Jeff Hardy arrested in hit-and-run case, furious fans slam WWE Smackdown for ‘making a joke of drug addictions’
In this week’s episode of WWE SmackDown, Jeff Hardy was arrested for a hit-and-run attempt in a drunk driving case. Renee Young reported that the rapper's rental car hit Elias ahead of the show and he was later found a few meters away. It was a narrative on the show to play out Hardy’s real-life alcoholism and arrests. The acting "police officers" reported in the video that a bottle of alcohol and rental papers were recovered from the site. Before being dragged away in a police car, the "cops" found out that Hardy smelled of alcohol.
Hyping the incident, WWE tweeted the clips and captioned it, "What?! What is happening? #SmackDown." Another clip shared on the official Twitter was captioned, "So many questions are raised tonight after @IAmEliasWWE appears to have been the victim of a hit-and-run. #SmackDown." WWE on FOX tweeted, "BREAKING NEWS: A Battle Royale will determine @JEFFHARDYBRAND's replacement against @WWEDanielBryan in the #ICTitle tournament!" Many fans thought the videos were in bad taste. "Did anyone notice the car isn't even damaged? They just put the hood up," one fan wrote and another said, "After I had read it I saw it a second time and realized it. Why they do something like this? That isn't funny at all. It's a part of the story, but using private problems/things are a really bad move."
"You don't always have to use real-life screw-ups in your storylines," one fan blasted and another said, "Let’s go an angle that involves a wrestler that’s a recovering alcoholic." Another fan defended him saying, "Somebody had to frame Jeff, he just got done with rehab. are you kidding me." Calling WWE for making a joke out of drug addictions, one Twitter user slammed it and wrote, "Really. Hope anybody watching switched the channel off. There are other things going on then to make a joke out of drug addictions. #BlackLivesMatter." Another said, "WWE should be ashamed of themselves doing a storyline like this. AEW! AEW! AEW!" Another said, "Soo... Y'all are just going to use Jeff's past as an angle? I'm not sure how well that's going to go... Did you forget how awful the whole Road Warrior Hawk "under the influence" thing was? #SmackDown."
Hardy was set to face AJ Styles in a semifinal match in the Intercontinental Championship tournament but after his “arrest”, WWE held a battle royal between Sheamus and Daniel Bryan to determine a new challenger. Daniel Bryan then faced AJ Styles match on the June 12th edition of WWE SmackDown to determine the new champion.