For millions of young kids around the world “The Charismatic Enigma” Jeff Hardy is a role model. Millions of people around the world, adults included look up to Jeff Hardy as a wrestling god, a great person, and a cultural icon. For those who don’t know, Jeff Hardy has become one of the biggest wrestling superstars of the past decade, known for his work in the WWE, and to a small extent TNA Wrestling. Like John Cena, he draws in the younger audiences with his multi coloured wrist and armbands, painted face and well known move set. For a young fan, Hardy is easy to love, but for older fans, especially now in 2011 Hardy is easy to hate. Now in 2011 Hardy is “The Antichrist of professional wrestling”, a name he acquired after winning the TNA World Heavyweight Championship for the first time at Bound for Glory 2010. Life as Jeff Hardy isn’t all glitz, glamour and coloured armbands; could we be witnessing the very fall of Jeff Hardy? An eighteen month drug case, a seemingly failed career in TNA and limelight being away from him in the WWE suggests Jeff Hardy is on the brink of extinction. I’ll be looking at the ‘In Ring Issues’ which could make or break the charismatic one.
Hardy won his first world championship in December 2008 at the Armageddon PPV, defeating champ Edge and Triple H to win the WWE Championship, signalling the highest point in Hardy’s wrestling career, the moment which put Hardy in the history books forever, especially with the younger members of the WWE universe. Later that year after dropping the WWE Championship at the Royal Rumble to Edge, thanks to interference from Matt Hardy, Jeff won the WWE World Heavyweight Championship two times. The first against Edge at Extreme Rules in a Ladder Match, only to lose it that night against CM Punk who cashed in his seconds Money in the Bank briefcase. Secondly he won his second World Heavyweight Championship at Night of Champions won the title back from CM Punk.
I bring up these points about the WWE and Jeff Hardy because the WWE made Jeff Hardy the megastar he is today. Under the strict regime WWE has in place, Hardy was at check all the time, his performance, his health and fitness, as well as his mental stability were being well kept after, and as long as Jeff Hardy was in the WWE, then there would be limited issues, with issues such as steroids and drugs right?
This brings me nicely onto my next point. For the past eighteen months, for those that know Jeff Hardy has been in a long drug case. In September 2009, a few months after Hardy left the WWE, a search in his house found 262 Vicodin prescription pills, 180 soma prescription pills, 555 milliliters of anabolic steroids, a residual amount of powder cocaine, and drug paraphernalia. As a result Hardy was arrested, and a court ruling is still pending, mostly because each and EVERY month there has been a continuation of the case, but despite these continuations there is a belief Hardy will plead guilty, meaning he will have to serve a minimum of forty four days in jail, and could get numerous years locked up behind bars. To say the least, this case has been the fuel for wrestling commentators for the last eighteen months, and in doing so has contributed a lot of negative press towards Jeff. Every time Jeff goes out of line it only adds to the negative press made about him. The court case itself though, has affected in in ring career, especially in TNA.
Jeff re-joined TNA on January 4th 2010, the night Hulk Hogan debuted in TNA, a night which has since then forever changed the company for all the wrong reasons (FYI, Hardy made his TNA debut at their second anniversary show in 2004 against AJ Styles for the X-Division Championship, and was with TNA until November 2006, when his last appearance was against Monty Brown). Ever since he joined TNA Jeff Hardy was a baby-face wrestler, but it wasn’t until the April 5th Impact where he made his in ring return against AJ Styles (again), this time defeating Styles. Hardy done nothing of great importance and was rather lacklustre, predictable and boring up until the seeding of the Immortal storyline. Jeff Hardy finally had a good match when he and Kurt Angle faced off at No Surrender in semi-finals of the TNA World Heavyweight Championship tournament, which was set after (Undeserving, mediocre, boring) TNA champ RVD was attacked by Abyss and his weapon Janice (Who was a 2x4 with HUGE nails in it) and had to vacate the title.
This led up to Bound for Glory, when it was Mr. Anderson v. Kurt Angle v. Jeff Hardy for the TNA World Heavyweight title, a match Hardy won after “THEY” were revealed to be Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff, Jeff Jarrett and Abyss. Hardy won his first TNA title, but I say this contributes to the fall of Jeff Hardy because he never, EVERRRRRRRRRR to win the title in the first place. As I said, since coming back to TNA he only managed to have mediocre, overrated matches against people who looked better than Hardy. His promo work was sloppy; he still hasn’t cut a good promo in TNA. Jeff in my eyes and those of educated fans only won the belt because of his name. TNA, who are trying to imitate everything WWE is doing saw that Jeff Hardy was a good world champion in WWE, so they shoved the title on him thinking they could do the same. The only difference was that Hardy is now a heel, a move which still isn’t convincing too many fans, and the fact he looked more ridiculous by the day.
It appears that coming back to TNA has only dampened Jeff’s career. TNA, unlike WWE don’t have the same measures of protection for their superstars. Not only that, they are open to storylines, and with someone like Hardy, he can probably make his own storylines and have his own demands, but this could be bad, simply because how does Hardy know what’s good for him? The only way he made it to the top was because of WWE’s strict policy and ruthless booking. In short, TNA’s made Hardy look crap, and vice versa, Jeff Hardy has made TNA look second rate. And the worst of it all? Despite growing merchandise figures in Hardy’s favour, Jeff Hardy of all people, one of the biggest draws in wrestling can’t improve TNA’s ratings. A man with millions of fans in America can’t even get cable ratings improvements of 0.1. How much are TNA paying him and all the other WWE castoffs, for this privilege? Lord only knows.
The drug case has affected his in ring status, because every month when he is due in court, usually are just after TNA Pay-Per-Views, or just before them, and Jeff’s 2011 so far with TNA proves it. At the Genesis PPV, Hardy lost his TNA World Heavyweight title to Mr. Anderson, a match where he came down in street clothes and smoking on the entrance ramp (Role model huh?) after Anderson had his number one contender’s match with Matt Morgan. After the court case was postponed, Hardy won the title back at the very next Pay-Per-View, Against All Odds, in his signature Ladder match, defeating Anderson, however, TNA officials were still worried Hardy wouldn’t be able to hold the belt, so two weeks later on March 3rd 2011 he drop his custom made TNA title to the returning Sting. After dropping the belt for a second time this year because of non-wrestling related issues, Hardy then would have his rematch at Victory Road 2011, a PPV TNA barely even promoted, but now will go down in the history books as one of the biggest jokes in wrestling history, a PPV which will be talked about for a long time to come.
With the Hardy/Sting rematch on, there was another serve. With just over half an hour of the PPV left, TNA officials deemed that Jeff was in no condition to wrestle, which led to Sting completely destroying Hardy within NINETY seconds, finishing Hardy off with the signature Scorpion Death Drop. Fans chanted “Bullshit” whilst TNA Champion Sting looked like he was seething all over, obviously pissed off at Hardy and the decision. The following night at the Monday 14th February iMPACT taping Jeff Hardy was sent home for reportedly collapsing in a bathroom. When it comes to Jeff Hardy, do TNA have any ethics, or are they happy about using and abusing Hardy until he hits rock bottom? It’s disgusting that TNA aren’t giving Hardy the help he needs, but instead making him compete when he’s clearly unstable, and secondly Hardy is a fool for not taking some time away to resolve this court case. If you were a part of any other company, you’d be given help and support, but no, this is TNA. Instead they tell him to go out and have half an hour matches with Mr. Anderson and Sting, all in the name of ratings, without knowing what Jeff could be on, or what as a result of these incidents, he COULD be on. I know this is very pro WWE, but they would never do this to a superstar, and the stars that go down the troubled end, they attempt to fix and better. But this isn’t favouring one brand, this is about the wellness of wrestlers, and it’s apparent that TNA quite simply HAVE NONE!
So what is the future of Jeff Hardy? At the 14th February TNA tapings, Hogan and Bischoff seemingly wrote Hardy out of plans with Immortal and TNA, and he might be going home for an extended period (Or jail maybe if he does plead guilty), but the problem is deeper than that. Jeff needs help. I might not like him or what he stands for, but Jeff needs to take some time away and come back reinvented, or if the wrestling business is so destructive on him then quit altogether. The last thing we need is his brother Fat Hardy to reassure us he is ok, because Jeff needs a Twist of Fate, not a Twist of Hate, and to get there TNA need to support Jeff, and not make him a tool for ratings. People need to see this is somebodies life, and not just a famous face on TV. But the true picture is clear, the Jeff Hardy many knew and loved is over, and at Victory Road, maybe it put the final nail in the coffin for Jeff Hardy, who was gone in ninety seconds.
Robert Austin
“In Ring Issues”
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