FOX Officials Reportedly Not Happy With Jeff Hardy's Urine-Throwing Segment on WWE SmackDown

Last week's Friday Night SmackDown featured an instantly infamous segment involving Jeff Hardy, Sheamus, a drug test and what appeared to be urine-throwing. For those who missed it, Sheamus demanded that Hardy take a drug test on the spot before they signed their contract for a match at Backlash. Hardy obliged, but after a few minutes of taunting from Sheamus he decided to throw his jar of urine right into Sheamus' face. The segment was panned by fans watching along at home, and according to new reports the people at the FOX network weren't happy with it either.

According to Wrestling Observer's Dave Meltzer, FOX officials argued the segment violated their Standards and Practices. As a result, the moment was cut from SmackDown's airing on the West Coast.

Sheamus wound up winning the match at Backlash, then bragged on Twitter that he had "exorcised" Hardy's personal demons.

...i have exorcised the demons #WWEBacklash

— Sheamus (@WWESheamus) June 15, 2020

The feud between the two started when Sheamus took exception to Hardy's comeback promos, arguing that WWE was giving too much attention to a "junkie." He then tried to frame Hardy for a hit-and-run accident on Elias outside of the Performance Center, though Hardy quickly proved his innocence.

WWE has made Hardy's issues with substance abuse apart of his onscreen persona since his return earlier this year. While on After The Bell, he admitted that he felt this latest run in WWE was his "last chance."

"...Being that I've been to rehab, inpatient rehab for the first time in my life, I've learned a lot about the disease known as alcoholism and addiction cause I went through the drugs back when I got arrested and even watching SmackDown last week, when they aired the mugshots and stuff, that's some heavy stuff, but it's gonna be good s— because this is my last chance to get it right and I want to just get a few more good years out of this body and do the best I possibly can but yeah, it was weird man," Hardy said. "So now I still have the legal situation, the black cloud that's hanging over me, I haven't been convicted.

"When I got pulled over October 3 of 2019, the day before I called WWE and said 'I need help. I need treatment. There's something wrong with me, like with this alcohol thing,' but yeah I've learned so much in recovery, just little things like one day at a time man, just focus on today, not drinking or not drugging and it's just calling my sponsor everyday and talking to another alcoholic man," he continued. "There's something powerful about it when you admit what you are and you can like own that and just man, and there's a huge piece in my heart and my mind knowing that if I never drink again I'm never going to get into any other trouble. Jeff Hardy plus no drinking equals no trouble cause all my troubles came from either drugs or alcohol. And like with the alcohol, I can't drink like other people and I've surrendered and I've just manned up to that, you know and there's nothing wrong with it."