A former member of WWE’s creative team believes that the company were wrong to put the WWE title on Jeff Hardy.

Hardy won the title last Sunday at Armageddon after months of teases that he was set for a run with the belt.

While fans had largely been in favour of Hardy winning the title for some time, the WWE had until recently been against him being champion, largely due to fears over his behaviour out of the ring with two strikes against him on the company Wellness policy.

But while the majority are in favour of Hardy being champion, Seth Mates wrote in his Newsday.com blog: “Think of the message it sends. One of WWE’s major goodwill campaigns is the “Don’t try this at home” campaign.

“For years, they’ve blasted backyard wrestling, and also vilified news stories that have attempted to connect them to young children imitating wrestling moves at home. Yet here they are putting the title on someone whose story began with dangerous backyard wrestling as a young child, almost romanticizing it as part of Jeff’s past (same thing they did with Foley).

“As well-rounded as Jeff is as a superstar now, his career was founded on the dangerous stunts that kept raising the bar to a point where it inspired the “garbage wrestling” that perpetuated the business for years and still does to a degree. Yes, Jeff was great at it, but at what cost to other superstars and fans to reach that bar? (Again, same as Foley!)”

Hardy will be fired by the company if he violates the Wellness Policy again, which has led to some in the company speculating that Vince McMahon has put the belt on him partly because if Jeff does screw up, WWE are in a position to fire a champion and send out a real message that they are serious about the policy.

Mates continued: “Just because a superstar is incredibly popular does NOT mean he should be WWE Champion. Look at a guy like Jake Roberts, who was absurdly over, yet never got a title run because of his unpredictability and untrustworthiness as a possible top guy.

“The title is a prop — one that carries with it a great emotion and responsibility, but a prop nonetheless. Being champion also brings with it the responsibility of being THE guy at the company. If ratings are down, it’s your fault. If buyrates go down, it’s on your shoulders. So you need someone with a solid head on their shoulders, with a track record of being trustworthy.

“Eddie Guerrero won the WWE Title in Feb. 2004 under similar circumstances as Jeff — recovering from dependency issues, long considered just a midcarder, and then finally that feel-good moment that electrified the fans.

“But by all accounts, the pressure was overwhelming, and got to Eddie after a while. And I’m not going to lie — I’m petrified of that effects that the same kind of stress could have on Jeff. Though I really, really want to believe that he’s past all that.

“I didn’t see Armageddon, but I have no doubt that Jeff’s match was a five-star affair, full of emotion, just as Alfonso described it. But so were Eddie and Chris Benoit’s world title wins. Not that I’m suggesting that Jeff Hardy’s fate will be the same — God forbid — but you have to admit, there are a scary number of parallels.

“I’ll put it to you this way — let’s say you run a company, and one of your salesmen has a history of dependency. As of late, though, he’s been seemingly back on the straight and narrow, and in fact has become your top sales person as of late.

“Given his track record — and the fact that he’s fallen off the wagon within the past 12 months — would you promote him to the most stressful position in your company?

“Vince loves to tell stories on TV like the Jeff Hardy one or like the one with Shawn Michaels now, the incredible comeback stories of triumph where people beat the odds and get their happy ending.

“You know why he loves doing that on TV? Because it so rarely, rarely actually happens on real life. At least on TV, Vince can create that moment and feel good about himself — work himself.

“The reality, however, is that wrestlers don’t wind up like Jeff Hardy did on TV. They wind up like Lex Luger, or Jake Roberts, or Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, or a million others.”

You can read Mates’ blog in full by clicking here.

Phil Lowe
phil@ifight365.com