Sting, Eric Bischoff And AJ Styles On Jeff Hardy Being Intoxicated For Victory Road 2011 Main Event
As previously noted, The Hardy Boyz were recently the subject of WWE Network's docuseries WWE 24. The episode got in-depth on the subject of Jeff Hardy's infamous main event match versus WWE Hall Of Famer Sting at Impact Wrestling's Victory Road (2011) where Hardy was too intoxicated to perform.
According to Jeff, Impact helped him a lot as he was able to work while he dealt with his personal demons. While 'The Rainbow-Haired Warrior' thought he was going elevate the company, it did not happen.
"TNA actually helped me out a lot, so I was able to go back to work and wrestle through this whole dark period in my life." Hardy continued, "but it never really took off. I thought I might be this big savior and set this company on fire or whatever. But it didn't work out that way."
On the subject Victory Road, Sting said he was really looking forward to working with Hardy going into the match. Unfortunately, Sting had difficulty locating Hardy that day and when he did find Hardy, he knew something was wrong.
"I'm pretty excited about it because I'm literally going to wrestle Jeff Hardy and I thought, 'let's go out there and tear it up and then have a great match.'" Sting recalled, "and it was hard finding him that day. And then, when I did find him, you could tell something was off."
Hardy admitted that he was impaired that night from soma abuse.
"I had to wrestle Sting, one of my all-time favorite wrestlers and I couldn't even perform." Hardy added, "I was all soma'ed up. And he pretty much had to throw me down to the mat. I was just out of my mind. I was like a damn zombie out there."
Eric Bischoff, who was working for Impact at the time recalled letting Jeff go out to the ring against his better judgment.
"Hardy's music played and there was no Jeff." Bischoff remembered, "Hardy's music's playing and there's still no Jeff. And at that point, I started getting a little bit concerned. And I remember looking over to my left and I saw people literally helping Jeff into the backstage area. Against my better judgment, I let Jeff walk by me and I watched him go to the ring and I knew. I just knew it wasn't going to work. It really wasn't my call. I just took it upon myself and I called it. And on my way out to the ring, I thought I'm either going to help this guy out of the ring or I'm going to knock him out."
Bischoff made his way down to the ring and called an audible, telling the participants to wrap up the match quickly with just a Stinger Splash and Scorpion Death Drop. Sting shared that he was not angry at Hardy for being too inebriated to perform, but just disappointed in the high flyer.
"He was in no condition to have a match, so 'pin him, get it over with quick.'" Sting noted, "I wasn't even mad at him. I was disappointed. I mean, yeah, everybody was disappointed."
Even though Sting may not have been mad at Hardy for the situation at Victory Road, Hardy certainly felt everyone was mad.
"Everybody was mad at me." Hardy said, "AJ Styles was there and I know that he was pissed off. It was like, 'man, I can't believe he even works here.'"
Styles concurred.
"I was very upset because I'm giving my body, my career, to this place and some guy just comes in here and throws it all away because it's not important to him," Styles said.
To check out the documentary, subscribe to the WWE Network. If you use any of the quotes from this article, please credit WWE Network's WWE 24 with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Source: WWE Network's WWE 24