WWE Trades Ruthless Aggression For PG | Wrestling Timelines
November 23, 2008 | WWE Teases Jeff Hardy Overdose
WWE wants to go PG. It is absolutely imperative that the company escapes its perception as the place where young men go to die. Vince McMahon is a deeply reactionary individual, though, defined by his inability to get with the times. This is a man who in 2007 was still presenting ghastly sub-Attitude Era controversy bait, six years after that audience withered away. It therefore makes a grim sort of sense that he would tease a Jeff Hardy drug overdose death mere months after launching an initiative designed to achieve the exact opposite.
What’s so appalling about this disgusting promotional tactic is that it’s a very convincing work. It’s an effective and ugly idea. Jeff Hardy is synonymous with substance abuse issues; the more ghoulish amongst you might feature him in a celebrity death pool. When WWE publishes an article entitled ‘Jeff Hardy found unconscious’, fans naturally fear the worst. The details of a gross work are outstanding. The copy is limited to just 45 words, as if it’s a developing story so important that it is immediately sent for publishing. The excerpt “found unconscious in a stairwell at his hotel” is horrifically well-observed, since the hotel is where so many young wrestlers perish. WWE stops short of writing “room”, as if that makes it any better.
This is revealed to be an angle that writes Hardy out of the Triple Threat match at Survivor Series against Triple H and Vladimir Kozlov. The idea is to delay the gratification of Hardy’s big moment - that, and encourage fans to find out if the guy is dead, live on pay-per-view!
WWE, obviously, will need to do a far more convincing job of pretending to be good in front of the teacher.