All of the greats retired. Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, The Undertaker. It came to a point where every legend has to retire (Except Ric Flair apparently). Jeff Hardy should follow in their footsteps. It is time for Jeff Hardy to retire from wrestling.
It’s been clear since he debuted in AEW in March. He is considerably slower than he used to be. That’s fine because he is older and the hands of time yield to no man. But he is a shadow of what he was 5 years ago.
His offence looks slow, sloppy and ineffective. He looks in pain with every step. His mere existence looks like a chore to him. When put in the ring with younger, faster wrestlers without 25 years of ridiculous bumps in them, he is outmanned and outclassed.
So he does what Jeff Hardy has always done. Jumps off the highest thing he can, through as many tables he can. Jeff Hardy has always been a daredevil, but all those crazy bumps are catching up to him.
And learning nothing from his life, he keeps doing even more. For instance, his battle with Darby Allin in the Owen Hart Cup was changed to an anything goes match. This was to cover up Hardy’s now obvious deficiencies in the ring and to let him do the most crazy thing he could think of.
And he did.
This match could be the reason why Jeff Hardy retires.
Jeff Hardy retiring
Jeff Hardy teamed with his brother Matt Hardy at Double or Nothing 2022. The duo faced the Young Bucks in a dream match that was five years after the last time the match took place.
The Hardys’ won the match, but were carried hard by The Young Bucks. Of the pair, Matt looked in better shape and Jeff Hardy was as sloppy as I’ve ever seen him. His injuries has clearly taken a toll and he struggled even climbing up the top rope at times.
It was a frankly embarrassing display, which pains me to say as Jeff Hardy was my favourite wrestler as a child and one of my favourite of all time.
However, his injuries seem like they reached breaking point. He was schedules to wrestle Adam Cole on this weeks Dynamite, but was forced to pull out due to injury.
His injuries, especially from that Darby Allin match, are the cause of him pulling out the match. Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer revealed that the Allin match caused him severe injury and noted that years of crazy bumps had finally caught up with the former WWE Champion. He also revealed that Jeff Hardy was “hurting bad”
“Jeff Hardy was a mess going into Double Or Nothing. From what I was told, it was really the Darby Allin match, he’s beat up. The one thing, when he went to AEW, you can watch those highlight reels and see how he did some big stunts at his age and he’s paying for it now.”
“Jeff was having a tough go in that tag team match. Every time he moved, it was a painful reminder that this guy is hurting really bad.” – H/T wrestlingnews.co
The situation seems bleak for Jeff Hardy and if he retires then he will at least see out his career with some dignity. At the moment even Sting, who is 15 years his senior, is in better shape and moving better than he is.
It’s really sad to see him in such. He was a man who seemed invincible in his prime and nothing except a horrible drug addiction could stop him.
But the fairy-tale is over. Jeff Hardy should retire, for his own sake and his health, and take his place in the WWE Hall of Fame.
