Of all the characters in wrestling to do a remake of, one of the last I would choose would be the original Double J character. As I’ve stated before, Jeff Jarrett was severely hampered by that character, and it was only due to his sheer talent that he was able to overcome it and become the star he is today.
For whatever reason, Vince McMahon couldn’t see this, and decided that with Jarrett’s contract coming due, instead of re-signing Jeff, he would simply repackage another worker AS Jeff. And so Jarrett’s longtime crony, a guy you know today as the Road Dogg, would get a huge push as the REAL Double J.
A little backstory. Jarrett had “recorded” a song called “With My Baby Tonight” that the WWF claimed was selling millions of copies (back before they actually DID sell millions of copies of their records). This was supposed to generate heat for Jarrett, I guess.
Anywho, the WWF concocted a story that said that Jarrett didn’t really sing the song, but his Roadie did. The Roadie eventually confronted Double J about it, and I guess we were to believe Jarrett was so embarrassed that he fled the WWF.
Sure, big fat checks from Ted Turner had NOTHING to do with it.
Proof that the hair makes the man. Or kills the gimmick.
So Titan revealed to us that the Roadie’s name was actually, Jesse Jammes. That’s J-E-Double S-E J-A-Double M-E-S. Jesse Jammes, ha ha ha. You know it’s bad when you have to horribly misspell a name just to try and get a character over.
The Real Double J strutted around the ring like Jarrett used to do. He sang “With My Baby Tonight” on his way down to the ring. He danced about. He bored crowds to tears.
As is usually the case, Vince realized the gimmick was bombing, and decided to team him up with Billy Gunn (who was also in a terrible gimmick at the time – see below). A couple of catchphrases later, the New Age Outlaws were born. And the rest, as they say, is history.