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WWE: The very latest news on Jeff Hardy

  • The word of Jeff Hardy’s 60-Day Suspension made word around the locker room on Monday (3.10.08) before Raw. Hardy was advertised for the weekend house shows, but had been pulled from them with no reason given.
  • WWE policy now is to announce failures of the wellness policy and or suspensions publicly, but not to give the details of the failure. The belief is that the failure was not for steroids, but the fear is that mainstream media will attack the suspension with the "steroid claim" since it is wrestling.
  • Hardy was pulled from the WrestleMania card and the Money in the Bank Ladder Match. Hardy was looked at as a favorite, and there was a plan for him to win at one point. The one thing that was for sure is that he was going to have along program with Chris Jericho, which began a few weeks back. With the Hardy suspension, Jericho is now without a program.
  • Hardy’s suspension will end in mid-May, but company policy is that if you are suspended during the build to a PPV, you miss that PPV. This means that Hardy will not likely be back on TV until June 1st. That also means that he will miss out of PPV bonuses from WrestleMania, Backlash and Judgment Day on top of two months of house show and downside guarantee money. When Hardy was suspended the first time in 2007, he missed Summerslam. Due to his position on the card company estimates figure that Hardy lost out on $100,000 for that suspension.
  • As far as his future with the company, it is hard to see how WWE will judge him. The company feels that recreational drug use and steroid abuse are two different ball games. For example, Chavo Guerrero had two suspensions for steroid positives, but came back and is now in the middle of a big push as the ECW Champion and associated with Edge. When Rob Van Dam got busted in 2006, as the ECW and WWE Champion, the feeling was that they wouldn’t be giving the world title to someone that is questionable. The feeling is that no matter his popularity, it will be a long time before Hardy could earn back the trust to get a world title run.