Jeff Hardy made his surprise return to AEW Dynamite on Wednesday night, reuniting with his brother, Matt Hardy, and assisting Matt, Hook and Isiah Kassidy in their fight against The Firm. Hardy was arrested in Florida back in June 2022 for a number of charges, including felony DUI and driving with a suspended license. He was promptly suspended without pay by AEW, with Tony Khan noting he would not be allowed to return until his legal situation was sorted out and he could prove he could maintain his sobriety. Hardy pleaded nolo contendere back in February, with his punishment including two years of probation and a decade-long suspension of his license.
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Matt, who gave consistent updates on Jeff throughout his absence via interviews and his Extreme Life of Matt Hardy podcast, responded to the news by saying how proud he is of his brother. He also promised to have a full discussion about the return on this week’s episode of the podcast.
Meanwhile, Jeff took to his Instagram to thank the Milwaukee fans for their warm reception while showing off the hand-painted chair he used to chase away The Firm.
Kassidy then uploaded a video of him and Matt reuniting with Jeff backstage before the brawl. They joked about how Jeff wasn’t allowed to juke his way down to the ring like last time. Khan has not commented on Jeff’s return as of this writing.
Prior to his suspension, Jeff and Matt had set out to prove that the Hardy Boyz were the greatest tag team “in all of space and time.” The arrest came mere days before the pair were set to challenge for the AEW World Tag Team Championships. Now that Jeff’s back, it’s unclear when the two wrestling legends will set out to try and win those titles again.
“Yes, I would like to go out as The Hardy Boyz. That’s kinda how we came in, and I think we would like to go out on that note,” Matt told Inside The Ropes back in November. “We would like to do everything that we can in AEW together, obviously. It was really interesting for me. Once again, very frustrating, starting in COVID was frustrating. Once Jeff and I started to really started to get our feet underneath us as the Hardy Boyz, things happened, which was very frustrating. I was just kind of lost at that time, so I kinda pitched a thing to reunite and reconcile with Private Party, and that’s currently what we’ve been doing.”
