Jeff Hardy is one of the most prolific professional wrestlers of his generation as there is no stunt he hasn’t pulled to thrill fans whether it’s leaping from the top of the cage or taking tons or punishment.
He’s had a good career spanning various promotions, but he’s also dealt with the dark side of addiction that’s been publicized over the years.
Opening oneself up about their moments like these aren’t easy, and it’s especially hard when someone’s in the spotlight.
Opening up
Steve Austin isn’t a stranger to dealing with his own addiction problem, and it helped Jeff relax when he sat down Austin’s Broken Skull’s Session to talk about his 2009 arrest for illegally ordering controlled prescription pills.
At the time, the WWE had let Jeff go shortly before then and things went downhill. It was the start of him turning things around, but at the time it didn’t feel like it.
Special thanks to wrestlingheadlines.com for the following transcript.
“I was ordering pills illegally in the mail [and] got busted. SWAT team comes into my house, me and my wife and our little dog. I was busted. I got busted for getting pills illegally. I thought my life was over. (I) went to jail that weekend. It was a mind-blowing experience. I was terrified. I thought my life was over. That was the time that really scared me straight.
“When I realized that ‘okay, things might be okay. This might not be the end of my life. As long as I get clean and I do what I need to be doing and staying clean and staying out of trouble. Things are going to be alright.’ And that led to 2010, man. My wife gave birth to our first daughter, and then five years later to our second daughter. But yeah, leaving WWE where I was, and then it was like, oh my God, total rock bottom.”
When asked what it was like to have the SWAT team enter his home to arrest him, Jeff talked about how terrifying it was but also how it helped him turn things around.
“Oh my god. It’s terrifying when you’re looking at it (with) your wife beside you. Handcuffed, face down to the floor. I wrote a song about it called rebellious. It’s about that fear. All those cops in there. It was terrifying. It was completely surreal. But again, overall, in the big picture of everything, (it has) made me a better human being. They were huge mistakes. I was like, ‘I’m probably never going to go back to WWE, they can never trust me again, after all this.’ Even though if I’m doing good in this other wrestling world, I just didn’t know.”
Learning and growing from our mistakes is the biggest and best thing we can do, and we’re grateful Jeff found his was through it and the WWE did forgive him and bring him back.
We can’t appreciate his bravery enough for coming forward about such a difficult time. Hopefully, it’ll help others out there in some way.
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