Bruce Prichard Opens Up About Infamous Jeff Hardy Situation At TNA Victory Road 2011
One of the most notable moments of Jeff Hardy's career for all of the wrong reasons came on March 13, 2011, at TNA's Victory Road pay-per-view. A night that was supposed to see him challenge Sting for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship in the main event was thrown into chaos due to him being under the influence and disoriented backstage. And although the match did take place, not a single moment went according to plan. On "Something to Wrestle," then-TNA Producer Bruce Prichard recalled the harrowing events of that evening.
"It was horrible," he said. "We were at gorilla and it's time for the match and we're looking for Jeff, 'Where the hell's Jeff? Where the hell's Jeff?'"
He soon got his answer, coming across Hardy shortly after leaving the studio. Only he was being helped along by a couple of people and unable to stand upright. "I see two guys carrying Jeff. I thought he was passed out, and he actually may have been," Prichard continued. Hardy was slung over their arms, being pulled along. "They're dragging him, and his feet are just dragging the ground behind him," he recalled. When Prichard asked what happened and where he'd been, those helping said they found him sprawled out in his locker room. When pressed, Jeff could only offer up incoherent slurs.
"So I'm like 'Holy s***!' So I ran back, and Eric [Bischoff] was there, Sting was there, I said 'Man, we can't send him — we can't do this. He can't walk. They're carrying him right now,'" he continued. Meanwhile, they were attempting to stir Hardy by throwing water in his face and getting him to drink something backstage, but it was frivolous. He was a mess, and a decision needed to be made.
Prichard Wanted to Call off the Match
Prichard recalled a frantic atmosphere backstage, including several discussions about the match itself and whether or not they should just call it off. "Dixie [Carter} didn't want to cancel the match. I wanted to cancel the match," he said. "...So Eric and I talked and I said 'Dude, I don't think you should send him out." As timing would have it Hardy emerged, and at that moment his music hit. Suddenly, despite his visibly altered state, this was happening.
"They hit his music, and he goes!" Prichard continued. "And I'm like 'Oh f*** man, this is gonna be bad." He and Bischoff kept talking, and when Sting entered the conversation, he could see just how upset "The Icon" had become. "Eric and I were talking, and we talked to Sting, and Sting was livid. Livid." While Carter and Vince Russo remained stationed in production for the time being, which irked Prichard a little bit. only he and Bischoff had seen Hardy up close up until that point. "Dixie finally, to her credit, and to Russo's credit, they were like, you know, 'Make the call.'"
So they did. "By this time I knew I was going to be taking over Talent Relations, but nobody else did," he continued. "And I told Eric, I said 'Man we gotta, Sting's just gotta go out and beat him." Unfortunately for the production and creative teams involved, there was little-to-no time to think of a solution. "So we talked just real quick, and I mean, you're talking about all of this happening in seconds," he explained. While time seemed to slow down, they knew better, and they knew they didn't have any. Thus, Bischoff made a decision.
Bischoff Interrupts Victory Road's Main Event
Sting had just made his way to the ring, following Hardy's entrance, and by all accounts, it seemed as though the main event was going to take place as scheduled. Of course, it didn't quite work out that way in the end. "And Eric, 'Hit my music.' Eric went down and interrupted it," Prichard continued, as Bischoff made his presence known following their respective in-ring introductions. And in doing so, was attempting to get instructions across to everyone involved. "And he went over and told Jeff 'Hey man, he's gonna hit ya with one move and pin ya, and that's it."
He reiterated as much to Sting who, again as Prichard recalls, was incredibly upset. "And walked over to Sting and said, cause Sting was — God, I can't remember, I couldn't ever remember seeing Sting pissed. Sting was pissed." Even still, the champion thought he could maybe even get a match out of Hardy despite the state he was in. Bischoff wasn't having any of that, though. "He's like 'Nope, don't get a match out of it. Just pin him.'" So he did just that. After locking arms a couple of times, Sting dropped Hardy with the Scorpion Death Drop and immediately made the cover. And yet, even that wasn't exactly straightforward.
"Sting did the one move, rolled him over and pinned him, and Jeff tried to kick out," Prichard explained. "You can see Jeff does try to kick out, but Sting held him down. We told the referee 'Count to three, I don't give a f*** if he kicks out on 1. Count to 3.'"
Prichard Didn't See Hardy for Months
Once the match concluded it was more or less business as usual, at least as much as it could have been given the circumstances. Each wrestler made their way to the back and in Hardy's case, it'd be the last time he'd see Prichard until he returned in August. "They bring Jeff back and they bring Jeff right through us and take Jeff out," he continued. "And that was the time I saw Jeff Hardy until we brought him back, and I was already in Talent Relations at that point." As time passed during his absence, though, it wasn't communicated too well to Prichard what the company had decided to do (or not do) with Hardy. As it turns out, nothing was really being done.
"I would ask everybody 'Where are we on Jeff Hardy? What did we do?'" While he was promptly removed from TNA programming following Victory Road, he was still at home getting paid. All that time, however, nobody reached out. "No one had spoken to him," Prichard noted. "He was just sitting home collecting a check. So I had to have that wonderful, uncomfortable conversation, and it was what it was."
As for the night itself, he declared "That was an embarrassing night to be in the business. Horrible. So unprofessional." And yet, people backstage including Prichard himself had seen Hardy throughout the day leading up to the show. He was, by all accounts, fine. He was himself. Until he wasn't. "Whatever it is he did, whatever it is he took, hit him right at that moment, and it was terrible. That was a horrible black eye," reiterating that what made everything so bizarre was that there was no sign something like this was going to happen.
WWE Wouldn't Have Let Hardy Go Through the Curtain That Night
Prichard couldn't bring himself to lament any potential regrets that March evening at Victory Road. At the end of the day, everyone backstage had very minimal time to react and come up with a plan. All in all, he feels they did the best they could given the circumstances. Despite Sting being understandably upset, despite the fact that the main event turned into what it did, two feelings came to the forefront for Prichard above all else. "I just was, more than anything, disappointed and scared for him," he said. "That was it."
There are always going to be 'What Ifs,' and hindsight is 20/20, but Prichard believes there wasn't an opportunity to come up with another solution. For starters, they didn't know he had taken anything and in addition to that, they were given no reason to think otherwise. But if there was one thing he could point to, it's how things would have differed for Hardy had this occurred during a WWE event.
"He never would've made it through that curtain," he declared. Even still, he stopped short of slighting himself or TNA for allowing that to happen. "And that isn't to say Jeff making it through the curtain was a disaster on our part. It was, we're sitting there talking about it, and he just goes...There just wasn't a lot of time," he added, suggesting that a difference in protocol between WWE and other promotions simply wouldn't have allowed him to make it that far. Prichard did, however, slight Carter and Russo for their inaction afterwards. "I think that, you know, there was a lot of people that would put their head in the sand, pretend it didn't happen."
TNA's Overall Inaction Stuck With Prichard Most
While Prichard maintains that there simply wasn't enough time to do something about Hardy in the moment, the lack of action after the fact certainly still rankles him. Instead, Hardy faced no consequences for several months, continued to collect his paycheck, and TNA went about their business without him. Whether it was being resistant to conflict or oblivious to the severity of the situation, the show went on. The sentiment was nothing was going to happen, so nobody brought it up. And therefore, nothing ended up happening.
Now if he were given one do-over, Prichard believes he would've fought even harder to make sure Hardy didn't get to the ring that night. "But that's hindsight being 20/20," he reiterated. "And that probably would've been our preference." When asked if Hardy should've been fired for his actions that evening, he didn't hesitate. "Yes," Prichard stated immediately. "Yes, Jeff should've been fired." So, why didn't they? Were there worries that firing him wouldn't allow him to get the help he needed? Or, were there worries that WWE would snatch him up? Once again, Prichard was quick to respond.
"WWE wouldn't have touched him," he added. "And firing him, in my opinion, would have moved him along the path to get help a lot quicker than it did. Because doing nothing, nothing happened."
Hardy Recently Returned to AEW
Fast forward to April 2023 and Hardy has returned to AEW television for the first time since his most recent DUI arrest in June 2022, to which he pled 'No Contest' earlier this year. This may very well end up being his final chance with Tony Khan's promotion, but it wasn't the first time "The Charismatic Enigma" had put himself in a compromising position. And while people like Bully Ray have made his thoughts very clear, Jeff's brother Matt believes that fans are about to see the best version of Jeff Hardy.
On an episode of his podcast in March, he declared "He just went into it with a different mentality. He's never been this scared before," before revealing "I think one of the biggest things you're going to see about Jeff Hardy going forward is how he wants to share this story, and try and help other people now. That's something he's been very adamant in already." Only time will tell if that turns out to be the case, but for the time being it's difficult to find a lower point in Hardy's professional wrestling career than his appearance at Victory Road on the night of March 13, 2011.
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "Something to Wrestle" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.