Here's your wrestling news for June 14h 2022
And your headlines for today include
Jeff Hardy arrested! Charged with driving under the influence yet again
Shocking details about Hardy arrest - Was three times over the legal limit!
WarnerMedia given new edict following Jeff Hardy’s arrest
Reby Hardy, Jeff’s sister in law, faces backlash for comments about his arrest
Multiple AEW stars set to miss Forbidden Door event for surprising reason
Huge stipulation set for Friday’s Universal title match – Former World Champion likely to return
The Judgement Day explain turning on Edge – confirms change of leadership in the group
Rhea Ripley responds to claims of ripping off singer’s look
Vince McMahon has given up on pushing two-time former NXT Champion
Big E shares fantastic update about his neck injury And more
We’re kicking off with some concerning news regarding Jeff Hardy, who has been arrested yet again.
The Charismatic Enigma was arrested close to midnight in Volusia County, Florida on June 12th, and was hit with three charges and booked into jail at 12:45am the next morning.
Jeff is charged with driving with an invalid license, violations of restrictions placed on a driver’s license and Driving under the inf luence of drugs or alcohol for the third time in under ten years.
Hardy was detained at the S. James Foxman Justice Center in Daytona Beach, Florida, and this is sadly not his first run in with the law.
In October 2011, Hardy faced ten days in jail and a $100,000 fine for being convicted of trafficking in controlled prescription pills, during his time with TNA Wrestling.
After returning to WWE, Hardy would be arrested for public intoxication in July 2019, and arrested in October that same year for driving under the influence.
Now, AEW and Tony Khan will have to find a way to deal with the popular but problematic wrestler, as sadly some things haven’t changed with Jeff Hardy.
Hardy’s arrest was a sad, but unfortunately not surprising incident for the former World Champion, and ESPN reported Marc Raimondi was able to obtain some of the details of this latest incident.
In his report, Raimondi notes that Hardy was driving a white car which was seen “swerving” and “running off” the roadway at 12:30 am according to Florida Highway Patrol.
When the officer on the scene confronted Hardy it was said he seemed “to be in a stupor and confused.”
When a breath test was administered, Hardy’s first sample read at 0.294 for blood-alcohol content, with his second reading 0.291.
For reference, the legal limit to drive in Florida is .08, meaning that Hardy was over three-times the legal limit to operate his car.
One Hardy left the vehicle, he was unsteady and smelled of alcohol, and admitted to drinking earlier in the night.
Jeff couldn’t complete any sobriety test without risking falling over, and once the breath test results were certified, he was immediately arrested.
Like we’ve said, this isn’t the first time Jeff has been arrested for his problems with substances, and while WWE were vilified by fans last December for requesting Jeff enter rehab
Tony Khan may soon be making the same case to the Charismatic Enigma.
AEW is yet to give a statement on Jeff’s actions, though don’t expect to see much of Hardy in any capacity for the immediate future.
According to a report from the Wrestling Observer, WarnerMedia has been instructed not to promote Jeff in commercials or in any capacity after this arrest.
AEW has also stopped promoting the Hardys for a three-way AEW World Tag Team Championship match scheduled for this Wednesday’s episode of Dynamite.
The Hardys were scheduled to face Dragon Lee & Dralistico at AAA TripleMania, but there’s no word yet on if that match will still be taking place.
Right now, the focus should be on Jeff getting better, though that’s something we’ve heard plenty of times before, and we’ll keep following this story as further updates come out.
Despite this pattern of behaviour, plenty of people are still sympathetic to Jeff and want nothing but the absolute best for him, though his sister-in-law isn’t one of them.
Immediately after news of Jeff’s arrest broke, Reby Hardy, wife to Matt, posted a video on TikTok that has had fans irate.
In the video, Reby can be seen ‘praying’ that Matt doesn’t get hurt in the triple-threat ladder match, and fans quickly saw this as a dig at Jeff, saying he’ll be dangerous in the ring due to being intoxicated.
Reby has a history of controversial posts, and fans were quick to call her out on this, but with Jeff’s actions, neither he nor Matt may even make it to this Wednesday’s Dynamite.
Jeff may not be around for some time after this latest arrest, and he may not be the only big name to miss the upcoming Forb idden Door Pay Per View.
With the show just 12 days away, it’s bizarre that only two matches have been confirmed, the interim AEW World title match and inaugural AEW All-Atlantic Championship match,
and now several names may not be appearing.
According to sources, Andrade El Idolo is not expected to appear at Forbidden Door, despite being initially booked intern ally for the crossover event with New Japan Pro Wrestling.
The reason for this is that New Japan has a relationship with CMLL, and it would be bad for AAA, who Andrade works for and is the rival of CMLL, for El Idolo to compete for New Japan.
The same source added that because of this, the Lucha Bros, Rey Fenix and Penta Oscura are all likely to skip the show.
In Fenix’s case, he has been boked for AAA’s next Showcenter event on the 26th, the same day as Forbidden Door.
With 12 days to go, AEW and New Japan will have to announce some new matches soon, but whatever gets announced, it won’t involve talent that compete for AAA.
Over to WWE now, as this week’s Raw saw the build continue towards this Friday’s huge title match between Roman Reigns and Riddle.
The Original Bro was on fire during last night’s show when he confronted the Miz and Paul Heyman, the latter of whom had a major stipulation to reveal.
Heyman declared that should Riddle lost this Friday’s Undisputed WWE Universal title match to Roman Reigns, then he will never get to challenge for the title again as long as Reigns holds the gold.
It’s worth stressing that this will only be while Reigns is champion, and it’s likely we’ll still see Riddle compete in world title matches in the future once somebody topples the Head of the Table.
For Riddle, that seems unlikely to happen this Friday, as after 653 days, we doubt WWE will end Reigns’ incredible run on a random SmackDown with one week’s notice.
With reports of Reigns Vs. Randy Orton at Money in the Bank, expect this Friday’s match to mark the return of the Viper, but it’ll still be a bad night at the office for the Original Bro.
Raw also saw an appearance by The Judgment Day, seven days removed from kicking Edge from the group.
Since turning on Edge last week, fans have wondered why exactly the group ditched the highly successful WWE Hall of Famer, and they got an answer last night.
Speaking in a promo aimed at Bianca Belair, Finn Balor said that he, Rhea Ripley and Damian Priest were tired of taking orders and playing nice, and that’s why they removed Edge from the group.
Saying they’re tired of taking orders seems to imply that unlike in the Edge era, the group will not have a leader anymore, and Dam ian Priest gave a more detailed explanation behind their actions:
Edge had the right idea when he started Judgment Day. It was meant to be a movement for those who were tired of living their lives for others. But his actions contradicted his mission statement.
painted himself as our leader and then would tell us to not do as we're told. He sealed his own fate. And now The Judgment Day are all equals."
Despite initial belief that Finn Balor was the new leader of the group, it appears that won’t be the case, but we’ll have to wait and see what The Judgment Day does without Edge, or seemingly, any leader.
Over to WWE now, as Rhea Ripley has become one of the company’s most popular female Superstars in recent years, thanks in part to he unique look.
With her short jet black hair, gothic outfit and tattoos, Ripley isn’t your typical wrestler, but has faced accusations of stealing from another performer.
On social media, singer Thug Muffin accused Ripley of stealing her look, saying that the former Raw Women’s Champion “decided to rip my look” after seeing her on TV, specifically
the scales symbol Ripley now wears under her eye.
Responding, Ripley fired back saying that she’s been drawing random things under her eye for a long time, and that Muffin does not own the image of scales.
In her most cutting line, Ripley said how she doesn’t even know who Thug Muffin is, and advised her to keep the WWE Superstar’s name out of her mouth.
Rhea Ripley has been a staple on WWE TV for years, and has over 618,000 followers on Twitter, but according to Thug Muffin, who has barely over 1000, Rhea’s look is all ripped off.
Now, it was just a few weeks ago that Ciampa was called up to the main roster, a move that fans had not seen coming.
In previous years, the former two-time NXT Champion said he planned on staying in NXT for the rest of his career, and it now appears that that would’ve been the best for the Blackheart.
On this week’s Raw, Ciampa lost to Riddle, notching up the latest defeat for the former NXT Champion, who was beaten by the Original Bro with relative ease.
Not receiving his entrance music, Ciampa was little more than an enhancement talent on Raw, and this comes after two months of uninspired booking.
Called up in April by attacking Mustafa Ali, these beatdowns were never explained and their feud never properly concluded, but just was dropped.
It wasn’t too long ago that Ciampa was teased for the Judgement Day stable, though that seems increasingly unlikely now, as Vince McM ahon has seemingly given up on the two-time former NXT Champion.
And we’re ending today with Big E, who has given a fantastic update on his neck injury.
In March, the former WWE Champion suffered a broken neck after taking a suplex outside the ring, but thankfully did not require surgery.
In a video shared to Instagram, Big E can be seen throwing his neck brace in the trash, indicating that he’s finished with this part of his recovery.
Despite the injury, Big E has been his usual positive self on social media, and has kept fans update on his condition every step of the way.
There’s still no timeline on when Big E will be back, but he seems to be healing up very quickly, and we’re continuing to wish the New Day star the best on his journey back to the ring.