go, saying "I had that pink outfit ready and planned for the Royal Rumble just in case. You don’t even want to see the amount of gear I have for things I thought I was going to do. I probably have twelve sets of gear I’ve never worn sitting, waiting for me, and I have four pairs of boots."