Jeff Hardy Didn’t Feel Wanted By AEW
Jeff Hardy was happy to leave AEW.
On June 14th, Jeff Hardy completed a surprise return to TNA after his contract with AEW expired. At Against All Odds Matt Hardy unsuccessfully challenged Moose for World Championship, only to be attacked after the match. But it turned out help was at hand, as Jeff sprinted to the ring, coming to his brother’s aid.
Speaking on a recent episode of the Extreme Life of Matt Hardy podcast, Matt broke down how he and Jeff came to return to TNA, and why they left AEW. The veteran said he was made “two or three” offers by AEW but they didn’t match what he wanted. He added that he was also negotiating on behalf of his brother.
“Jeff was still with AEW. I was saying, ‘let me match up with his deal. When his deal ends, I’ll work through that.’ If something works where I can go back to AEW and we can team together, that’s cool and we could do that. I was talking with those guys and we came to two or three different offers, and nothing was quite what I wanted. I was doing all the negotiating for myself and Jeff.
I was trying to set myself up for something new when Jeff’s contract ended. I ended up doing Against All Odds. Let me do a program with Moose, we’ll have a killer blowoff match, and I’ll put Moose over,”
Matt went on to say that as no one from AEW reached out to Jeff directly, he didn’t feel wanted. As such, when TNA made an approach, he was all too happy to get involved.
“As time started going on, Jeff started telling me, ‘No one has reached out to me.’ ‘Are you going to reach out to them?’ The only time they offered Jeff a deal is when they offered me a deal. Jeff didn’t care. Unless they offered him something that he liked, he was good. He wasn’t going to reach out. As Jeff was saying, ‘No one has reached out, my deal might be up.’ I said, ‘I’m enjoying my time in TNA. Jeff isn’t looking to re-sign, no one has reached out, Jeff doesn’t feel like he’s necessarily wanted there.’
Jeff is an interesting cat. He thinks differently. If someone is not trying to reach out to him, ‘Hey, we really want to do this.’ If you’re sitting back or not trying to contact, he goes, ‘Well, they must not want me. I’ll move on.’ I told [TNA], ‘I would love to extend this.’ They said, ‘If Jeff’s deal is coming up, would he be interested in doing this?’
I told Jeff, ‘TNA said whenever your AEW deal is done, they’d be interested in doing something if you’d like to.’ Jeff got back to me, ‘Yeah. When my AEW deal runs out, if they don’t offer me anything, I’d be up for that,'”
Matt And Jeff Hardy Still Free Agents
Despite the pair working with TNA and agreeing to do so for a “couple of months,” no contracts have been signed. However, Matt added that should TNA want to make them an offer, the tag team legends would certainly have the conversation.
“We’re both free agents. We don’t have any contract. We’re just doing TNA programs right now. We have agreed to work with them for a couple of months and we’re not opposed to extending that. If they wanted to offer something, we would have a conversation with them.”
In the past, the brothers have been open about their desire to end their careers together.
H/t to Fightful