AEW Didn't Offer Jeff Hardy A New Deal Following Matt's Departure
After Matt Hardy’s departure AEW didn’t offer Jeff Hardy a new deal
Jeff Hardy recently returned to TNA Wrestling at the side of brother Matt Hardy, with both men having recently departed All Elite Wrestling.
The ‘Charismatic Enigma’ made his surprise return to TNA at the end of Against All Odds only hours after his AEW deal expired, and as Matt Hardy revealed on the Extreme Life of Matt Hardy podcast, Jeff wasn’t offered a new AEW contract after Matt’s exit:
"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," said Hardy.
Continuing, Matt revealed how his talks with TNA went, and when he realised Jeff would be free to follow him:
"I said, 'I'll come in, we'll build up an angle, it'll get me hot. It'll rebuild equity back with myself' because myself and Jeff had been devalued for so long, like the last year. 'Let me build some value for myself and I can put Moose over. It'll be a win-win.' That was the plan. 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,'" said Hardy.
Despite being part of TNA once more, The Hardys remain free agents and are technically eligible to sign wherever they wish on full-time deals should suitable offers be presented to them.
H/T: Fightful