Last year, Jeff Hardy walked out of a WWE Live event and we immediately started hearing reports of "erratic" behaviour that led to speculation past substance abuse issues might have reared their ugly head. WWE ordered Hardy to go to rehab, he refused, and was quickly released; later, results of a drug test cleared his name and the Charismatic Enigma was free to sign with AEW.
Talking on The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy podcast (via WrestlingNews.co), Jeff explained that while he had "[glimmers] of hope" in WWE, he usually felt "like a ghost roaming the halls."
As for what happened at that WWE Live Event, he reveals that "I finished my heat, you know, I took the heat, and I just said, ‘I’m ready to go.’ I went over the rail and disappeared into the crowd. Naturally, they think I took something like drugs or whatever, but I didn’t. I mean, if I was that bad, I should never have gone out there, is the way I see it. But yeah, I thought, ‘Man, that’s just another unpredictable thing that I can do and I’ll get away with it. But it was more serious than that."
"It was one of the smartest things I’ve ever done because everything worked out so perfectly, mainly because my first day in AEW I felt valuable for the first time," Jeff added. "Just you know, the care and love that I was shown. I felt like I was where I was supposed to be. I just got chills thinking about that. In WWE, I just felt like they were just going to keep me there to sell more action figures."
We'd later learn that in an effort to get Jeff to sign a new WWE contract (and not reunite with his brother, Matt, in AEW), the sports entertainment giant offered him a place in the Hall of Fame.
"It just felt completely wrong," he said of that offer. "Like it just didn’t feel like the time at all. I almost felt offended. I was very emotional, and I was like, ‘What? So wait, what? After my 90 days are up, and the Hall of Fame is in April or whatever, and I do go to AEW, how’s that going to work? What are you trying to hit me with here as far as if I do sign with AEW when I’m free? How would that even work?’ You know, just my mind and emotions kind of went crazy."
"I was in tears because I was like this my career. I know I’ve been a very influential person to a lot of young, misunderstood individuals. But yeah, it just felt so wrong. I almost felt like, ‘How dare you’ in a sense. I know it sounds crazy, I guess, when you get offered the Hall of Fame. It’s like, ‘Oh, of course. Yeah. I’m a Hall of Famer.’ It’s never really meant that much to me, like the Hall of Fame...it feels like something Matt and I should go in together as the Hardy Boyz when the time is right."
Now, Jeff is in AEW and getting a push as a tag team alongside Matt. Right now, they're feuding with Andrade's AFO, though fans are already fantasising about matches against FTR and The Young Bucks! It definitely feels like the former WWE Champion made the right decision by leaving, though it is a shame he never got that one final main event push in WWE as there was potential for that.