Originally published at Jeff Hardy addresses WWE release, Hall of Fame offer and going to AEW
Jeff Hardy addressed his WWE departure and subsequent invitation for this year’s Hall of Fame in a new interview alongside his brother Matt.
Jeff appeared on The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy with host Jon Alba and confirmed many of the details that have been reported over the past several months.
Hardy said that he did not take any “drugs or anything” prior to the WWE live event in Edinburgh, Texas on December 4th last year.
Hardy was teaming with Drew McIntyre & Xavier Woods against The Bloodline when he hopped the barricade and began taking pictures with fans prior to the match’s conclusion.
Days later, WWE released Hardy after Hardy reportedly turned down the company’s request that he go to rehab. In the interview, Hardy stated he was not going to leave his family for twenty-eight days when they believed in him and said he is in a good place.
Hardy mentioned several times in the interview that he feels “valued” in AEW while in WWE he felt he was being kept around just to sell action figures and often questioned why he was there.
He stated that his performance at the Survivor Series last year was a high point with the audience behind him at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
On the offer to be part of this year’s Hall of Fame class, Hardy said it felt “completely wrong” and was almost offended they asked him stating it wasn’t the right time and had his sights set on signing with AEW and didn’t know how that would work if he was with another company – Matt chimed in stating that WWE would probably make sure he would be under a deal that would prevent him from going to AEW.
The offer to join the Hall of Fame class came after Jeff’s release and was only an offer for Jeff, who believes when the time is right should be inducted with his brother but also noted that the Hall of Fame has never been a big deal to him.
Hardy said he was always planning to go AEW once his WWE deal expired but that he was not trying to get released when he ran into the crowd in Edinburgh.