Like the guy or not, i tend to find Madden speaks quite a bit of sense and i think some people may have missed the point of his article (or i may have completely read it wrong!)
Jeff Hardy has got a sweet deal. Here's a guy who is on his last strike on the wellness policy, has zero charisma on the mic and is rewarded with a third world title reign. I have read countless posts on these forums bashing how people like MVP, Swagger and Morrison are 'owed' pushes to the big leagues and yet Hardy is given the biggest push of his career (at the time of writing he has held the belt for longer than 4 minutes) and decides to walk away.
Walk away and do what? Smoke meth in his treehouse? The guy is being pushed as a major face on SD! as having openly taken drugs yet gets the belt. I would call that a major peice of luck on Hardy's part but he still chooses to walk away. He's 31 and in his prime.
I hear a lot of people saying Jeff is owed time off and i agree that all guys in the business need time off. But i think Jeff got an awful lot of down time in his two suspensions, don't ya think? Prime example? A nice 2 months off at WM 24 which killed another potential push of his. Since coming back in May 08, Hardy has been wrestling roughly a year and a half. He's given ANOTHER push which in my opinion is a push too far as i just don't get his gimmick and he's decided he's had enough.
I think Vince gambled in putting the belt on him even though he knew he was leaving and it's backfired and i understand why a lot of guys are ragging on Vince. But at the end of the day, he's leaving a sweet gig (temporarily) and knowing Jeff's luck, he'll come back and beat Punk or Morrison or some other guy on the roster who worked his ass off to get there which i think is wrong.
Christian comes back from TNA even though he put in his notice and saw out his contract in WWE and they put him on ECW as punishment. Jericho comes back off a 2 year hiatus to recharge his batteries, just like Hardy is and is put in the mid card for a couple months until his feud with HBK showed everyone how talented he is.
What are the odds Hardy comes back and jumps straight into his cushy main event spot?
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