Eric Bischoff gave his thoughts on Jeff Hardy’s WWE departure on a recent installment of his 83 Weeks podcast on AdFreeShows.com.
WWE released Hardy on Thursday after he was sent home after last weekend. He looked sluggish and left through the crowd during a match at a live event. Hardy reportedly declined WWE’s offer to get help and go to rehab.
“Here’s what I hope. I hope that Jeff if he needs help, if he has an issue, and we don’t know, we’re assuming, it’s easy to assume based on Jeff’s history. By the way, I looked at the video footage from the match where Jeff walked out because I was curious. I hope Jeff gets whatever help he needs. I hope he gets out of wrestling. I don’t want to see him go to AEW. I don’t want to see him go back to WWE. I would hope for Jeff’s sake that Jeff doesn’t want to go back to WWE or go to AEW. There’s a time when in order to heal, in order to get healthy, and I don’t want to sound like Tony Robbins, but he’s only 40 something years old. He’s young. He still has a whole lifetime in front of him. There’s a point when you’re struggling, you’re having these kinds of situations you find yourself in over time, and you’ve been struggling with the same issue over and over. Yea, you have 6 months or a year where things are under control and then you fall back into it again. You have to ask yourself, ‘Is it time to change my world? Is it time to change my environment? Is it time to change what I do for a living? Is it time to change where I put my priorities?’, because if putting your priorities and being involved in this industry is at least not helping your situation and possibly making it more difficult, it’s time to walk away. He’s still young. He’s probably made a ton of money. I’m sure he’s made a ton of money. I’m assuming he’s probably saved a good deal of it. I hope he has. Man, there’s a time to walk away and put your health and your family first. There is no kind of rush like being out there in front of a live crowd, especially for the big shows, PPVs, SmackDowns, and RAWs.
That energy, vibe, and adrenaline, all of it combined, that is a rush that you can’t get anywhere else. It’s addictive in its own way. If that addiction to that rush keeps Jeff in an environment and in a business that is not healthy for him, then it’s time to walk away and prioritize your family and your own health. I’m sure Jeff is capable of doing a lot of other things outside of the ring that he can contribute to the wrestling business. If he can find a healthy balance that way, God bless him. I’m fully supportive of that, but I hope he gets out of the business because clearly the business is not clear of him, in my opinion. I don’t know. There’s a lot that I don’t know, but from the outside looking in, I would say it’s a safe bet that this business and all of the things that come with it, is not healthy for someone that has, what appears to be, the challenges that Jeff has. It’s time to walk away bro.”
H/T to
WrestlingNews.co for the transcription