The concept the wrestling world and the actual world are separate entities has usually been urinated on in latest occasions. With wrestlers and corporations utilizing social media to ahead storylines and feuds, in addition to the “grime sheets” shifting into their very own trade with followers gobbling up no matter backstage gossip they will get (I’m no completely different), what’s “actual” and what’s actual is fairly foggy. And that’s on this planet of wrestling, the place the entire thing is constructed on that sort of fogginess. We all know they’re characters, however we all know they’re individuals, and the place one ends, and the opposite begins is much less identifiable than ever. It’s a part of the enjoyable, as wrestling dances over the road of “present” and “competitors.” You may watch CM Punk’s attainable (doubtless?) return and any future feud with The Elite after what occurred in actual life as the proper instance.
However that line can get uncomfortable for everybody relying on what the precise real-life points are being handled, or not handled because the case could also be. AEW was definitely toying with the unhealthy aspect of all of this final night time on Dynamite, with each the return of Jeff Hardy, and Darby Allin’s promo-off with MJF.
Hardy first. He made his return to the corporate after his newest DUI arrest nearly a 12 months in the past. It’s hardly new for Hardy, who has been fired or launched from a number of wrestling firms for his alcohol, and drug addictions, in addition to a number of arrests. Hardy got here to the rescue of his brother Matt in story final night time, and AEW might be ramping up for one final Hardy Boyz run earlier than they each retire.
Which is one thing followers have wished. Everybody loves Jeff Hardy and the Hardyz. And but on the similar time, the response to Jeff’s return was barely muted, as a result of there was a sense from followers each at house and within the enviornment that we’d all been right here earlier than. As a result of we’ve got. And deep down, Jeff’s return is sort of making each fan ask in the event that they aren’t contributing to his issues.
We see habit in a unique gentle now, not a private failing however a frailty. But it surely was laborious to look at Jeff hit one more Swanton bomb final night time, see him gingerly rise up from it, and limp round, and surprise how this type of bodily ache might probably assist him in his restoration. Whether or not it was an precise harm or response or not, it’s hitting these notes. A lot of habit springs from bodily ache, and everyone knows that Hardy’s physique after 20 years plus within the ring is hardly in tip-top form. Watching Hardy do it nonetheless brings us again to the primary time we noticed him and his brother Matt do issues we didn’t assume any human might, or ought to, do, and that’s the pleasure that they supply. However we’re all too nicely conscious of the toll it’s taken as nicely. It’s tougher, if not unattainable, for followers to separate these two feelings.
Each wrestling fan simply desires Jeff Hardy to get higher and make it stick this time. It’s honest to query whether or not wrestling suits into that. Positive, it’s all he’s ever recognized, and maybe he wants that heart and exercise to maintain busy, or really feel in a spot to proceed to work on himself. Sitting idly someplace with nothing to do wouldn’t be the very best path to sobriety both. However maybe the reply is to search out one thing new for him, one thing that doesn’t take a bodily toll and likewise isn’t the trail that has led him astray so many occasions.
No matter Hardy’s path to wellness is, and that’s an important factor, inviting followers to return alongside for the trip once more is a troublesome ask. It’s one factor when it’s simply the character “Jeff Hardy” as soon as once more throwing himself from a top he in all probability shouldn’t by a desk and an opponent. However followers know that the particular person Jeff Hardy hasn’t actually been in a position to deal with what the character Jeff Hardy does in a wholesome method. We are able to’t see them as two separate issues anymore, and never solely has the particular person Jeff Hardy had a really laborious time, he’s put different individuals at risk in essentially the most reckless method attainable. His final arrest noticed him 3 times over the restrict on a breathalyzer at midday whereas driving a automobile he had one way or the other bypassed the ignition lock on as he swerved out and in of visitors. If this goes south once more, the results could possibly be a lot worse than the lack of an already adorned profession, and one other rehab stint.
Hardy desires to leap off and onto issues to entertain us, as a result of that’s his world. But it surely’s a little bit laborious to be as entertained after we’ve all seen the place it goes. We’ve got our recollections, and most if not all followers would relatively commerce any new ones for Jeff’s well being and happiness as an alternative of selfishly soaking it up and ignoring the value that could possibly be paid.
Darby Allin goes after MJF on the mic once more
As for Allin, after his show-opening match with Swerve Strickland, he received on the mic after MJF and did a promo about how he was like MJF and solely centered on himself, and his accomplishments, however he was by no means comfortable. And the way remedy had proven him all that was round him and made him a happier and extra full particular person than MJF.
Besides there’s one drawback: AEW has persistently requested us to ignore Allin’s actual life and the a number of accusations of home abuse and sexual assault as a result of he was on the high of the cardboard. That they had no drawback firing Jimmy Havoc after Talking Out and the accusations in opposition to him, however he wasn’t a fundamental occasion participant. Allin’s skated (I do know, I do know) on all of it. It’s been off-limits so far as they had been involved.
And now we’ve got Allin opening up a window into his private life, however you don’t get to cherry-pick when you open that door of what individuals see inside. Allin can’t reference his errors and demons and previous after which figuratively say, “Yeah however not that.” If his precise private life goes to be a part of his on-screen story, and most of us know what has been accused of happening in his private life, then we are able to’t merely settle for that going to remedy makes that each one okay now. If AEW and Allin wish to stroll down this street, they must stroll the entire street.
Once more, the strains of kayfabe are sometimes only a concept lately. However maybe AEW ought to be a little bit extra cautious in how they blur them.
