Minus-Star Match Reviews: Sting vs. Jeff Hardy – TNA Victory Road 2011

There might not be a better example of ‘LOLTNA’ than this match. Then again, I’m not sure if this is something worth laughing at.

Though this is one of the shortest bad matches I’ve ever looked at – even the Blog’s dear friend Thomas Hall made the joke that writing about this match took longer than the match itself – it’s hard to find something positive or redeemable about it. Even in some of the shittiest matches of all time I try to find something to laugh at because some of them end up being so bad that the only way to watch them is through the prism of comedy or parody. This one, however, was so bad that the company had to overcompensate for it and lose money by offering special refunds. The fact that TNA acknowledged that this match “fell short of standard” and tried to smooth things over with a semi-related discount on their match library should tell you how badly it affected their perception, and maybe even their bottom line. And while TNA didn’t go out of business afterwards as some might’ve expected, this match still serves as a cautionary tale about some wrestlers being allowed to come and go from the venue unsupervised.

The Story

A few weeks earlier there TNA broadcast a cryptic “3.3.11” promo which ended up signaling Sting’s return after months of inaction. Sting was allegedly brought back at the behest of “The Network”, a faceless power-behind-the-throne seeking to counteract the growing influence of the Immortal stable on TNA programming. Soon afterwards Sting was officially named challenger for the TNA World title and on the March 3 episode of Impact Sting beat Jeff Hardy to win the world title. Afterwards, Jeff demanded a rematch stating that he wasn’t given enough time to prepare for a defense against Sting. Though as we will see this was an example of Hardy being a total hypocrite since he would go into this match at Victory Road and would make decisions that would give everyone around him zero time to prepare.

The Match

This took place on March 13, 2011. I don’t think Meltzer ever gave it a formal rating from Dave Meltzer but his readership voted it the WON Worst Match of the Year by a pretty large margin.

This is for Sting’s TNA World Championship. Not like that matters.

Jeff’s entrance music plays but nothing happens for a good forty seconds. He eventually comes out and there’s clearly something…off…with his movements. Sting comes out next to a solid reaction. But if you look closely as Sting poses to the hard camera you can see referee Dave Hebner making the dreaded ‘X’ sign with his hands. That can’t be good. In a bird’s eye shot you can see Hebner peeking out of the ring to So Cal Val so that she can get a message to the back. Mike Tenay must have psychic powers because he does ring intros and does his best to stall without making it look obvious that he’s doing so.

Suddenly Eric Bischoff’s music plays and he walks out with a worried look on his face. He ad-libs a promo on the spot, something about the network or whatnot, and turns this into a No-Disqualification match out of nowhere. All while conveying to both wrestlers that this has to be ended as quickly as possible. No one’s the wiser that he’s basically telling Jeff that this will all be done in like one move instead of whatever they had planned from the get-go. He pantomimes some sort of gestures to Sting, his storyline enemy, while in fact he’s explaining the change to Sting, again, all without blowing his cover. If you listen closely to the Bischoff-Sting exchange you can barely hear Sting say, “Tell me what you want me to do”. Sting gets the memo via Bischoff’s coded verbiage and decks him with a punch. Bischoff rolls to ringside selling and then the bell rings.

Jeff teases throwing his shirt at the fans for several seconds and then just lets it fall on the apron. Man’s fucked up. They lock-up and Sting hits a few shots that are probably not completely pulled. Sting pulls Jeff by his hair making him yelp. Sting awkwardly gets into position for and then lands his Scorpion Death Drop. He shoot covers Jeff but Jeff’s struggling to break out. Still the ref counts one, two, three, and there’s the “match”.

Winner and STILL TNA World Champion after 1:28: Sting

Post-match Jeff has this glazed over look on his face and he walks up to the ref, confused. Meanwhile Sting just glowers at him trying to contain his anger over this whole debacle. Some camera angles show a red mark on Sting’s neck from Jeff’s fingernails digging into Sting’s skin as he tried to escape the cover. Tazz and Tenay try to spin this situation as positively as they can but they really can’t. Then as Sting goes up the ramp some fan shouts “that was bullshit” and Sting acknowledges this saying “I agree”.

You can watch the full segment here and one of the commenters in on that video was kind enough to give timestamps for all of the things that took place in case you want to follow along.

Review

Look, I understand that wrestling is an extremely difficult profession and slipping into substance abuse is an easy way to deal with the pain and injuries. But Christ Almighty, this was an unbridled disaster of epic proportions. It was the biggest black mark on Jeff Hardy’s entire career, and unnecessary dark spot that Sting shouldn’t’ve been a part of, and a sad, sad day for TNA. On paper something this bad should’ve been the final death knell for a promotion because it was such a lightning rod for justified criticism. But the fact that TNA/IMPACT is still alive and well fourteen years later should serve as a reminder that, as long as there’s just enough money to cover basic costs, even the most incompetent and consequences-free wrestling company will stay open long after its purported death.

When this match first happened the fans’ scorn was swift and immediate, with TNA going into damage control almost immediately and trying everything in their power to placate critics and angry fans demanding refunds. Of course, while fans demanding their money back is a tale as old as time this is one of the few times such a thing was both completely understandable and deserved. This wasn’t a situation in which fans were simply disappointed with a finish or a creative direction; it was a case of a promised main event being changed due to one of the performers making a terrible personal decision at everyone else’s expense.

And yet this fiasco benefits quite a bit from retrospect. In 2021 Eric Bischoff discussed the incident at length on his 83 Weeks podcast. Granted, this is Bischoff giving his first person perspective so take his words however you want. Anyways, on that episode Bischoff revealed that Hardy arrived to the venue at 11am completely fine but at some point afterwards he disappeared for several hours with no one able to get in contact with him. He didn’t reappear at the venue until moments before his match and it was at THAT point that everyone noticed that he was FUBAR. Without Dixie Carter, Hulk Hogan, or anyone else with legitimate authority to make any decisions, Bischoff took it upon himself to call an audible to try and salvage a potentially catastrophic situation. It was still disastrous but Bischoff deserves props for ad-libbing everything he did and said with no time to prepare hoping to mask Jeff’s obviously inebriated state.

But let’s not whitewash things: Jeff Hardy ruined this match for himself, for Sting, for all of TNA, for the fans live in attendance, and for everyone who ordered the PPV. He was given the responsibility of headlining opposite Sting and THIS is how he repays the audience and the powers-that-be for trusting him with that coveted position? Worse still, this wasn’t even the first time Jeff succumbed to personal demons nor wasn’t it his most egregious case. He would go on to have at least three more instances of either DUI or some other charge of public intoxication, most notably in 2022 while wrestling in AEW. And this is after another ten or so years of him having high-profile instances of erratic behavior in different wrestling companies (including both WWE and TNA) and after begging the TNA audience to “give me one more chance”. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me thrice or more, shame on everyone in the business for still signing this guy despite a proven pattern of unreliability due to unresolved personal problems.

Final Rating: -*****

MINUS FIVE STARS. An unbridled, unmitigated disaster that both tainted audience’s perceptions of a fledging promotion and completely ruined what little goodwill Jeff Hardy had with his audience.

There were some minor redeeming qualities here, but none of them had anything to do with Jeff Hardy. First, the actual match was short so there was a very narrow window of time in which something even more disastrous could happen. Second, there’s a minor silver lining here as Maffew turned this awful segment into something uproariously funny with Botchamania 164 as he tried to help Jim Cornette come up with a new face. And third, Bischoff doing a damn fine job of ad-libbing changes to prevent this from getting worse is a great case study in adapting to a panicked situation and saving it as quickly and as safely as possible.

I wish there was a way for Sting to not be associated with this in any way since he didn’t do anything wrong yet the history books will forever associate him with this WMOTY fiasco which is unfortunate but alas an unavoidable risk in this profession. As for Jeff, this match serves as a painful reminder that one wrestler’s personal demons can have a spillover effect onto others. There were so many instances where he seemed to flirt with greatness only for his choices to get in the way of his success. Let’s just hope that, as Jeff gets older, he finally makes the wise choice to put the business ahead of personal indulgences.

Thanks for reading.