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Jeff Hardy was reportedly going to be out of action for most of 2016 from the lingering effects of his 2015 dirt bike crash. Then, he returned to the ring for a brief match at the start of the year.
In a new interview, Hardy explained how he’s been able to get back in the ring little by little despite his bum leg.
“I’ve been wrestling now for about seven matches, and in each match, I do a little bit more than before. I have a torn PCL, but I have a really good brace and I feel real safe in the ring. After each match, I do a little bit more than before,” Hardy told Donald Wood of Ring Rust Radio.
Hardy added that the kneebrace will help him prolong his career because he is trying to avoid another knee surgery.
“End of April this year I’m going to get the rod out of my tibia and hopefully it’s going to help with some of the pain that’s going on in my knee because it’s starting to come out a little bit. Once I get that taken out, I’m going to leave my PCL alone and just continue to work with brace as long as I can,” Hardy said.
“Right now it’s still good and holding up. If I could show you how my knee looks now and how it moves you would think, ‘Wow, how are you even walking?’ It’s crazy how stable it is but the brace is really good and I’m going to wrestle with that as long as I can. Having that PCL surgery is just like the ACL surgery, where it is 6 to 9 months I’ll be out of action.”
If Hardy’s knee is the short-term concern, then concussions are the long-term concern. Hardy said he feels fortunate to have only suffered a few documented concussions during his career after chair shots to the head and wild stunt bumps were customary in the Attitude Era. Hardy also said he plans to donate his brain posthumously to CTE research.
“It’s a huge serious issue in wrestling. I’ve rung my bell so many times especially back in the day when chair shots to the head were legal. My goodness, I took so many of those,” Hardy said.
“Luckily, I’m only aware of about two or three concussions that I have had but there’s really no way of telling how many overall. When (Kevin) Nash announced he was doing that I was on board and I didn’t know that RVD did as well. That really inspired me to do the same thing.”
Overall, Hardy said he doesn’t know how much longer he will wrestle “especially with this injury,” but he felt a sense of loyalty to TNA to sign a new deal after getting hurt outside of the company last year.
“For future and long term, I am focused on getting through here and right now and maybe check out options next year about this time,” Hardy said, adding that he would like to win the Tag Titles again with his brother Matt Hardy.
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