The professional wrestling promoter Jerry Jarrett, age 80, has passed away

Jeff Jarrett’s father, Jerry, was a very proud dad to Superstar wrestler Jeff.

WWE announced on Tuesday that Jerry Jarrett, the father of WWE Hall of Famer Jeff Jarrett, has gone away. He was 80.

Before retiring in 1977 and co-founding the Continental Wrestling Association with Jerry “The King” Lawler, Jarrett was a successful professional wrestler in the Mid-America zone for the National Wrestling Alliance. It wasn’t until 1998, eleven years later, that the United States Wrestling Association was founded through the consolidation of several smaller wrestling organizations.

It wasn’t until 1997 that Lawler was able to depose Jarrett as USWA president. The business was unable to weather the “Monday Night Wars” between WWE and World Championship Wrestling.

Once Jeff Jarrett’s star began to climb rapidly in WWE, he defected to WCW and became an important character in the latter days of that organization. As a response to WWE’s purchase of WCW, the Jarrett brothers established NWA-TNA (later Total Nonstop Wrestling, now Impact Wrestling).

After a disagreement with the company’s leadership in 2005, Jarrett resigned and sold his interests to Panda Energy. Possible future WWE stars include A.J. Styles, Xavier Woods, and Bobby Roode. Several stars from All Elite Wrestling were in attendance, including Samoa Joe, Christopher Daniels, and the Young Bucks.

The wrestling community came together in a show of support for the Jarretts after the news surfaced.