“Can they take the pressure of being the champion?” – WWE thought Jeff Hardy was too unreliable to become Champion

WWE thought Jeff Hardy was too unreliable to become Champion during his first run in the promotion according to former commentator Jim Ross.

Jeff Hardy has been popular in the WWE since his debut in the 90’s. Part of the Hardy Boyz with his brother Matt, Jeff soon become a fan favorite. This prompted a desire in the WWE to push him to main event status and while they flirted with the possibility, that did not happen during his first run in the company.

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Jim Ross, while speaking on his Grilling JR podcast, noted that the WWE wanted to give him a huge push as a singles star. However, they deemed him too unreliable to hold a Championship in the WWE. Uncertain of how he would handle the pressure, he was not given a run with the WWE Championship.

WWE thought Jeff Hardy was too unreliable to become Champion

“He was primed. You know we talk about reliability thing. There is no reason that Jeff Hardy would not have been a great WWE Champion or any title. But he just wasn’t reliable. And how do you put your championship on somebody you don’t have full confidence that they are going to be cool. They are going to be okay. Can they take the pressure of being the champion? Can they take the pressure of going on last night after night?”

“Can they take the pressure of putting their company on their shoulders and marching forward? And at that time, that was not the… it’s not what everybody thought, they just didn’t think Jeff was going to be able to hold on in the scenario.”

Jeff Hardy was first released from the WWE in 2003. He rejoined them 3 years later and eventually won the WWE Championship in 2008 beating Edge and Triple H in a triple threat match at Armageddon. This was his first world championship. He also won the World Heavyweight Championship twice.

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