Jeff Jarrett became involved in wrestling when he worked for his father, Jerry Jarrett, wrestling promotion Continental Wrestling Association in 1986 as a referee and beging training to wrestle during the same time. He had his first wrestling within a month. Whe his father  created the USWA, Jeff began to wrestle full time and won the USWA Heavyweight Championship ten times during his time there. In 1993, he was hired by the WWE for his first run there. During his three years there, Jarrett won the Intercontinental Title twice as his gimmick of a country music singer but left the company over a contract dispute in 1996. He moved onto WCW.

While in WCW, Jarrett won the WCW United States Championship from Dean Malenko and started a feud with Steve McMichael, who eventually won the US Title from Jarrett. After a year and his contract expiring, Jarrett decided to go back to the WWE. In his second run in the WWE, he won the NWA North American Championship and feuded with Degeneration X. Jarrett also won the Intercontinental title on two occasions and joined forces with Debrawho he was paired up with in WCW. Once again, Jarrett chose to leave the WWE once Vince Russo left for WCW and allegedly tried to hold up Vince McMahon for $30,000 for him to wrestle and lost the title wihtout a contact.

In WCW, Jarrett referred to himself as the "Chosen One" and immediately went after tand won the United States Championshp. He reformed the New World Order and renamed it NWO 2000 with Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, and Bret Hart. Jarrett won the vacant WCW Championship in April 2000 over Diamond Dallas Page but lost the title to actor David Arquette.Jarrett won the title back in a triple cage match against Page and Arquette after Arquette turned on Page. In the last year of WCW, Jarrett would feud with Ric Flair, Booker T, and Sting to name a few but his feud with Hulk Hogan still has people talking as at Bash at the Beach 2000, Jarrett would lay down and let Hogan win the title. Rumors had Hogan using his creative control clause not let Jarrett beat him. After a verbal tireade live on air by Vince Russo, Jarrett competed for the WCW Title against Booker T and lost. When WCW was brought by the WWE, Jarrett's contract was not picked up.

Jarrett and his father created Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, a wrestling promotion based out of Nashville, Tennessee. They started airing weekly pay-per-views and on the first TNA show in June 2002, Jarrett competed in a Gautlet for the Gold for the NWA Heavyweight Championship but was elimnated by country music star Toby Keith. In 2002, he defeated Ron Killings for the NWA World Title and started a long feud with Raven, in which Jarrett came up victorious. He would go on to win and lose the title four more time during the first few years of TNA with many of those loses coming to AJ Styles. In all, Jarrett is a six time NWA World Champion. After losing to Sting at Bound for Glory 2006, he announced he was taking time off from the ring.

In April 2007, he reutrned to the ring as the fifth member of a Lethal Lockdown team with Kurt Angle. Jarrett would take another leave and come back to feud with Angle and set up a series of matches between the two which was Match of the Year candidates. Jarrett would then feud with Mick Foley and the Main Event Mafia. A quick feud with Eric Young ensued and then Jarrett was gone from the company again this time over personal reasons. He returned in December 2009, when it was announced that Hulk Hogan was coming to TNA.