Jeff Hardy has a history of substance and alcohol abuse. This is the main focus for his rivalry with Sheamus on Smackdown. It is certain fans have not forgotten the infamous incident involving him on March 13th, 2011 at the TNA pay-per-view Victory Road.
Sting and Jeff Hardy were scheduled to compete, but Hardy was unfit for competition. He was visibly inebriated and Eric Bischoff changed plans on the spot. They simply had to get Hardy out of the ring, so he was pinned quickly by Sting.
During a recent episode of Busted Open Radio, Bully Ray discussed Hardy returning to Impact Wrestling following that incident. He apologized to the locker room, but Ray also had to say something.
”I remember when Jeff Hardy had the problem, you know in the match against Sting. Remember that debacle in TNA? I remember when Jeff came back to the company” Bully Ray continued. And they [TNA] made him apologize to the locker room. They put Jeff in front of the whole locker room and he just kind of apologized like I’m really sorry blah blah blah blah blah.”
”Then they said at the end of the meeting ‘does anybody have anything to say?’ and I said, ‘Yeah, I do.’ I said, ‘Jeff, I really couldn’t care less about all of these things that went on. All I care about is that you can still hit your finish. Now let’s go out there and make some money.”
Ray also explained that when a wrestler’s entrance theme starts, he should be ready to compete. Hardy was not able to do that, putting himself in such a state that it would not have been safe for him to wrestle.
Thankfully, Hardy is in a better place right now. He certainly took what happened at Victory Road as a learning experience.
h/t to SE Scoops for the transcription.
