We interrupt your regularly scheduled life to bring you the latest in incredibly stupid ideas. Sometimes, you don't have to look very far for them.
About a month ago, TNA was putting on their Victory Road Pay Per View. By now, we all know how the main event went. Jeff Hardy came out, drugged out of his mind, and tried to compete in that main event. It all became very real, as storylines and characters were thrown out the window to salvage this situation. Two minutes later, Hardy was pinned, though he tried to kick out of Sting's finisher. The fans chanted "bullsh*t" as Sting exitedt he arena and he was visibly shown saying "I agree". In that moment, I agreed as well.
It's pretty clear that Jeff Hardy needs help. This goes beyond wrestling and this man needs to forget about the business for a while. Getting clean requires 100 percent of ones time and it needs to be Jeff Hardy's #1 priority before it's too late.
Luckily, TNA has taken him off the road in hopes that he will do so. It seems the hope is that WWE will foot the bill for his rehab, but why not TNA? They seem to have plenty of money to be giving random old superstars to make no impact on the product (no pun intended), so why not shell out to try and help an employee that they claim to care about? It amazes me that this company can bash WWE ad nauseum to get attention, but when they need WWE to pay to help their guy, it's all good.
Truthfully, I don't care who pays. The guy needs help and should get it. I know I'm not the typical wrestling fan in that I have sympathy for wrestlers, but I don't want to see the guy die. What I don't want to see is what I feared might happen and what I read via the rumor mill today.
The rumor of the day, coming from an anonymous source (who has stated that this is pure rumor at this point so take it with a grain of salt) is that TNA wants Hardy to get rehab for a couple of months, perhaps paid for by the WWE, and to return as a babyface who has overcome addiction. That is to say that they want to take this life-threatening situation which has plagued this guy for years, and make it into a storyline!
This would be typical Vince Russo, as he has always liked to blend real life into the kayfabe world, and to be honest, it's never good. Some people like it, but in most cases it's just awful. In this case, it would be downright despicable. It was awful in 1998 when the WWF (with Russo mind you) made Road Warrior Hawk's alcoholism a storyline and it was just as bad when WCW made Scott Hall a drunk on TV as well. It is disgusting to exploit these situations and it would be a bad idea for TNA to do it as well.
Thus, this article is being written for one reason only, to BEG, PLEAD, and PRAY that TNA doesn't actually do this. Let the guy get help without feeling like he needs to so it works for a storyline. Plus, both other men who did it as a storyline NEVER got clean. I'd like to see Jeff get clean for him and have wrestling not play into it.
This is a company that hired a guy knowing he had problems. Don't compound that by trying to profit off of the guy fixing his problems. It's not right and it can only lead to negative things.
After reading Goldust's book "Cross Rhodes", I have seen a man who dealt with drug addiction and was able to fix his life and THEN return to the business where he found the most success. That is my wish for Jeff Hardy. Let him get clean and be 100 percent ok with that. If he shows that he can be trusted, then both the WWE and TNA can look at hiring him. A sober Jeff Hardy may be a revelation, but his character should have NOTHING to do with his real life issues. Let those become a thing of the past, where only Jeff deals with it in his present, fighting the great fight to stay sober every day. Jeff is an addict and doesn't need to be reminded of it on television every week.
So TNA, I implore you, do not do what I think you are going to do. You know it is in bad taste and you know it will only bring negative attention to yourself, something you do not need any more. Let the guy get clean, and if you feel he can be an asset to your company, bring him back without mention of his real life issues. Get some writers who can come up with something better. If you can't find another story for him, then please, don't hire him.
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