In the early 2000s, Jeff Hardy became the new face of extreme in WWE. As a young rising star, Hardy’s most noteworthy match was a ladder match against the Big Evil Undertaker for The WWE Championship. To everybody’s surprise, Hardy took the Phenom to the limit in their ladder match. There is no denying that Hardy has had a reasonably successful run in WWE. The Charismatic Enigma won his first WWE Championship in 2008 after defeating top stars like Edge and Triple H in a triple-threat-match.
One of Hardy’s most underrated rivalries was with Triple H from 2007 to 2008. Hardy rubbed elbows with bigger guys in the business for a high-flyer with a moderate build.
Aside from the highs in his career, the daredevil has hit rock bottom a lot of times in battling his personal demons. When the former WWE Champion was left to his own devices, he found himself engulfed in problems with addiction.
What was Jeff Hardy’s relationship with Vince McMahon like?
If we overlook Jeff’s problems with addiction, he truly was and is a once-in-a-lifetime superstar and his abilities in the ring were second to none. In an edition of The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy, Jeff’s older brother and his tag team partner Matt talked about what Vince McMahon thought of Jeff Hardy.
According to Matt, the board’s former chairman had a great relationship with Jeff Hardy. Although Jeff wasn’t the ideal body type that Vince believes makes a wrestler, he knew that hardy was different and special in his own right.
“I think Vince liked Jeff a lot,” Matt said. “He could tell he was different; he was out there. When people say ‘Charismatic Enigma,’ that is like the perfect description of who he is. You don’t understand why he’s doing what he’s doing. It’s just f***ing cool that he’s doing it.”
Furthermore, Hardy added that Jeff is a humble person and Vince McMahon admired that feature of the North Carolinian wrestler. After having multiple title reigns, Hardy headed over to TNA and dominated the men’s division there as well.
Hardy eventually returned to WWE alongside his brother Matt at WrestleMania 33 in 2017. He is currently signed to AEW but unfortunately is not active as of this writing due to his recent arrest on charges of DUI.
The most controversial match of Jeff Hardy’s entire wrestling career
During his stint with TNA in 2011, Jeff Hardy showed up to the PPV event of Victory Road completely inebriated. Hardy was set to battle with The Icon Sting with the TNA World Championship at stake.
Then-champion Sting was unbeknownst to Hardy’s condition before he made it to the ring. Jeff struggled to walk through the curtains and make his way to the ring.
When then-TNA executive Eric Bischoff caught the wind regarding Hardy’s state, he quickly walked through the curtains to the ring in hopes of helping TNA avert a disaster. In an edition of his 83 Weeks podcast, Bischoff explained what was on his mind when he saw Jeff the way he was.
“First of all, it took forever to find Jeff. So he was really late getting to gorilla, which is probably why I was in the proximity that I was in. When I saw Jeff approaching, I didn’t really notice Jeff being twisted up as much as I noticed the look on the agent’s face. Whoever the agent was essentially said, ‘He’s f—– up. He’s too f—– up to work. And then it became, Okay, who’s calling this?'”
After Bischoff made his way to the ring, he inaudibly imparted to Sting and Hardy how the match would go down in a few minutes.
Next thing you know, Hardy was hit by Scorpion Death Drop and Sting retained his TNA World Championships in under a few minutes. While fans chanted “this is bullsh*t”, Sting shouted “I agree” as he made his way backstage.
Following the incident, Jeff Hardy was penalized and removed from TNA tapings for a long period. During this time, Hardy spent 120 days in rehabilitation and eventually got clean for his return.
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