Matt Hardy: "WWE May Have Jumped The Gun On Releasing Jeff"

WWE released Jeff Hardy last week, doing so after the SmackDown star was sent home from the road after being "impaired" while competing on a 4 December house show, then reportedly refusing the promotion's offer of heading to rehab.

While Jeff is yet to speak publically on the matter himself, his brother, Matt, talked about the situation in considerable depth on his Twitch stream on Monday.

The AEW wrestler stated that at the moment, fans don't need to be worried about how his sibling is doing (h/t POST Wrestling):-

"For the people who are worried about Jeff [Hardy] or concerned about Jeff, I’m here to tell you he is good and there is no reason to be worried or concerned about him."

Continuing, Matt recalled some of his and Jeff's previous experiences with various issues, speaking specifically on his brother's two arrests in 2019:-

"... in 2019, there was a time when there was so much drama going on and Jeff had his issues with alcohol, which are very well documented and then WWE ended up having him go to rehab at that point and after he got through that period, that was a very good experience for him and he learned so much and I could communicate with him a lot better because I had also experienced that same type of deal and we have that in common that we could talk about and our relationship was also strained then because myself and my wife [Reby Hardy] were doing all that we could to hold Jeff and his family accountable because we were concerned about them over his behavior and I was concerned about Jeff then. But for the last year-and-a-half, couple of years, Jeff has been the best version of himself that I have ever seen."

Matt later reiterated his point on Jeff being in the best place he has been for a while. He added that he hopes people will feel better about this latest situation once the results of Jeff's drug tests are made public, stating that he believes WWE may have "jumped the gun" on letting him go:-

"So, what I am saying is that Jeff is in the best place I’ve seen him in a very long time. As far as the details of what went down on that evening and in that match on that night, I have talked with Jeff, I feel good about everything he said and that is Jeff’s story to share and I am sure he will when he is ready to. Actually, he’s told me he will when he’s ready to. But, before anyone rushes to judgement, obviously they drug tested him after all this stuff. Wait ‘till you hear the results of that and when that comes back clean, then you know, hopefully people will feel better about it. You know, because I feel very good about Jeff, I feel confident about Jeff, and WWE, I understand their stance too. They feel like they were kind of backed into a corner because of his history and even though they may have jumped the gun with this a little bit, they made a decision and it is what it is and Jeff did say he wasn’t gonna go to rehabilitation because he didn’t feel he needed to and I don’t think he did either and that’s the honest to God’s truth. So that is where that lies."

Jeff's last televised WWE appearance came on the 26 November episode of SmackDown. He was involved in a program pitting him and Drew McIntyre against Happy Corbin and Madcap Moss at the time of his departure.