In the latest episode of Something Else To Wrestle With Bruce Prichard on the WWE Network, Conrad Thompson and Bruce discussed current WWE United States Champion Jeff Hardy’s 2003 release from the company. This was Hardy’s first release from the company since starting with them in 1994.
He was released in April of 2003 after a downward spiral of issues. Hardy suffered form drug addiction, erratic behavior, and consistently arrived late to events or even no-showed. Here’s what Prichard had to say on the matter:
“Jeff did have a drug problem, and everything that you just said was taking place. All of the sudden, we had a different human being on our hands, and it wasn’t someone that anyone really liked to work with anymore. if he did show up, he would go on high, and you couldn’t find him all day long, or he’d show up and then leave again.
“It was difficult times being with Jeff Hardy. Jeff had a drug issue—Jeff admitted having a drug issue—but Jeff didn’t want to go to rehab. The condition was ‘Jeff you have to go to rehab or we’ve got to let you go. We’ve got to release you.’ And they released him because he refused to go to rehab. In my opinion, Jeff had a drug problem. Jeff had a lot of issues going on and wasn’t handling them well.”
H/T WrestleZone for the transcriptions
