Scott Bowden presents Kentucky Fried Rasslin

Get serious: Joker, smoker, alleged midnight toker. Worlds away from his WWE heyday, Hardy is no longer #winning much nowadays.

Heading into Sunday’s TNA Victory Road PPV, there was concern that Dixie Carter’s latest hotshot angle-re-signing aging star Sting after a strong rumor went viral (thanks to some overzealous bloggers) that Steve Borden was heading home to Atlanta for a WrestleMania dream match with the Undertaker-would backfire.

After all, Dixie not only re-upped the contract on the broken-down, 52-year-old Stinger but also made him TNA champion in his first appearance back on iMPACT! as a desperate attempt to spike a TV (lame pun intended) rating and mimic WWE TV once again, copying their 2-21-11 vignette designed for the return of the Undertaker.

With Sting reportedly not even a shell of his former self in recent months due to nagging career injuries, it was expected that he would be forced to rely on the recently married Jeff Hardy, who clearly has his priorities in line after committing to a life of matrimony, to have a PPV-worthy title bout at TNA’s Victory Road.

Yes, some were speculating that Sting’s career had come full circle and would need Hardy to carry him to greatness much like Ric Flair did during the infamous NWA World title title bout (a 45-Broadway) at Clash of the Champions that made Borden a star in the late ’80s. At the very least,  Hardy would have to excel in the recent role of the Miz, making it appear that 61-year-old challenger Jerry Lawler still had the ability to beat the top titleholder in the company.

And when the finish went down Sunday night, with Sting beating Hardy in a little over a minute with the scorpion death drop, even the most astute wrestling observers initially figured they were protecting Sting. Turns out they were-but were for completely different reasons. Alas, it appears that Hardy was allegedly heavily under the influence, in no shape to perform Sunday, so they jobbed him out quickly before he could injure himself or Sting. (Hardy’s makeup, however, looked outstanding.)

They say in today’s wrestling, the personal feelings that made us all willingly to suspend disbelief back in the kayfabe era is lacking because everything is so scripted to fault. One has to look no further than the disgusted look on Sting’s face in the aftermath to see his disdain with Hardy-a guy who will probably be given another yet another chance-that is, if he’s cleared of his current legal woes.

While he’s certainly made more money than his ’80s/’90s heartthrob counterparts, Hardy would be wise to look at the cautionary tales of former stars Buddy Landel, Eddie Gilbert, Brian Lawler and Tommy Rich. He’s teetering on that same dangerous edge now.

Monday morning update: Some are speculating this might all be a work to create a “Charlie Sheen-type controversy” (#winning) to garner some attention for Hardy and the company. If there’s any shred of truth to that, years from now, people will point to this moment as the death-knell for the promotion much like WCW’s finger-point title changes with Hulk Hogan vs. Kevin Nash and, again, with Jeff Jarrett. Surely, they aren’t that desperate…are they? Either way, the main event last night was a debacle and has to a morale killer for the remaining professionals in the promotion who worked have worked damn hard in the past to build the company.

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Dude, it's all been a misunderstanding.

A week after he walked away from an unprecedented offer from World Wrestling Entertainment last year, former WWE champion Jeff Hardy, 32, was arrested on multiple charges of prescription-drug trafficking and possession of cocaine and anabolic steroids in September 2009.

Hardy was arrested after a search of his residence yielded 262 Vicodin prescription pills, 180 Soma prescription pills, 555 milliliters of anabolic steroids, a residual amount of powder cocaine and items of drug paraphernalia, according to a press release. A joint investigation conducted by officers with the Moore County Sheriff’s Office narcotics and select enforcement units and the Fayetteville Police Department led to the arrest.

Today, James Caldwell of the Torch updated the story:

Hardy is scheduled for Superior Court on Tuesday, July 6 faced with conspiracy drug trafficking. The North Carolina Court System lists the charge as “Conspiracy to Traffic Opium.” The big charges of felony drug trafficking, felony possession of cocaine, felony maintaining a dwelling for drug distribution, and misdemeanor drug possession were dropped. The charges dropped were from the initial 2009 arrest. The remaining conspiracy charge was the latest charge added in January 2010.
The following is an update on the charges Hardy was and now is faced with:

Case 1 – Felony drug trafficking, Two felony charges of possession of a Schedule III controlled substance or drug.
Case 2 – Felony possession of cocaine, Felony maintaining a dwelling for redistribution of controlled substances.
Case 3 – Misdemeanor Possession of drug paraphernalia.
Case 4 (newly added January 2010) – Conspiracy to traffic opium.

Despite being one of the most popular performers in the industry the last five years, Hardy’s struggles with drugs and alcohol have been well-documented, so much in fact that before his departure from the company, WWE Creative weaved his personal problems into a program with CM Punk, who preaches a “straight-edge” lifestyle. 

The three dropped charges bodes well for Hardy. I should have known everything was going to be fine after Jeff tweeted following his arrest that “a lot of exaggerations are out there today, don’t believe everything you read 4 it is not true, I am at home and fine-thanks for your concern.” That clears up everything.

Mr. Monday Night lived up to his name.

With WWE Creative desperately scrambling (more so than usual) to come up with a show, TNA delivered one hell of a TV moment April 19, with former WWE and ECW champion Rob Van Dam defeating A.J. Styles for the TNA World title in a live Monday broadcast on Spike. Of course, in typical Eric Bischoff/Vince Russo fashion, the angle was rushed and poorly promoted, so it meant little in the way of viewers, confirmed by the 1.0 rating for iMPACT reported earlier today. The show opened with Styles crowing about his PPV win over the Pope before he was interrupted by Van Dam, who desperately needed to cut the promo of his life. RVD failed in that sense, but the crowd was so hot that they rallied behind him when he questioned whether or not Styles was still the best wrestler in the company.  This barely coherent statement seemed to finally wake up Jeff Hardy, who joined the discussion. (You know a segment may be in trouble when Styles is the best promo guy in the ring.) Hardy looked more energetic (and chubbier) than I’ve seen in a while, as he finally stated his purpose for being in TNA months after signing: to complete his collection of World titles. Hulk Hogan hit the ring and he delivered a spiel about the importance of the World title and how his championship win changed his life. Hogan applauded Styles for his reign as well as RVD and Hardy for stepping up before setting up a number-one contender’s match between the two former WWE champions. Nope-not for PPV…or even next week on iMPACT…tonight. I was thinking, “Man, oh, man….they just can’t help themselves, can they?” Then came the announcement that the winner would get the shot at the title…tonight. Mike Tenay blurted out, “You gotta be kidding me!” I hear ya, Mike.

Hogan’s deal was effective, but you can’t expect one promo to make a difference in how the championship is perceived. The World title and its holder have to be built up over time, they have to be protected. Styles has been jobbed out on TV since Hogan/Bischoff took over, so the credibility of A.J.’s reign wasn’t what it should have been heading into this segment.

Yes, Hardy vs. RVD was a fantastic match to have in progress at the top of iMPACT’s second hour as RAW opened with one of those seemingly endless Triple H promos (which was actually somewhat entertaining, thanks to the angle with CM Punk and Rey Mysterio), but I hate the accelerated pace of how even TNA’s best angles unfold. If they were hell-bent on giving us such an intriguing matchup with no promotion beyond a Bischoff  teaser “tweet” earlier that afternoon, I would argue that RVD vs. Hardy should have at least ended inconclusively (e.g., double countout) forcing Hogan to schedule a “must be a winner” rematch the following week on iMPACT. Then they could have more time to promote this classic “fans’ dream matchup” and build up the heated-yet-friendly rivalry between the two former WWE champs looking for TNA gold. The winner of that bout faces Styles in a showdown for the World strap at the Sacrifice PPV, whetting the fans’ appetite to see two stars on a collision course for the belt.

Instead, two 5-star frog splashes within a span of 60 minutes later, and RVD’s “dramatic” chase of the World title is over before it begins.  A sacrifice indeed. Yes, it was an amazing scene with RVD and Hardy celebrating the title win in a sea of confetti (red and yellow, no less) with Hogan, but at what cost? Why couldn’t they have waited a few weeks before pulling the trigger? Once again, TNA starts an angle and gives you the payoff in the same show-it’s a ridiculous formula no matter how good the execution is. Ironically enough (given recent correspondence from TNA lawyers), I’ll paraphrase Jim Cornette’s explanation of Booking 101: You put two stars on trajectories by having them both win matches. Months (or in some cases, weeks) later, the bout between the two stars is  announced. The fans go crazy: They’re finally going to wrestle and settle it once and for all…”Who is the better man?” Sure, the game has changed today, and ratings do matter. But hotshotting angles without a least a week of buildup is insane and proved to be the death knell for WCW in the long run, despite some wonderful TV moments in the ’90s.

This shouldn’t be surprising-after all, Hogan and Bischoff were the creative forces who gave away what could have easily been one of the biggest PPV buy rates of the decade just to pop a Nitro rating, when Goldberg won the WCW championship from Hulk in 1998 with less than a week of promotion for the bout. Yes, the Georgia Dome-and fans watching Nitro-went crazy when Goldberg hit the jackhammer to pin Hogan clean in the middle, but that pop was drowned out by the sound of the millions of dollars WCW flushed down the toilet that night.

In his first promo with TNA, Bischoff vowed to the fans at the iMPACT ZONE that he’d learned from his mistakes running a wrestling company. Last night was further evidence that he hasn’t, despite the inspired choice of RVD as champion.