Hardy May Be The Catalyst Towards TNA’s Destruction

Roughly two years ago, before Jeff Hardy’s second Charlie Sheen-esque stint in TNA, before Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan were brought in, the company was like the “little engine that could.” With a young, up and coming roster and a hearty lineup of former WWE stars, the company needed a combination of smart booking and lucky bounces to get on the radar of Vince McMahon… and stay there.

Many have argued for quite some time that the in-ring action of TNA has been superior to the WWE . However, better wrestlers don’t necessarily mean better ratings. Because of that, over the past year and change, TNA has gone out of their way [even more than they were before] to bring in people they thought could change the game in their favor.

Enter Jeff Hardy…again.

The same guy with history of drug abuse and trafficking, as well as no-showing events, which if you didn’t know, is the worst thing an athlete in that sport can do, was back, in TNA’s quest for global supremacy, or the closest thing to it in professional wrestling, ratings.

Even though he was a huge risk then, his reward apparently was high enough in the company’s mind for them to put the respect of their brand, athletes and fans in jeopardy.

With Hardy’s actions at Victory Road this past Sunday, where he looked so under the influence that his match had to be ended prematurely, it appears that TNA is perhaps at its lowest point in its eight-year run.

All the things they hoped Hardy could provide have instead blew up in their face.

Forget the handful of quality matches he’s provided or the tons of merchandise he’s sold during his year plus with the company, Hardy will ultimately be remembered more for this one night than any of the brilliant matches during his career.

This was something that was unavoidable however, with the chance for his breakdown appearing in front of a camera getting greater with every opportunity Hardy had in the ring.

And TNA made sure he had a plethora of them.

They made him a champion. And when he didn’t have a belt on him, he was made the top heel in one of the most powerful factions.

Having a person in Hardy’s condition as a champion says a lot about the company as a whole- sadly for TNA, much more bad than good. Though not specifically said, it shows that TNA believes that Hardy, even with his botched resume, is a better choice to have headline their TV program and tours than the bevy of talented workers [that actually show up clean and ready to perform], many who haven’t been given a fair chance.

It also says that they’re willing to let a man destroy himself for the betterment of their company.

While this is no different from what wrestling promoters have done all over the world for nearly a century, after so many deaths in the sport over the past few years, it’s time things begin to change.

Now, with his problem more than exposed, TNA, for the sake of their brand, needs to do something they haven’t done before, get Hardy help and institute a public wellness program, with clear consequences for violators, that makes sure something like this never happens again. Even with his brother and a troupe of friends in the company, Hardy was unable to curb his dark passions. More needed to be done to insure not only Hardy’s safety in the ring, but also the people he shared the ring with.

For the sake of not only the respect of fans and sponsors, but for his own life and anyone that’ll be in his spot in the future as well, Hardy, the husband and father, must be saved first.

Otherwise, he’ll become another broken soul ruined by the beautiful bastard that is the professional wrestling business.

Sadly, TNA and Hardy are all out of options. The only way to fix this is to keep him off television until they’re proof positive that it’ll never happen again. With the chances of that seeming remote at this point in time, it appears that Hardy, one of the most dynamic athletes to ever wrestle, may be finished forever.

If TNA doesn’t play this smart, this could be the beginning of the end for them as well.

If there was ever a time to develop their young stars and forget about hiring the former stars the WWE has given up on, this appears to be it.

While guys like Ken Anderson and Rob Van Dam have bolstered their in-ring product and mix in well with their home-grown talent, the opportunity for another Jeff Hardy situation to happen once again is just too great.

TNA’s fans and their talent deserve better.

Photo by David Seto

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14262 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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