9-Time WWE Champion Surprisingly Shows Up At AEW Full Gear

AEW Full Gear 2025 took place on Saturday, November 22, at the iconic Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.

As the night rolled on, the crowd got a surprise. They didn’t think they’d see 9-time WWE Champion Jeff Jarrett show up at Full Gear, especially after his limited appearances earlier in the year.

But Jarrett made his presence felt during the Full Gear Zero Hour segment and joined Renee Paquette and RJ City as a pre-show host.

Before Full Gear, Jarrett was rarely featured on AEW shows in 2025. His last match in an AEW ring was all the way back on January 29, 2025, where he took a tough loss against Claudio Castagnoli.

AEW Star Jeff Jarrett Explains Why Bret Hart Never Made It To TNA

Speaking on the My World podcast, Jeff Jarrett revealed he wanted to bring Bret Hart to TNA but failed.

The reason behind this was that Hart was always holding out hope for a WWE return.

Jarrett explained that their conversations about bringing Hart in were ongoing for years, but Hart never fully committed to TNA.

The plan wasn’t for Hart to wrestle; rather, it was to give the company credibility and use his legendary status to endorse AJ Styles, helping to boost Styles’s profile in the wrestling world.

Me and Bret are buddies. We had a good working relationship… ‘Look, Bret, nobody expects you to wrestle. How can we get you involved?’

So those conversations kept ebbing and flowing because I knew there would be an ambassador role in there.

My goal is… ‘Brett, you know that your image, if you will, is the excellence of execution.’ I’m like, ‘How can I get Bret to get involved with the product and really first understand who AJ is, and then really give him the rub?’

And maybe Bret would come up, or we’d collaborate on whatever it may be.

My gut was right all along that he never wanted to commit to us.

I think at the very end of the day, he always had hope and optimism, ‘I’m going to go back to WWE and everything’s going to be alright.’ I just think that was in his brain, and we never would commit.

H/T: WrestlingNews.co