Here's more wrestling news for June 15h 2022
And your headlines for Afternoon include
Tony Khan was going to FIRE Jeff Hardy after latest DUI arrest
WWE Hall of Famer says AEW is responsible for Hardy’s latest run in with the law
WWE had plans for recently released NXT 2.0 Superstar
Latest on Tessa Blanchard and WOW: What’s going on for the former Impact World Champion?
Impact Wrestling star says Paige is more than welcome to join the company
Released WWE Superstar clarifies reports that he is retiriring
Reby Hardy responds to claims that she and Matt Hardy are Jeff’s enablers And more!
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We’re kicking off today with Jeff Hardy, who is currently suspended from AEW following his recent arrest.
After being pulled over, Jeff was uncooperative with the officers, who had to pull their guns on him, and after his breath test came back three times over the legal limit, Hardy was arrested.
Hardy’s suspension is without pay, and he can only return after passing multiple tests for AEW, but as Bryan Alverez explained on Wrestling Observer Live, things could’ve been much worse for him:
“When this news first came out, there were not cooler heads, and then cooler heads prevailed, and then Tony decided “Okay well, you know, this is my idea, but obviously you gotta run it by Jeff, you
know, are you willing to consider rehab?” If Jeff had said no, they’d just fire him.”
Hardy was meant to have a hearing yesterday to discuss his arrest, but that was cancelled at the last minute without any explanation.
Now, Jeff won’t be allowed to wrestle for AEW until he can prove lo ng-term sobriety, but if things had gone even slightly differently, he wouldn’t have gotten the chance to return to the company at all.
As soon as news broke about Hardy’s arrest, fans and those within the industry gave their two cents on the matter and who is responsible for Jeff’s actions.
While it was ultimately Jeff’s decision to drive while inebriated, many have said that those around him, including his brother Matt who was with Jeff earlier that night, should have some responsibility for his actions.
On the latest Hall of Fame podcast, Booker T discussed the matter and suggested that AEW are at least partly responsible for what happened this past weekend. He said:
“I think AEW has some responsibility to bear because you go back and look at the compilation of death defying dives Jeff Hardy has pulled off since arriving in AEW, and I’m gonna tell you right there
that pain comes along with that. When you’ve got pain, a lot of times you will go and drink or take drugs to numb the pain.”
Booker also noted that Jeff could face up to five years in prison if convicted of the DUI charge, and said he was lucky to avoid killing someone like the Tammy Sytch case.
Jeff’s recent actions are just the latest incident like this, and there’s always going to be discussions about what could’ve been done to prevent his arrest, but for now, we can only hope this is the last
time we seen Jeff Hardy behind bars.
Over to WWE now, as this month, Troy Donovan was released from his NXT 2.0 contract, but not for the regular budget cuts.
Donovan, who worked as Two Dimes as part of Tony D’Angelo’s stable, was cut after a violation of company policy, and it turns out that the decision to cut him was made incredibly quickly.
Dave Meltzer has explained that WWE had already filmed two weeks of segments with D’Angelo’s ‘family’ including Two Dimes, and said that the company will either need to edit or refilm these
segments now that he’s gone.
Having to reshoot a segment is hardly the end of the world, but it shows that WWE had no plans to release Donovan, up until very, very recently.
We’ll likely never know that Donovan did that was against company policy, as all he’s said on the matter is that mistakes were made and lesso ns learned, but WWE did have plans for him until this policy violation.
We’ve got news from WOW Women of Wrestling next, as the company has seen plenty of news despite not yet being on TV.
The company certainly gained attention when they signed Tessa Blanchard to serve as the face of the company, as fans didn’t agree with the move given the accusations made against her.
Now, it appears her time with the company is officially over, as Brad Shepard reports that WOW have officially released her.
While it had been speculated in the past that there were issues between the two sides, this is the first confirmation that she’s been let go.
Blanchard had originally been suspended after butting heads with AJ Lee, and for using profanities when training talent, an act the company did not take kindly to.
Some talent even refused to work for WOW as long as Blanchard was around, but CBS have reportedly been disappointed with the level of talent around, and want to see Blanchard brought back.
It’s noted that Blanchard herself has returned to Texas, belieiving that WOW is just the latest promotion she’s burnt her bridges with.
Time will tell what comes next for Tessa Blanchard, but don’t expect to see her in WOW, despite once being considered the face of the company.
On July 7th, Paige’s career with WWE will come to an end, as the company has opted not to re-sign the former Divas Champion.
Paige has made it pretty clear that she’s not pleased with WWE’s decision, but without a non-compete clause to her name, the soon to be ex-WWE performer may be in a new company very soon.
Speaking this week to SEScoops, Impact Wrestling producer Gail Kim said that she’s more than happy to welcome Paige to the promotion if the British wrestler takes that route.
“I have nothing but respect for her in and outside of the ring. And hey, if she wants to come over to IMPACT Wrestling I feel like the door is open. So, come on over, Paige!”
Paige and Gail Kim do have some things in common, as they both hold the honor of being inaugural champions, with Paige the first NXT Women’s Champion and Gail the first Impact Knockouts Champion.
Not only that, but they both won titles on their very first night’s on WWE’s main roster, and both experienced less than positive departures from Vince McMahon’s company.
Whether these similarities lead to Paige signing a contract, that’s hard to say now, but the door is open for a run in Impact Wrestling.
Paige may soon be joining Impact Wrestling, but one name fans won’t see in Impact, or any other promotion for some time, is Fandango.
Recently, the former WWE NXT Tag Team Champion shared a post that had fans thinking he was retiring, but that isn’t the case according to the man himself.
On the Dropkick Podcast, Fandango started off by saying he wants to get rid of his Twitter, saying that it’s a very negative platform, and explained that his initial post was done to announce
temporary hiatus from wrestling.
Fandango isn’t retiring, but he going to get surgery on his knee, which he explained has been bothering him for about a year now.
The former WWE Superstar made it clear that “wrestling is not going anywhere” but for now, he’s looking forward to spending time out of the ring to heal up.
When he was released last year, Fandango had been with WWE for over a decade, and while he will wrestle again, it won’t be anytime soon.
And we’re ending as we started today with Jeff Hardy and the circumstances around his recent arrest.
Like we discussed earlier, there has been discussions about who bears responsibility for Jeff’s actions, with many saving that Matt Hardy should do more about his brother’s behaviour.
Defending her husband, Reby Hardy took to TikTok to claim fans have it all wrong, and said she recently booked the Hardys to appear at an event, and ensured that there was no alcohol on the premises.
Reby added that she also made it clear to any place they attended, including the hotel, that Jeff was not to be served alcohol under any circumstances, adding that she’s been through a similar process
in the past with Matt’s past problems with substances.
Reby concluded by saying that she’s not responsible for the fully grown adult Jeff Hardy, and neither is Matt, and that she will not be speaking another word on the matter.
It’s unfortunate that this has happened and that Jeff has now had arrest charges from his time in TNA, WWE and now AEW, but according to Reby, she and Matt have already done all they
could to prevent this latest offense.