Linked from the A1 boards where the report from PWInsider was reposted
Thanks to A1 poster Zandrax for reposting the report from Scherer's Spyware Site.
Anyway, this report surprised me when I first heard it yesterday, mainly because Jeff Hardy has just come off the biggest push of his life. Why he'd want to walk away from that now doesn't make sense, until you realize that Hardy has taken the most risks in the WWE in the last decade by far and that his body is probably in the same shape of a normal wrestler in his 40s. This would also explain why Matt Hardy has been so dominant in their feud, and why Hardy was chosen to be fed to the Big Show on last week's Smackdown.
This is a huge blow for the WWE, as Hardy has to be one of the three most over babyfaces on the roster. His merch sells like crazy, especially to the younger kids that the 'E is trying to cater to, and his overall match quality is usually praised for its entertainment value, even if at times it's just spots thrown together. I thought Hardy did a good job of shedding that criticism lately, learning to work some good pacing and timing into his matches rather than just going spot-to-spot.
If anything positive can come out of this, it could be a blessing in disguise for one of the "on-the-cusp" guys like Kofi Kingston, Christian or even Jeff's brother Matt. Although it sucks to have to lose a main eventer, when one door closes, another one opens.
What I hope isn't the case is Jeff leaving the company so he can go back to doing drugs without fear of recourse from the company's Wellness Program. While by all accounts he's cleaned his act up, it's hard to stay clean. Here's hoping that he does just that, stays clean.
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