Jeff Hardy Details Why He Turned Down WWE Hall Of Fame Induction
Jeff Hardy is officially All Elite after making his long awaited debut in AEW last week on Dynamite, helping his brother Matt fend off members of the AFO.
Following Jeff's release from WWE in December due to an incident at a Live Event that the company thought was related to drugs, Matt Hardy defended his brother in the situation and revealed that WWE didn't even have the results of the drug test before they fired Jeff. Matt also revealed that Jeff was offered a WWE Hall of Fame induction as a way to smooth over the situation after WWE realized they were wrong for firing his brother.
During the latest episode of The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy, The Charismatic Enigma Jeff Hardy spoke about being let go by WWE and talked about the offer he received to be inducted into the Hall of Fame as a singles competitor. Jeff spoke at length about how wrong the entire situation felt to him and how it ultimately left him in tears because he knew everything about it wasn't right.
"It just felt completely wrong, it just didn't feel like the time at all," Hardy said. "I almost felt offended, I was very emotional, but almost felt offended like what? After my 90 days are up, the Hall of Fame is in April and I do go to AEW, how's that going to work? What are y'all trying to hit me with as far as if I sign with AEW when I'm free and me going into the Hall of Fame and how would that even work? My mind and my emotion went crazy and I was in tears man, like this is my career. I know I had been a very influential person to a lot of young misunderstood individuals but yeah, it just felt so wrong. Like how dare you?
"I know that sounds crazy because I guess when people get offered the Hall of Fame it's like 'oh, I'm a Hall of Famer' but it's never really meant that much to me. It's not time for that, that's why it was a hard no. Especially, it feels like something Matt and I should go in together as The Hardy Boyz when the time is right. It was just weird man,I still don't know how I feel about that overall. It just felt so wrong."
Matt Hardy joined in on the conversation to talk about the negativity Jeff was feeling at that time with WWE. He talked about the feeling of WWE offering the Hall of Fame induction as something with a motive and not sincere and believes thats why Jeff got emotional about the situation.
"You just didn't feel valued," Matt said to Jeff. "You are one of the most beloved wrestling superstars of all time and that lack of feeling valued to your maximum ability and just being able to leave and come here [to AEW] and seeing how this is. Just like the Hall of Fame thing, I almost feel like they jumped the gun before they let you go and got the drug test results back and it was almost like what can we do to reel him back in and that's probably what was emotional about it too. I want people to offer things like that because it's coming from the right place, not because there's so motive behind it or they're trying to reel you back in."
Continuing to talk about it, Jeff joked about whether or not he should've told WWE yes to the induction but that when he'd be inducted, he'd be in AEW.
"Maybe I should've said this 'wait a minute, what if I'm in AEW at the time of the Hall of Fame? How does that work?' What if, yanno," Jeff said.
"That would've been interesting. I would imagine they would've had you under a nice little contract where you couldn't have came to AEW. That would be my guess," Matt said.
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.