Wrestling Rumblings #114

I like many other wrestling fans across the world have been following your career for years. While I haven’t always been a Hardy Boyz enthusiast I can say I always respected your accomplishments. It is very difficult for anyone of us to follow our dreams and you were able to achieve your dream of being a televised professional wrestler at the age of 16, quite the accomplishment if I do say so myself. There were many fans; myself not included who would give you the label of being “The next Shawn Micheals”. This label seemingly never went to your head as instead you concentrated on becoming the first Jeff Hardy and I’ll be damned if you didn’t pull off that accomplishment as at one point despite not having the solid support of your promotion you were the most popular wrestler in the world and somehow would go onto become a 5 time world heavyweight champion. While it could be said that title reigns don’t mean what they used to mean it is still an accomplishment no one can take away from you and one that I as a 25 plus year fan of the wrestling industry respect and appreciate. Yet somehow throughout this whirlwind of a career you have been unable to escape certain demons. Those same demons reared there ugly head last Sunday in Orlando and now you’re potentially in jeopardy of losing your job at TNA Wrestling. To tell you the truth as a person while I hate to see anyone unemployed I am sure you have enough money to skate on by; I am more concerned however with you losing your life.

As a performer on TV there are many who would tell you that you are a role model to their children and while they would be correct maybe that’s not what you want. Maybe you didn’t get into the wrestling business to be a role model and if you don’t wish to be one than I guess you don’t have to be but Jeff, you just became a parent yourself not too long ago. Maybe you don’t have to be a role model to our children but shouldn’t you set a strong example for your own child? Don’t you want your daughter to grow up feeling proud of whom her father is? Knowing that her father is the shining example of being able to do whatever you want as long as you put your mind to it? Or would you rather your daughter grow up and do a Google search one day and read story after story after story of her father flushing opportunity after opportunity down the toilet? Maybe you would rather join the unfortunate list of wrestlers who leave this world way too soon and not leave your daughter a physical memory of her father at all?

Maybe you’re like most addicts who think that it’s no one’s business what you do and that you’re addictions hurt just yourself. You couldn’t be more wrong, I agree with the sentiment that addiction is a disease but it doesn’t just affect one person but everyone who cares about that person. As the child of drug addicted parents myself I can tell you that firsthand. Watching my parents poison themselves in some ways poisoned me and well I have one dead parent and the other one might as well practically be committing suicide as the road of addiction is just a dead end road that is best not travelled. You hurt your fans who believe in you, you hurt Beth even if she shares in your addictions which I hope to god she is not, and yes you hurt your daughter which I would hope is the last thing you would want to do.

There are many fans right now who are clamoring for TNA to fire you, I really can’t argue against that as it is not a right to be given the fame and accolades you have been given but a privilege and one that you have not proven yourself to earn at the moment. I would rather see TNA force you to get help as I am like anyone else, I love a good comeback story and yours could really be the greatest of all. Of course maybe you just need to be away from the wrestling business. There are some who say it is not for everyone, that this business can chew you inside and out and maybe the lifestyle just isn’t for one such as you with an addictive personality and many vices readily available to help feed it. If that’s the case don’t wait to be fired just quit. Despite the madness that is a pro wrestling fan you don’t owe any of us anything but I do think you owe it to yourself and your family to be the best Jeff Hardy you can be.

I’ve had a tendency over the years to pick on your brother Matt for a variety of things and I have almost no doubt that sometime in the future he will say or do something that will make me want to speak out against him again but if by some chance he is reading this and not you since it is no secret his affinity for the internet than Matt I say this to you: You’re brother needs help. As much as I have been critical of Matt Hardy over the years I have never doubted his loyalty to his family and well Jeff needs you now maybe more than ever. There have been rumblings of you perhaps having issues of your own, get them sorted out together. The last thing the wrestling business…scratch that the last thing the world needs is two brothers spiraling down a path of destruction that could have been easily avoided.

Back to Jeff now, I am sure you get a ton of emails and tweets from your fans who say that they will support you no matter what and well I don’t disagree with that a single bit. I don’t think there is a single fan who will look at Jeff Hardy as anything less than a man if he steps up and gets the help he needs and to those fans who are more concerned about when your next match is taking place, they may be fans of Jeff Hardy the performer but don’t give a damn about Jeff Hardy the man, Jeff Hardy the brother, Jeff Hardy the son, Jeff Hardy the husband or Jeff Hardy the father and that has to come above all others. Maybe some of those fans who are reading this can write to you and give you the inspiration that you’re lacking to be the champion they always wanted you to be.

Jeff, I just want to let you and for that matter everyone else know that I am not writing this because it’s a slow week for me or for that matter to get attention for myself. I decided to focus this forum on you and address you this way because I feel sometimes we don’t acknowledge what we know until we see or hear it from others. Hear it from me, you’re not in control but you can be, you’re life is in shambles but it can be repaired and with that restoration you can be a better person than you ever thought possible. All you have to do is step up to the plate and take care of what is really important…yourself.