Jeff Hardy has wrestled with substance abuse issues throughout his career, accruing multiple
Wellness Policy violations in WWE, being arrested for drug possession in 2009, infamously turning
up unfit to wrestle for his TNA Victory Road pay-per-view main event against Sting in 2011,
and, most recently, being arrested twice last year for public intoxication in July, and
for Driving While Impaired in October. So, on last night’s SmackDown, WWE used
all that for a soap opera hit and run storyline - implying Hardy hit Elias with his car while
drunk! I see no problem with this whatsoever! After running documentary clips looking back
at Hardy’s career in recent weeks, reframing his dangerous driving as “one of WWE’s
great comeback stories”, Friday’s episode of SmackDown opened on a developing situation
in the Performance Center parking lot - where Elias was being stretchered into an ambulance
- Elias can’t catch a break right now - someone’s car was wrecked in the background, and eyewitness
Braun Strowman telling Kayla Braxton: “I just pulled up for work and this car came
flying FROM OUTTA NOWHERE and I heard a crash, and a guy just jumped out and took off running…
I just hoped someone catches this S.O.B. that did this. It’s ridiculous.”
It is ridiculous, Braun. It’s incredibly ridiculous.
Braun was then interrupted by police officers and WWE producers Jamie Noble and Jason Jordan
- hi, Jason Jordan! - arresting a confused, seemingly inebriated (Renee Young’s description)
and rather grubby Jeff Hardy. Who sees Elias being helped into the ambulance and starts
yelling ‘Elias’! Such emotion, much acting. This all actually seems to be a dastardly
heel ruse by King Corbin and Sheamus, though, who called Hardy “a pathetic junkie” backstage
afterwards, to take him out of the Intercontinental title tournament. And by the end of the episode,
Hardy seemingly broke out of jail, fleeing his hit-and-run crime, to return and distract
Sheamus for him to lose to Daniel Bryan. WWE later cleared all of this up in breaking
news after SmackDown, explaining Hardy had been released from custody because he passed
the required sobriety tests. Which doesn’t explain why he was let off for a hit-and-run,
though, as the car was registered in his name. It’s a pretty distasteful storyline considering
Jeff’s past. And his brother Matt seemingly disapproves, tweeting at the same time as
the story played out on SmackDown: “Just to reiterate.. I’m happy to be working
at @AEWrestling for @TonyKhan on Wednesdays.” While this is indeed in very bad taste, I
was actually rather sports entertained. The blending of shoot and work, that, in storyline,
it’s the heels to blame, and, best of all, the over-the-top acting had me laughing and
intrigued throughout. And one of Hardy’s most famous foes, CM Punk, who was watching
along, agreed: “LOLOLOL AT THE COP SNIFFING THE FULL BEER
BOTTLE THAT DIDNT GET SPILLED THEN SAYING “JEFF HARDY” LIKE HES CALLING BINGO NUMBERS.
IM DYYYYYYYING” Adding the indie wrestler who played the cop
“deserves a Slammy.” And that he’s “Currently divided. The
country is on fire and it legit made me laugh out loud for a second so, entertained? Mission
accomplished? I’m happy I don’t take it so seriously anymore.”
What do you think of Jeff Hardy angle? And who do you think ran over Elias? Tell me Rikishi
did it for the Rock in the comments below, where I’ll be replying FROM OUTTA NOWHERE
saying it’s far more likely multi-time attempted murderer King Corbin.
This might be the kind of stuff that happens when you fire one of your top writers on the
show… After the Wrestling Observer Newsletter revealed
yesterday that commentator Nigel McGuinness has been missing from NXT and NXT UK since
Total Lockdown began because he was one of the many furloughs as part of WWE’s mid-April
cost-cutting, it’s come out another backstage talent has been released from the company:
lead SmackDown writer Chris DeJoseph. No further details have come out with the
news as of yet, so it’s unknown whether he was also part of the mass firings last
month, or whether he had been let go more recently. It’s currently assumed to be a
full release, rather than a temporary furlough like many of the backstage producers, though
- meaning their contracts are suspended without pay.
DeJoseph had previously worked for WWE creative between 2004 and 2010, where he also played
the onscreen character Big Dick Johnson. He was one of the founding group behind Lucha
Underground and was briefly MLW’s Co-Executive Producer before being rehired by WWE only
late last year. Before we get onto the review of SmackDown
in about 5 minutes, we’ve got a little announcement... To say thank you to all of you for watching
us here at WrestleTalk, I’ll be hosting a live ask us anything stream as part of Fan
Appreciation Day on Monday with Luke, Laurie, Pete, Randy, Louis and Adam - the whole WrestleTalk
family, where we’ll try to get to as many of your questions as possible.
And we’ll also be using the stream to launch our new Support WrestleTalk, Support Each
Other campaign, to help support any of you struggling with mental health issues right
now. We’ve actually had this planned for over a month, but with recent events in the
wrestling industry, we believe this is now even more vital.
Click the link in the video description below to set your reminder for the stream now, while
I review last night’s SmackDown… in about 5 minutes.
As already mentioned, the show opened with Jeff Hardy being arrested for running over
Elias in a car while being intoxicated, which ruled out both scheduled matches for the Intercontinental
Championship Tournament, as Hardy was meant to face Daniel Bryan and Elias was set to
take on AJ Styles. Immediately following that angle, producer
Adam Pearce attempted to control the locker room backstage and sort the situation out,
which WWE managed to make feel very organic - something they often struggle with. Eventually
it was decided AJ would progress to the finals without having to compete, presumably because
it was his face that build this place (wait a second, but they’re in the Performance
Center now!) while Daniel Bryan took the babyface stance, and wanted to earn his spot, so a
10-man battle royal was made, with the winner having to wrestle twice in one night, with
the second time facing Bryan. Bryan, you’ve become everything you hate!
The Battle Royal was paced really well, and featured the returns of Drew Gulak (although
we’re pretending he was never really gone) and a great showing from the man that is definitely
the hacker, Shorty G. Sheamus won in the end by eliminating Jey Uso.
Sonya Deville faced Lacey Evans next after a backstage promo where Evans pushed over
Sonya. The two actually had pretty good chemistry in a fun match, which the lame countout finish
rather undermined. Sonya took a horrible bump on the corner of the announce table to make
up for it though. Then we got A Moment of Bliss segment with
The New Day, which after some “comedy” was interrupted by Bayley and Sasha Banks,
who still are still lowkey feuding with each other - as Bayley made a match between Banks
and Bliss even though Sasha was wearing heels. Heels, match, Bayley heel turn confirmed.
This is long-term storytelling for Banks and Bayley, but just like their previous aborted
break up two years ago, it’s becoming repetitive. The match itself was fun, though, with Nikki
Cross and Bayley getting shouty on commentary and then costing Alexa the match with a Sasha
roll-up. The two teams will face off for the Women’s Tag Team Titles next week.
Spinning FROM OUTTA THE BATTLE ROYAL, Cesaro faced Shorty G next in a very fun, quick match.
These two are so good in the ring, with this a mere glimpse at what they could do if given
more time, and with Shorty G winning off a rollup, hopefully that’s what’s in store.
Up next was a clip from Mandy & Otis’ vacation which was essentially Safe for Work pron,
featuring Otis ripping off his top, Otis swimming, Otis getting out a pool with his hair and
beard dripping wet. Oh yeah, and Mandy Rose simulating ejaculation with sun tan lotion.
But look at Otis’ big bushy beard! Otis interrupted Mandy’s horny dream with
a cannonball in the pool. This was very, very funny.
And then suddenly, Kurt Angle FROM OUTTA BEING RELEASED LAST MONTH announced Matt Riddle
will be joining SmackDown soon, while a short vignette showing Riddle’s highlights from
NXT. Daniel Bryan and Sheamus reprised their classic
WrestleMania rivalry for the main event, thankfully going well over 18 seconds. Sheamus looked
fantastic in the longest match he’s had since returning, but Hardy’s return - he’s
not drunk, remember, so it’s totally ok his car hit someone - distracted him to lose.
Which, in the moment, was kind of weird, because we hadn’t yet been told Hardy the kayfabe
police had dropped their charges - meaning the crowd cheered for someone who ran over
Elias. That was SmackDown in about 4 minutes, let
me know what you thought of the episode in the comments down below.
Stuff of note actually happened! This was a really fun episode, with new and exciting
stories being built all over the show. The two hours flew by, helped along by the excitable
crowd, and more than anything, I’m interested in watching future episodes, and isn’t that
really the whole point? This SmackDown gets a SmackTastic, 4/5.
You might know that we all do wrestling news and reviews here on WrestleTalk, but do you
know about our other wrestling channel partsFUNknown?! Go over and subscribe there right now, because
not only did Adam Blampied’s brand new fantasy booking video go up on Thursday, our wrestling
D&D series No Rolls Barred has a new episode out tomorrow, and I’ll be returning to QuizzleMania
X on Wednesday night - we also have the brand new episode of Laurie Blake’s Wrestling
Explained series up right now. Here’s a quick look…