(2024 Update: Look, I wanted to have a nice looking banner for this thing, but since this is about one of Jeff Hardy’s lowest low points that made air, the only “nice” thing this deserves a recycled shot of Jeff Hardy’s atrocious TNA World title redesign. Believe me; if the thought occurred to do a banner at the time, it’d be far less pleasant.)
At Victory Road 2011, Jeff Hardy showed up stoned for work and caused the main event match between Sting and himself to be reduced to a 88 second squash match. The PPV ends with the Impact Zone audience chanting “BULLSHIT” and Sting, the reigning TNA World Heavyweight Champion, agreeing with them. I recently had a chance to rewatch the main event in question and it’s almost chilling to see an audience who usually cheers for just about anything that TNA will throw at them, piss on their product with great passion and anger… and even more so for the company’s top guy to agree with their assessment.
I did a video log a couple days ago, wondering what the mindset was in letting the match go ahead as it did and wondering how anyone in their right mind would legitimately believe that this was the absolute best way to end a PPV that people paid money for. Even days later, I’m at a loss to rationalise this as something beneficial and even TNA themselves couldn’t find a way to rationalise this thought process, which explains their offer to give those who bought the PPV six months free access to their OnDemand service, which was a rather nice gesture and something that took balls for them to admit that they delivered a less-than-stellar product.
However, the fact that TNA allowed Jeff Hardy to perform when he was in no condition to do so and to allow the PPV, which had been, in my opinion at least, a respectable PPV of varying quality up to that point, to end on such a sour note speaks volumes of the incompetence and ineptitude of the management that runs this company. And the really sad thing is that the warning signs of something like this happening were in sight for a long time. Jeff Hardy may be a hell of a performer when he’s in top form and the guy may have legions of fans, but it’s also no secret that the guy has heavy drug issues, reliability issues, and is also face drug trafficking charges that could seriously hinder what little he has left of a reputation.
There was a good reason why all of his three reigns as WWE World Champion lasted less than a month (with one reign barely lasting a minute) and there was also a good reason why WWE eventually let him go. And while it might have been due to Hardy taking the time to heal injuries, I think it would have been a matter of time before Hardy struck out with WWE’s Wellness Policy (he had already suffered two strikes) due to his substance abuse problems that have been well documented. He certainly would have been fired when he got busted on account of drug trafficking shortly after his “farewell” and stuck legal battles and court cases that are ongoing to this day.
TNA signed a guy who was convicted of drug trafficking and has drug issues, which often translate into reliability issues that could jeopardize the safety of those he works with in the ring as well as jeopardize the promoted show. And on top of that, TNA eventually made said convicted drug trafficker and addict their World Champion despite all the common sense in the world saying that this is a bad idea. And the thing is that there had been a couple occasions prior to the Victory Road debacle where Jeff Hardy had been unfit to work. Most notably at TNA’s Final Resolution PPV, where Hardy was reportedly “more offbeat than usual.” Hardy defenders had told people that this was due to travel fatigue, but I doubt that’s the only reason. I’d like to see the apologists try and spin this one because there’s NO way travel fatigue could be responsible for the main event people paid for at Victory Road.
And the truly sad thing is TNA will come out of this not having learned a damned thing. Oh, they issue a little offer to make up for their blunder to those who bought the PPV and I have applauded that move in a previous post (the only TNA post on this blog that ISN’T marked with the Total Nonstop Morons label) because it’s not often that a televised wrestling promotion would admit they gave paying customers a product that was below standards, but anyone who believes that the company has learned from this experience is being foolish. The first chance they get, they’ll eventually bring Jeff Hardy back and push him harder than ever before, giving him another World title run despite (or perhaps in spite of) what happened this night.
I truly hope that this isn’t the case and that TNA will actually use this as a wake-up call to make changes to their product, perhaps to something that might distinguish them from what has come before and something that might appeal to a wider audience and garner their product better ratings and buys… but my hopes aren’t high.
dtm666 