Last night on Smackdown, WWE proclaimed that Jeff Hardy is celebrating his 20th Anniversary with WWE this year. This is not entirely accurate, however, as Jeff is actually a little over 6 months away from his 25th Anniversary with the company.
In terms of his overall tenure in WWE, Jeff has been with the company for approximately 14 years. He’s had 3 different runs with the company from 94-03, 06-09, 17-present.
Jeff Hardy in WWE
A possible reason for why WWE decided to fudge Jeff’s anniversary statistics last night is the age he was when he started. Jeff’s first match with the promotion was a loss to Razor Ramon on Monday Night Raw taped on May 23rd, 1994. He was only 16-years-old at the time.
Jeff would wrestle 3 more times for WWE in 1994, losing to the 1-2-3 Kid, Jim Neidhart, and King Kong Bundy. Hardy would even get a win over Razor Ramon on an episode of Superstars in late 1995 after he had turned 18. The match would air in early 1996:
The Hardyz would receive their first WWE Tag Team Championship match against the Smoking Gunns on May 28th, 1996 on another episode of Superstars. By early 1997, the Hardyz were a regular part of WWE programming. Why WWE decided to tell their audience Jeff is celebrating his 20th Anniversary with the company in late 2018 was likely just to give Samoa Joe an excuse to interrupt his celebration and kick-start their rivalry.
