Along with his long-term business partner Jerry Lawler, he was a key figure in the history of professional wrestling in the Mid-Southern United States.

In 2002, he co-founded NWA:TNA in Nashville with his son Jeff Jarrett, selling his controlling interest to Panda Energy International later in the same year.

To support Jerry Jarrett and his sister, Christine began working as a ticket vendor at the Nashville Hippodrome for Nick Gulas and Roy Welch, the promoters of NWA Mid-America.

[1][6] After receiving a hardship driving license at the age of 14, Jarrett began promoting professional wrestling events: renting buildings, advertising shows, constructing the ring, selling tickets, and stocking refreshments.

After graduating in 1963, Jarrett worked four years for the Murray Ohio Manufacturing Company as a purchasing agent before deciding to pursue a career in professional wrestling.

He and Yamamoto became the inaugural CWA World Tag Team Champions in July 1980, losing the belts to Austin Idol and Dutch Mantel the following month.

[4] In the early-1970s, Jarrett and his mother began promoting professional wrestling shows on behalf of Gulas in the Memphis area.

[12][13] After a dispute with Gulas in 1977, Jerry Jarrett opted to break away beginning a promotion, the Continental Wrestling Association (CWA).

[16] In 1988, Jarrett began talks with Verne Gagne, owner of the Minneapolis, Minnesota–based American Wrestling Association, about a potential merger.

By the mid-1990s, attendances at the Mid-South Coliseum had fallen sharply, and Jarrett sold his stake in the promotion to Jerry Lawler and Larry Burton before it folded in 1997.

[19][20] On May 9, 2002, they formed J Sports and Entertainment (JSE), the parent company of NWA:TNA, a new professional wrestling promotion that began airing weekly pay-per-views on In Demand on June 19.

[18] Jarrett contributed to 2004's The Story of the Development of NWATNA: A New Concept in Pay-Per-View Programming and released the autobiographical The Best of Times in 2011.