AEW References Jeff Hardy WWE Exit On Dynamite

As we've noted, Keith Lee defeated Isiah Kassidy in his AEW debut match on tonight's Dynamite. During the match, AEW announcer Tony Schiavone made a reference to Jeff Hardy abruptly walking out of a six-man tag match at a WWE live event last December, which led to the veteran wrestler's WWE exit.

The reference was made when Matt Hardy, the manager of Private Party's Kassidy, jumped the guardrail and left his protégé in the ring while the match was still going on. Hardy was essentially turning his back on Kassidy.

Just as Hardy jumped the guardrail, Schiavone referred to the move as "erratic."

Speaking on Jeff Hardy's WWE exit on his Twitch channel last month, Matt Hardy mentioned how WWE officials felt his brother's behavior was "erratic" during the live event in December.

"I know there was an issue, they said 'Jeff Hardy had this erratic behavior,'" Matt said. "He jumped over the guardrail or whatever. But look, it's Jeff Hardy. He's a weird dude, it's kind of what he does. The erratic behavior is why they gave him the drug test and they sent him home."

Hardy ditching Kassidy in the ring shouldn't come as a surprise. On last week's Dynamite, Hardy gave Private Party a dressing down for their inability to defeat Jurassic Express for the AEW Tag Team Titles earlier this month on Rampage. Hardy then told Kassidy to prove him wrong in a TNT Title match against Sammy Guevara, which Kassidy lost. On tonight's Dynamite, Hardy warned Private Party that this was a "make or break" situation for them.