By Wade Keller, PWTorch editor

WWE needs to step forward and deal with the Matt Hardy situation, whatever it is. Last week in White Plains, N.Y. he was scheduled to team with R-Truth against C.M. Punk & Luke Gallows, but due to concern with his condition he was dropped from the match, according to various reports. This weekend on the European tour, he wasn't on the final event in Skegness as scheduled.

He posted a YouTube video in response to our report that he was "sent home." His proof he wasn't "sent home" was he was still in Europe that night and hadn't gotten on a plane yet. It turns out he didn't leave for the States early (as best we know), but he was sent back to his hotel room. He dwelled on the "sent home" figure of speech rather than deny whether management, for whatever reason, sent him back to the hotel early.

Whatever is going on with Hardy isn't hidden from the public entirely. His condition in the YouTube video is up for speculation, but plenty of people leaving comments on the YouTube page where his video played saw warning signs.

Hardy, as we have all seen, has fallen terribly out of shape. Pro wrestling is a cosmetic industry. It's, at its core, athletes simulating combat to try to win contests inside a ring. While there are some body types that wouldn't be considered physically fit, they're usually reserved for people with a gimmick that fits the odd body type (Bastion Booger, Trevor Murdoch, Big Show, etc.). Hardy, though, hasn't looked like a professional athlete for the past year, give or take.

He has cited injuries as the reason for his expanded gut, to which I wonder why someone who can't do abdominal core workouts, or even basic cardio, is allowed to perform in WWE rings. What about Matt Hardy is so vital to WWE's business operations that they can't send him home for however long it takes to "get better" in any way that entails?

Hardy is of the generation who pioneered the TLC style matches. His body, now into its late 30s, appears to be breaking down. He didn't wrestle a style all of these years - even while his brother outshined him in terms of highspots - that was likely to last into his 40s.

Whatever is wrong with him, whatever medical attention or otherwise he needs, he should get it. And if he isn't willing to pull himself from the road because, well, the WWE culture doesn't look positively on that (no matter what WWE's front office p.r. machine churns out to the contrary), shouldn't someone with his best interests in mind do it now?

Really, shouldn't it have been done months ago? Long before it got so obvious that they built a tasteless, mean-spirited segment around Cody Rhodes publicly humiliating him for his condition two Fridays ago on Smackdown? Didn't that just advertise to everyone that WWE management noticed what we have for the better part of the last year, but instead of making sure he is getting the help he needs, they've decided to publicly call him out on it and then send him on a grueling trip overseas to Europe afterward?

Hasn't Hardy, for all of his years of service to WWE, earned something better than this from the clear-headed management team whose job it is to look out for the well being of their athletes and catch warning signs before they turn to embarrassment or even tragedy?

What kind of Wellness Policy is this that leads to announcers saying Hardy is too injured to do cardio to get in shape, yet somehow he's still able to wrestle?

It's to the point that he's posted a late-night YouTube video boasting that he's cut out red meat from his diet and is getting himself back into shape. Wasn't his argument all along that he couldn't work out due to an abdominal health emergency that, really, should have precluded him returning to the road taking bumps on a nightly basis until he was fully recovered? Now he's saying it was a bad diet?

Is it part of WWE's Wellness Policy to wait for athletes who are supposedly too broken down to do cardio or sit-ups (but are able to still wrestle a full schedule) to just cut out red meat and hope for the best?

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