Jerry Jarrett, best known for his time as a wrestling promoter, as well as an in-ring performer, has passed away at the age of 80.

While Jarrett began his career as a referee, he made the decision to become a pro wrestler in 1965, primarily wrestling for the NWA Mid-America promotion, where he was a one-time NWA Mid-America Tag Team Champion alongside George Gulas, a one-time NWA World Tag Team Champion alongside Jackie Fargo and a ten-time NWA Southern Tag Team Champion alongside Tojo Yamamoto on five occasions, Jackie Fargo on four occasions and Johnny Marlin on one occasion.

Jarrett founded the Continental Wrestling Association in 1977, which featured talent including Jerry “The King” Lawler who collaborated with him to launch the promotion, as well as Stan Hansen, Terry Funk, Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan and many more. The CWA merged with the World Class Championship Wrestling promotion to create the United States Wrestling Association in 1989.

Jarrett, alongside his son Jeff Jarrett, formed TNA Wrestling in May 2002, with their first event held on June 19th, 2002, however by October 2002, JSE (the parent company of TNA Wrestling) sold 72% of controlling interest to Panda Energy. Jarrett remained on board as part of the management team before departing in late 2005.

Jarrett, who was inducted into the NWA Hall of Fame back in 2009, released two books on his time in the professional wrestling business, the first in 2004 titled “The Story of the Development of NWATNA: New Concept In Pay-Per-View Programming”, followed up by the second in 2011 titled “The Best of Times”.

On behalf of Wrestling-News.Net, we would like to extend our condolences to the family, friends and fans of Jerry Jarrett.