Over two months after his unceremonious release from WWE, Jeff Hardy announced that he will be signing with All Elite Wrestling (AEW) in 2022 and reunite with his brother Matt for one more run as the Hardy Boyz. Jeff has gone on record saying this move he’s making is something that has him feeling “nervous and excited.”
Anyone familiar with the Hardys' history knows that the two daredevil brothers have never strayed particularly far from one another for too long in the wrestling world. With that in mind, it’s not too surprising that Jeff is declaring his intent to sign withAEWand align himself with Matt once again, even with a number of days still remaining on his no-compete clause with WWE.
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Prior to his official announcement on Jared Myers' YouTube channel, Jeff’s name has come up as one of many rumored wrestlers to “kick down the forbidden door” andmake their way to AEW. He indeed confirmed his intentions to sign with Tony Khan’s promotion last Thursday on February 24th. While his direction is clear, Jeff’s move is hampered by the 90-day no-compete clause, which would mean he’d remain a free agent until March 9th. This is stemming from his WWE release back in December 2021 after a WWE live event, in which Jeff had left midway through a tag team match for reasons unknown and didn’t return. When the company offered Jeff rehab, he turned them down, thus WWE felt it was best to let Jeff go, though later drug tests would all come back negative, indicating that WWE might have been too hasty in releasing the former WWE Champion.
Attempts by WWE management to bring Jeff back into the fold, including a soloWWE Hall of Fame induction, have been met with a resounding “hard no” by the veteran risk-taker, who took offense to the idea of his brother Matt being excluded from a HOF induction alongside him as one of WWE’s legendary tag teams in the Hardy Boyz. If anything, this only solidified Jeff’s designs on going to AEW and being with Matt, who’s been dropping his own hints about distancing himself from his AHFO (Andrade-Hardy Family Office) faction on AEW television in recent weeks.
The very notion of a Hardy Boyz reunion, even in 2022, has wrestling fans buzzing. With the overabundance of young, fresh andenergetic tag teams in AEW, including two teams within Matt’s very own faction in Private Party and Butcher & The Blade, there is no shortage of potentially fun, high-impact dream matches in store for the AEW faithful should the Hardyz in fact ride again once more.
There are concerns with Jeff’s potential signing that longstanding fans have pointed out even before his official announcement. A major one, of course, being his history with drugs and alcohol, which has been shown to spiral when he doesn’t have proper testing and support. He maintained a relatively clean record in his most recent WWE run,AEWdoes have drug testing in place, and Matt has his brother’s best interests at heart, so it remains to be seen if he can stay on the straight and narrow with his brother lending nearby care and understanding.
