GUEST EDITORIAL
By Nick Vincent of Round Rock, Tex.
PWTorch Reader

I just read the two readers’ comments about possible explanations for Jeff Hardy being found with such a seemingly large quantity of drugs. I’ll start by saying both sets of comments were actually pretty reasonable.

As the son of a pain management doctor, I have seen my dad prescribe pretty strong doses to some patients. Apparently that’s because in order to effectively manage certain kinds of severe, chronic pain it takes a stronger, higher dose – one that would not be appropriate for someone with, say, a garden-variety headache. So what might look to the layman as an “addict” is actually someone in legitimate need of these amounts of pills to take the edge off and keep the blinding pain at bay.

Of course the risk of addiction is there. Which leads to Jeff Hardy.

I think the most generous thing we can say about Jeff Hardy right now is that he’s probably in a lot of pain.

But that’s where I stop being generous to this guy.

Let’s forget this arrest completely for a moment, and focus on what we know for sure. And what is that? Well, we know that Jeff Hardy is a young man who is walking around with some serious injuries: two herniated discs and a bad neck, at the very least. You get the feeling there’s likely a lot more going on in the injury and pain department.

We also know that Hardy has done this to himself. He didn’t get hit by a truck. He’s not terminally ill. No. He’s been performing ridiculously risky, bone-jarring, self- destructive stunts a couple hundred nights a year for over a decade. Let’s assume two hard bumps a night, 200 times a year for ten years. That’s 4,000 shots. And let’s face it: that’s a conservative estimate.

He has been basically slowly pulverizing his body little by little, year after year.

I think Hardy is an addict. He’s addicted to the rush he gets doing the stunts. He’s addicted to the reaction he gets from the crowd. He’s addicted to the celebrity it brings him. And yes, apparently he has probably been (and may be now) addicted to narcotic painkillers.

I also still believe (and I’ve written this before in past submissions) that Hardy is next up on the “Dead List” in pro wrestling. But unlike the typical wrestling death that is usually steroids-related, I think his will be either the classic drug overdose or perhaps a Misawa-like demise after years of bodily abuse.

However he goes, he’ll be yet another casualty of the pro wrestling death machine. At best, he’ll be crippled by age 40. Another young star ground up and spat out.

And of course when he dies, we’ll have to endure yet another self-indulgent WWE tribute show with weeping, wailing wrestlers and hyper-exaggerated statements about his legendary contributions to “the business.”

In the case of Jeff Hardy, WWE is scaling new heights in offensiveness. His recent disjointed, rambling promos about his lifestyle and the references to his real-life demons sprinkled into recent storylines have been distasteful and irresponsible. Basically WWE has been celebrating a reckless, stupid, self-destructive kid who has been slowly killing himself as we watch…and McMahon cashes in.

And so what’s next? Let’s assume Hardy gets past this legal scrape. Then what? He continues his time off to “heal?” Only to do what? Come back in six months and continue swan diving off ladders and turnbuckles until you rupture another disc? Break your neck? Snap your spine?

So if Jeff Hardy is reading this I’d like to tell him: your circumstances are not worthy of celebration or honor. And should you be the next one to drop dead, you don’t deserve to be idolized.

For the last time Hardy: wise up. Or go get fitted for your coffin.

[Jeff Hardy photo by Wade Keller (c) PWTorch]

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