On last night’s WWE Smackdown (9/11), Jeff Hardy collapsed heading up the ramp after his and AJ Styles’ Intercontinental Championship match was interrupted by Sami Zayn.
As a fan, it was easy to expect he collapsed due to Styles working on Jeff’s previously injured leg.
This made sense and it could’ve been explained away as giving out on him as he headed backstage to add to their storyline.
But we were thrown a curve ball when it was reported that Jeff didn’t black out and the cause for his collapse was due to dehydration.
The weird part about him being dehydrated was that the match wasn’t very long or arduous, yet Jeff was also breathing heavy, gasping for breath.
Drug abuse and alcoholism storyline
One of the most prominent symptoms of drug abuse is dehydration due to the drugs forcing the person to be more active, causing more sweating and other fluid loss.
The same is sometimes seen with alcoholism, but to a lesser degree.
So, it looks like the WWE’s push for Jeff to be a hero for overcoming his demons was only to set up his demise.
Following their bar fight, Sheamus said he’d just leave Jeff alone and allow him to succumb to his demons on his own, which he said would happen.
Foreshadowing, maybe?
Of course, they could also pursue another storyline where he could be developing an eating disorder as binge and purging is another way he could become dehydrated.
Unfortunately, we think it’s most likely a drug abuse angle, mainly due to the fact the WWE and Vince McMahon have done this before with Hawk of the Legion of Doom.
Possible punishment
There were reports until recently that Jeff had refused to sign any contract extensions. It makes sense since many, including us, have speculated that he intends to join his brother, Matt, in AEW.
McMahon allegedly put the Raw Tag Team belts on the Revival in an effort to convince them to stay, then buried them as their contracts neared their ending.
There’s a long history of former wrestlers claiming that Vince McMahon would bury them if they were leaving his company so they wouldn’t be a huge name elsewhere.
Whether this is true or not we don’t know, as only McMahon and those involved know the truth.
What we do know is we don’t like the idea of having someone like Jeff that’s spent a couple of decades dealing with substance abuse problems being put into a storyline like this.
His brother and sister-in-law have previously spoken out about their feeling on this as well.
If they follow this speculated storyline, it’s a slap in the face to what they had shown by pushing Jeff as a fighter and overcoming his problems if he falls so fast.
It may be realistic, but this is also supposed to be escapism.
We hope we’re wrong and reading too much into this and they’re going to go with a different angle.
What do you think? Would this type of storyline be going too far too soon?
Let us know in the comments below.
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