Monday Night Raw was a big one this week. They were in Toronto Canada and the crowd was hot. It was honestly one of the best crowds of the year so far and might even rival the Raw After WrestleMania crowd. The Orlando audience in April was amazing, but they never chanted “let’s go jobber” or “this ref sucks.” Even though they did boo Roman Reigns for an eternity and that was awesome.
It’s safe to say Canadian crowds are great but The Hardy Boyz didn’t get to experience the electricity first-hand. We had previously reported one of the reasons why WWE didn’t use The Hardy Boyz was because Scott Dawson was out of commission due to a bicep injury. Hopefully, he won’t need surgery for his injury, but pending an evaluation and some sort of treatment he’ll probably be on the shelf for a bit.
But it turns out that is only half of the story, literally. Matt Hardy wasn’t used this week because Dawson’s injury put the program in question. But Jeff wasn’t used because WWE didn’t know if he could cross the border into Canada. Dave Meltzer reported in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that WWE couldn’t fully clear up whether or not Jeff’s past drug conviction from 2010 would prohibit him from entering Canada.
WWE tried to make arrangements but couldn’t pull it off in time for Monday’s show. So the Hardys were simply left off the program. There are expectations to fix this issue by the next time WWE tours Canada, but they couldn’t make it possible this time around.
It is rather unfortunate because Jeff Hardy has really turned a new leaf since then. But in 2009 he was popped with having hundreds of Vicodin pills, a bunch of Somas, anabolic steroids, a “residual amount of powder cocaine”, along with some drug paraphernalia. A year later Hardy pled guilty and in 2011 Jeff was sentenced to ten days in jail, 30 months of probation, and a $100,000 fine. But he paid his debt to society and by every report, he’s doing great now.
This was just some red-tape getting in The Hardy Boyz’ way for now. But since this issue has been brought to WWE’s attention they’ll have it all fixed up so hopefully it never happens again.
