 Jarrett in 2014 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | Karen Smedley (1972-10-12)October 12, 1972 (age 53) Greensburg, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
Spouses | |
| Children | 2 |
| Family | Jerry Jarrett (father-in-law) Eric Angle (brother-in-law from first marriage) |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Karen Angle Karen Jarrett |
| Billed height | 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) |
| Debut | August 2007 |
Karen Jarrett[1] (néeSmedley and formerlyAngle, born October 12, 1972) is an Americanprofessional wrestlingvalet and personality appearing forAll Elite Wrestling (AEW). She is the former wife of professional wrestler andOlympic gold medalistKurt Angle and the current wife of AEW wrestlerJeff Jarrett.[1]
She previously served as ringside manager for both Angle and Jarrett, and later as an on screen authority figure inTotal Nonstop Action Wrestling.
Karen was never involved in a storyline ofWorld Wrestling Entertainment while her then-husbandKurt Angle was under contract. She herself was never under contract, but did briefly appear atUnforgiven 2001 as a part of the big celebration with the Angle family following Kurt Angle's victory overStone Cold Steve Austin for theWWF Championship. She also made an appearance on theWrestleMania XX DVD set in a bonus segment regarding Kurt Angle.
Karen Angle was introduced inTotal Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) in the summer of 2007 whenSamoa Joe and Kurt Angle were feuding for an all-at-onceTriple Crown Championship (Kurt held theTNA World Heavyweight Championship, and Joe held theTNA X Division andTNA World Tag Team Championship). Karen was supposedly wanting to divorce Kurt, claiming that he was emotionally abusive toward both her and their children.[2] At theHard Justicepay-per-view, however, Karen betrayed Joe during his match with her husband, resulting in Kurt winning the Triple Crown (thus turning her heel).[3] In the following weeks, her character began to develop into a manipulativevamp, such as when she claimed thatSting slapped her atNo Surrender when, in fact, he had not. This led to Kurt and Sting losing the Tag Team titles toTeam Pacman after Kurt executed theOlympic slam on Sting. Another feud then erupted between Kurt Angle and Sting in which Sting had Karen arrested for violating a restraining order and Kurt stalking Sting's son.
AtGenesis, Karen persuadedA.J. Styles and Tomko into helping Kurt retain the TNA World Heavyweight Championship during the tag team match for the title. In late 2007, Karen began to have issues withBooker T's wifeSharmell, claiming there was only room for one "queen" in TNA (a direct reference to Booker T's and Sharmell's lastWWEgimmick, where they were self-proclaimed royalty after Booker won the2006 King of the Ring tournament). This led to acatfight at the December 12TNA Impact! tapings. Karen suffered a broken foot after jumping from the apron after an in-ring segment.[4] She did not miss any time as a result of TNA's taping schedule. On the February 14, 2008 episode ofImpact!, Karen was scheduled to renew herwedding vows to Kurt, but in the storyline, she was pronounced married toA.J. Styles after the priest, who had just been knocked down byKevin Nash, awoke and married the two, mistaking Styles for Kurt. Kurt then started to emotionally attack Karen for not ending the "marriage".
Later in the year, she proposed to separate from Kurt Angle (kayfabe) which Kurt Angle supported to "concentrate on his upcoming match with Samoa Joe at Lockdown". Since then, hints of a relationship with A.J. were given, after Kurt continued to ignore Karen, even having her ejected from her ringside seat atLockdown. On the May 22, 2008 episode ofImpact!, Kurt Angle asked Karen to the ring to forgive him for not performing his "husbandly duties" and to ask her to come home. Karen then left a begging Kurt in the ring after he pleaded for a second chance. At the end ofImpact!, Karen came to the ring to the aid of A.J. Styles who was being beaten four on one byBooker T,Team 3D, andTomko. After being ejected, Karen ran to the back to enlist Kurt's aid, who came out with a chair. Kurt threatened the four with the chair, only to turn around and see his estranged wife hugging a bloody AJ. Kurt freaked and hit AJ with the chair, thus prompting the four back in the ring.Team 3D held Karen up while Kurt held AJ's head, yelling at Karen, telling her this was all her fault. Kurt is quoted as saying to Karen, "This is your fault! You deceived me!"
On the May 29, 2008 edition ofImpact! after being assaulted backstage before his entrance, A.J. ran to the ring to help Karen only to be beat down by Team 3D and Kurt Angle for the second week in a row.Christian Cage came to the ring to aid Styles but was viciously assaulted for his trouble as well. It was then announced that at theSlammiversary pay-per-view it would be A.J. Styles one-on-one with Kurt Angle. Karen then interfered helping A.J. Styles win his match againstKurt Angle at Slammiversary 2008, turning her face again. Shortly thereafter, Angle was given her own interview segment,Karen's Angle oniMPACT. Her first interview wasKaz on July 24, 2008. On the October 9, 2008 episode ofImpact!, it was announced that Karen had to step down as the host ofKaren's Angle to focus on her family. Her profile andKnockout photos were taken off TNA's official website, but were put back up a few days later.
On January 10, 2011, TNA announced that Karen would be making her return to the promotion on the January 13 edition ofImpact!, appearing beside her new husbandJeff Jarrett, who had been feuding with Kurt Angle.[5] In her return appearance Karen confronted Angle just as he was about to attack Jeff, told him that she would not allow him to ruin their personal lives and promised to tell all about their divorce the following week.[6] The following week Karen slapped Kurt, providing a distraction which allowed Jeff to beat him down.[7] On February 13 atAgainst All Odds Jeff defeated Kurt in a singles match and as a result Angle was forced to walk Karen down the aisle, when she and Jarrett renewed their wedding vows on the March 3 edition ofImpact!.[8] On March 3 Angle proceeded to destroy the wedding set with an axe and forced wedding guest,New York JetBart Scott to tap out with the ankle lock.[9] On May 15 atSacrifice, Angle andChyna, whom Angle had recently brought to the promotion to negate Karen, defeated the Jarretts in a mixed tag team match, after Karen submitted to Chyna.[10] Due to a storyline injury, Karen missed the culmination of Jeff's and Angle's feud atSlammiversary IX and the followingImpact Wrestling, which led to the defeated Jarrett leaving the company for a tour of Mexico.[11][12] On June 18, Karen appeared beside her husband at Mexican promotionLucha Libre AAA World Wide's (AAA) biggest event of the year,Triplemanía XIX, and provided a distraction, which led to Jeff defeatingEl Zorro for theAAA Mega Championship.[13] On the September 1 edition ofImpact Wrestling!,Eric Bischoff named Karen the new commissioner of theKnockouts Division.[14] On the October 20 edition ofImpact Wrestling, Jarrett aligned herself withGail Kim andMadison Rayne.[15] On the December 15 edition ofImpact Wrestling, TNA's authority figure, Sting, fired both Jarretts from TNA as a result of Jeff losing toJeff Hardy atFinal Resolution.[16]
Four years later, Karen, alongside her husband Jeff returned toImpact Wrestling on the June 24, 2015 tapings. Jeff announced that he would be the first entrant in the King of the Mountain match atSlammiversary 2015.[17] Karen turned heel on the August 26 episode ofImpact Wrestling when she revealed that she orchestrated the attacks on TNA General ManagerBully Ray andDrew Galloway. A team of 5 wrestlers from GFW fought against a team of 5 from TNA in aLethal Lockdown match to determine complete control of TNA. GFW was unsuccessful when Drew Galloway pinned Brian Myers, thus exiling GFW from TNA.[18]
On October 12, 2013, Jarrett appeared atFamily Wrestling Entertainment's Grand Prix, where she was named Commissioner.[19]
She is the co-founder of Global Force Wrestling.[20]
On January 5, 2017, it was announced that Karen Jarrett had rejoined Impact Wrestling, now under the ownership ofAnthem Sports & Entertainment, as executive consultant role running Impact Wrestling.[21] Jarrett returned as a face on the March 23 episode ofImpact Wrestling, and was welcomed back byJeremy Borash, she soon was interrupted byEthan Carter III and thenJosh Mathews. When Mathews said he knew the Jarrets would be gone forever, Karen would slap him ending the show.[22] On the March 30 episode of Impact Wrestling, Jarrett would call out so called leader of the knockouts Sienna and gave her 10 seconds to apologize for her treatment of Allie but was interrupted by a debuting KM, Sienna's cousin who publicly berated Jarrett for asking Sienna to apologize. Jarrett was rescued by Braxton Sutter, who knocked KM out of the ring. Jarrett made a match between KM and Sutter for later that night. Later on the same night, Jarrett handed Borash a piece of paper for him to announce a Knockouts battle royal to determine the new number 1 contender to Rosemary's Knockouts Championship. On the April 20 episodeImpact Wrestling, Karen Jarrett announced thatImpact Wrestling andGlobal Force Wrestling hadmerged.
On May 17, 2023, Jarrett made her debut inAll Elite Wrestling (AEW), helping her husband,Jay Lethal, andSatnam Singh attackFTR (Cash Wheeler andDax Harwood) onDynamite, and joining Jeff's stable.[23]
Karen has two children with her former husbandKurt Angle, whom she married in 1998. In 2008, Karen filed for divorce, which was finalized on October 26, 2008.[24][25]
Karen was romantically linked to TNA co-founderJeff Jarrett in 2009. The relationship was said to have started while Kurt and Karen were separated. This resulted in TNA presidentDixie Carter placing Jarrett on a leave of absence.[26][27][28][29] The situation was revealed in July 2009 when a caller claiming to be a former TNA employee called theBubba the Love Sponge Show.[30][31] On April 6, 2010, Karen announced that she and Jarrett were engaged.[32] Karen and Jarrett were married on August 21, 2010.[1]
During April 2016, the Wrestling Observer Newsletter published a report that Karen was involved in an argument withLucha Underground announcer Melissa Santos during aWrestleCon inDallas over theWrestleMania 32 weekend. Details include Santos was complaining about not having a chair to sit on, somehow leading to Karen spitting on her and a confrontation that nearly escalated into a fight.[33] It was reported as early as July 27, 2017, Karen had a confrontation with WWE superstarBraun Strowman in a bar inNashville. The report described Karen approached Braun with a request for an autograph for her son. Braun allegedly refused to sign an autograph and disrespected Karen with an unspecified but derogatory verbal response. Karen went on to identify her child was the son of then-WWE superstarKurt Angle, prompting Strowman to apologize. After the story made sports news, Karen went on to state the incident was "blown way out of proportion."[34][35]
,Internet Wrestling Database