Huge Name Upset Over AEW Booking?
This AEW star doesn't sound pleased at being "stuck" on Rampage.
Jeff Hardy has posted what could be interpreted as a dig at AEW booking, claiming he and brother Matt are "stuck" on the promotion's Rampage brand rather than working Dynamite.
A promotional graphic for last night's Dynamite was accompanied by the following caption on Jeff's Instagram:
We,”TheHardys”will not be appearing on this live show called #AEWDynamite. We, “TheHardys”are stuck in the dimension of,”AEWRampage”
Jeff has not wrestled on Dynamite since he and Matt teamed with Brother Zay in a defeat to Action Andretti and Top Flight on 29 November 2023. The legendary tag duo has since worked two Rampage bouts, the last of which came during the 3 January tapings.
The Hardys didn't wrestle during this week's Rampage tapings last night.
Matt Hardy expressed frustration at his and Jeff's AEW booking in December, saying, on his Extreme Life of Matt Hardy podcast:
‘‘I mean, I’ll say, just creatively like just the way we’ve been utilised, like the last four months, it’s been very frustrating. We’ve been very patient but there has been a lot of frustration with things we’ve done and kind of how we’ve been utilised in some ways. So I feel like the natural thing to play off of is like channel that frustration and kind of put it into what we’re doing. And to those people, if they hate us, we will give them a reason to hate us, you know what I mean? And there’s something we can do there to evolve our characters and once again reinvent into something we’ve never done."
Jeff added that after "feeling like a ghost" in WWE, he felt a similar way in AEW:
"When I first came back, it was pretty exciting. I didn’t know what was going to be happening in the near future, but I think the last time I was in this extreme dimension of y’all’s podcast, I said that in WWE, I felt like I was a ghost, just walking around backstage. Honestly, man, I kind of still feel like that at AEW, just because of not being involved in something cool. I feel like there’s something so special that we (Jeff and Matt) have within us to really bring out."
AEW suspended Hardy indefinitely in June 2002, when he was arrested for driving under the influence. The following February, Jeff was handed a 38-day suspended jail term and two years of probation, amongst other punishments, as part of his sentencing, with AEW then bringing him back to television in April 2023.