Can I keep to a schedule? Will I stick to a weekly post format? Will Jenny comment on this? What is on my mind tonight? Come on in, take a seat, relax a little. Its late night, its smooth, its like Later… With Jooles Holland, but without the music and the backwards walking.
Today is St Patricks Day. I’m not going to talk about that, because there are hundreds of other blogs around the web that are currently doing so.
No, I don’t want to talk about St Paddys Day. I want to talk wrestling. (Non fans, still read ahead. This is about an incident that should have gotten more press than it did. There’s also some things that I think you can relate to in here as well.)
On Sunday March 13th, TNA Wrestling (The #2 promotion after the widely known WWE) held their annual Victory Road pay per view. Pay per views are major events, designed to showcase popular talent in must see matches. Because its pay per view, wrestlers will go above and beyond to make sure the paying viewer gets their moneys worth in terms of match quality. Pay per view events feature important matches in running storylines as well as being a place to bring some storylines to an end, usually with one wrestler winning a championship, or finally triumphing in victory over a long time rival or enemy. Pay per views are almost always live, so the company management, bookers (people who decide what happens), agents (usually an experienced and retired wrestler who help talent build matches) and the wrestlers have to be ready to perform. There’s no room for mistakes. You can’t edit anything if its live.
Long story short, PPV’s are a big deal.
So why this post? I am sure you’ve heard of a wrestler by the name of Jeff Hardy. Hardy is arguably a big name in wrestling and was being moulded to be the TNA’s top heel (ProWres slang for bad guy). Jeff has also had well publicized problems with drugs (even being referenced in storyline on WWE programming.), being let go from the WWE in 2004 for failing drug tests. During that time, he had a mostly forgettable run in TNA, cleaned himself up and got rehired by WWE in mid 2006. During this time, WWE had brought in a new wellness policy, with the rule being a 30 day suspension on your first strike, a 60 day suspension on your second strike and a termination from your contract on the third strike. Jeff was on two strikes when his contract came to an end in 2009. He opted not to sign another contract and left the company to rejoin TNA a few months later. After rejoining, he was pushed as one of the top guys of the company until he turned heel after winning the title in October 2010, which he lost in February of this year before winning it again a couple of weeks later. Hardy recently lost the TNA heavyweight title again to a man called Sting (not the musician.) and was participating in this PPV in a rematch for said championship.
According to reports, Hardy showed up at the event late, and in no considerable shape to perform in a match, let alone walk to the ring. He reportedly had to be held up behind the entrance stage, and while making his entrance, he was walking strangely, eyes wide open, almost in a trance. He slowly walked down the ramp, pausing to high five some fans (remember, he is the heel here, who are meant to hate fans.). He climbed the ring steps and slipped on them. To put a slightly politically incorrect term on here, Hardy was off his face on something. He was either drunk or on some sort of substance, but he was definitely impaired and in no shape to perform.
Before the match bell rang, Eric Bischoff (heel authority figure and real life executive producer of TNA) came down to ringside and announced that the match would now be a no disqualification match, and spoke to both Hardy and Sting out of microphone range. In kayfabe (wrestling reality.), Eric was just stacking the deck in Hardys favour. In reality, he was calling an audible (an improvisation or sorts. Changing things on the fly.) and was telling the guys to end it early.
The bell rang. Jeff spent a minute playing with the crowd, walking to all four corners of the ring to decide where to throw his shirt. during this, one of the commentators noticed that something was awry and began to sound noticeably annoyed, while Sting, a near twenty year veteran of the sport, looked on, disgusted. Eventually, Sting managed to back Hardy into a corner, pull him by his hair into position for his finishing move, nailed it and scored the pinfall to retain the title. The whole match lasted less than two minutes. Just typing this paragraph took longer than the main event of the Victory Road PPV. TNA ran a highlight video of the event, and over it you could hear the annoyed fans who had come to see a 20-30 minute title match chant “BULLSHIT” loudly. Sting, who could have let the match go a couple of minutes longer, but chose not to, fearing his safety, responded to the crowds chants, shouting “I agree”.
Sting decided that Hardy was a risk to not only him, but Hardy himself. Wrestling is a sport where your life is in your opponents hands 90% of the time. Moves are meant to be executed as safely as possible. If one of the wrestlers is obviously high, how can you guarantee your safety? Sting made the smart decision to end it early.
TNA however, did not make a smart decision. If Hardy showed up at the event in no shape to compete, why did they still send him out there and change things up at (literally) the last possible moment instead of changing things up beforehand?
Jeff needs help. He has charges against him for drug possession and suspected drug trafficking dating from nearly 18 months ago that are still held up in court. A few months ago he became a father, and very recently, he got married to his long time girlfriend.
I actually believed that he had managed to sort himself out without going to rehab. Obviously, after Sundays events, he hasn’t.
In WWE, if you show up at an event on drugs, you’re fired on the spot, and offered rehab on WWE’s dime. TNA’s punishment was to send him home for a week, missing out on a months worth of television tapings. While firing Hardy seems to be the popular opinion across the internet, I don’t think firing him would help. It would leave him free to just sit at home and further drug himself out, with no source of income to boot. In my opinion, TNA should have payed for him to go to rehab, with the door open for a return to the company after he cleaned himself up. Addiction isn’t something you can just snap out of. You need time, and help.
Providing Hardy doesn’t see jail time after his court case eventually wraps up, he, along with his friends and family should take notice of this moment and use it as a catalyst to get the ball rolling to clean his act up. Personally, unless its hard drugs, I see nothing wrong with RESPONSIBLE drug use, but when you use drugs and show up to work and pose a danger to yourself and others, I can’t condone it at all.
TNA needs to do everything they can to help Jeff out. As a company that is rapidly becoming known for not treating its contracted talent fairly, with stories of only loaning money for medical costs and expecting full repayment, this is a time for them to fully foot the cost of rehabilitation and get a bit of positive PR at a time where it hasn’t exactly been endearing itself to the hearts of wrestling journalists everywhere.
Something needs to be done now before its too late and we have another name to add to the shockingly long list of wrestling personalities who have died at such a young age due to substance and medication abuse.
