Jeff Hardy: Where does TNA go from here?

The Jeff Hardy situation at Victory Road has thrown a spotlight on TNA, and it's hardly the one they would have hoped for. With WWE currently engaging Twitter fans with a war of words between The Rock, John Cena and The Miz, the only thing being discussed about TNA is how Jeff Hardy ever made it to the ring.

To be frank, that the decision to cut short the match appeared to take place only after both Hardy and Sting had made their way to the ring was nothing short of ludicrous, showing a stark contrast in levels of professionalism between TNA and the WWE. Does anyone believe that if Jerry Lawler had turned up clearly unfit to compete that he would ever have made it out for his match against The Miz at Elimination Chamber last month? It's unthinkable. Chances are he'd never have left the dressing room. Yet when this situation occurs in TNA, it took until Hardy's entrance music hitting for anyone to realise there was a serious problem.

In fairness, we don't know exactly what went on, but the plausible story doing the rounds is that Jeff Hardy turned up massively late, a point at which by the way alarm bells should have been ringing. After this he went missing, only to be found lying on his back in a bathroom backstage, and required help to get to the entrance. The reason why he took so long to then appear was that he was being chewed out by TNA officials, including presumably Eric Bichoff. Even after this, he was sent on his way, and Sting also came out. Only now, did the decision seem to be made that Hardy was unfit to compete, and the match needed to be cut short.

TNA, clearly had no plan B, which is pretty unforgivable since Jeff Hardy is a walking train wreck. Given that the planned finish for the match before was that it would end in a double count out, and therefore still no number 1 contender, it would have made much more sense for TNA to have cut that match short, pull Jeff Hardy from the main event, and insert RVD and Mr Anderson. The reason given could have been anything. Use the 'Jeff wasn't prepared for his opponent in his last match" excuse, and use this to allow him to get even, with Jeff facing the winner on Impact. Since Sting was booked to retain anyway, this wouldn't have made much difference.

The other option is to take the Scott Hall approach. Send out someone to tell the crowd the truth. Sting would probably have worked. He could then have issued an open challenge, which could have been answered by anyone TNA felt capable of putting on a decent show at the last minute. Either situation there would have been preferable to putting on an 88 second main even that followed hot on the heels of a double count out in a number 1 contenders match.

How do TNA recover from this? What looks to be one of the better Wrestlemania's will come before TNA's next PPV, Lockdown, and both Smackdown and Raw have been consistently better than Impact for a good long while. Jeff Hardy has fortunately been removed from TV for the Impact taping this week, so they've bought a bit of space before they have to address the situation, but it would be difficult to see how his position with the company is still tenable. If he appears at Lockdown that would seem like a surefire buy rate killer, and if he continues to operate at the main event level that's surely only going to serve to create tension in the locker room.

In all honesty, it's difficult to see anyone but Matt Hardy trusting Jeff in the ring, and that's before we even consider what might happen with his pending court case. A member of their roster being sent to jail isn't exactly the kind of press TNA needs right now, so severing ties seems the best course of action for the company. It would mean avoiding a PR disaster, offloading his hefty wages and heading off discontent with their other stars, in particular the just returned Sting. Whatever they decide to do, it will take a long time for TNA to rebuild its credibility, and will likely take some sweeping changes across the company. The dismissal of Jeff Hardy though seems a reasonable starting point.