By Jeuron Dove

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Hello everyone. I hope you all are doing well. It has been quite difficult to come up with new and compelling ideas to write about.  Raw is still the same mediocre show as ever while Smackdown has remained excellent. TNA is becoming more like WCW everyday and UFC is by far continuing to be the hottest company around when it comes to drawing new fans and setting business records. Even though things have remained status quo as of late on the wrestling front, there is a huge change that is about to happen involving one of the biggest stars in the game today.

In a little less than a week, Jeff Hardy’s WWE contract will expire and he has taken the unusual decision to not renew and instead take some much needed time off. I can’t get mad at Jeff for leaving even though I wish he would stick around for a while longer. He has really peaked as a main-event level performer over the last year and a half and he’s been a key component in the success of Smackdown this year. He’s been the top face of the brand and has had outstanding programs with Edge and CM Punk. In deciding to take some time off, he joins Chris Jericho, Big Show and to a lesser extent JBL, in a small but growing list of major stars that have walked away from the glitz and glamour of the WWE lifestyle while at their competitive peaks to pursue other ventures.

Hardy is in his mid-thirties and all logic says that we will be seeing him in a WWE ring again at some point. He has been riding high in the WWE for nearly a decade (save for his brief stint with TNA). He always performs with the idea of giving the fans their money’s worth even when that probably hasn’t been the smartest move personally due to his high-risk style. He’s been in more ladder matches than you could count and I’m sure all those nagging injuries must be taking a toll on him physically. He has defied the wildest expectations of what anyone could’ve ever imagined for his career. The former silent half of one of the greatest teams in modern history went on to become one of the most charismatic and beloved stars of the industry and a three-time world champion.

More than what he’s accomplished in the ring, Jeff is right there with Rey Mysterio and Shawn Michaels as one of the top three guys that WWE fans feel more of a personal connection with than anyone else on the roster. A big part of that is due to the fact his life has been an open book for us to see both good and bad. He was a part of a hot team with his brother during a peak period of business, went on to become a so-so midcarder and was then released for refusing to go to rehab. He had an awful stint in TNA only to get a second chance with WWE in 2006. Since then he’s been suspended twice for drug test failures and his home burned down earlier this year. Talk about an interesting life. He is one of the true success stories of a guy who really made it in the business while fighting against tremendous personal and professional odds. Perhaps more than anything, he should be given credit for giving absolutely awesome performances both in the ring and on the mic even when he is a few weeks out from departing the company. His feud with Punk has been the best played out story I’ve seen this year in WWE. Instead of phoning in his performances like he could’ve done over the last few months, he has easily been the most consistent performer in the company aside from Jericho and Edge (until he was sidelined).

A part of me worries about the future success of Smackdown without Jeff and Edge. Along with Jericho, they carried the brand this year both in and out of the ring. Luckily, Smackdown has done a better job of elevating its younger talent so that they have a better opportunity of stepping up in the case when their main players are out. Dolph Ziggler and John Morrison are clearly on the ascent and Mysterio has been awesome as well. The real test of how great the brand is will be to see if they can continue without skipping a beat without Jeff and Edge around.

In reality, the biggest story in all of this is that another major name is taking time off to do something for himself. History has shown us that taking some time off can be the best thing to happen to ones career. Jericho took two years off and returned the best he had ever been. Show took a year off and didn’t really return any better than he had been before he left and JBL retired at Wrestlemania this year while relatively young to pursue his business ventures full time. JBL was different as he had severe back problems that largely influenced his decision. The fact of the matter is that all three of these men made the best decision for themselves instead of the best decision for the company. I’m sure that the company would’ve loved for Jericho to stick around in 2005. He was still a top performer, but he had been wrestling nonstop for 15 years up to that point in time and desperately wanted a change of pace. He worked with his band Fozzy and wrote one of the best wrestling autobiographies ever during his hiatus. I’m not really sure what Show did in his time off, but I’m sure it benefited him personally. Last I heard about JBL, he is enjoying life and has no regrets about stepping away from the ring. I really commend these three men and Jeff for making a personal decision that for once in the world of pro wrestling, does something for the wrestler rather than something for the business.

I’m sure there are many other top stars earning huge money that are experiencing a mental and physical burnout from the brutal schedule. And not so much the schedule since it’s the easiest it’s been in decades, but rather from the physical pounding that the body takes from wrestling. Just imagine how many more of our favorite wrestlers would still be alive today if they had made the simple choice to say no to a few extra thousand dollars and fame to instead take a year or two off to recover from nagging injuries and to be home with their families. In hindsight, I really wish that guys like Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit would’ve made that decision. Maybe their outcomes would’ve been different. Maybe not. The point is that top guys are doing it now and hopefully this will be the start of a trend. Any wrestler that feels they cannot go any longer without taking a break should go to management immediately. To hell with worrying about your spot being taken and falling down the cards. Being alive is more important than being in any main event. Aside from what they accomplished in the ring, perhaps the lasting influence that Jericho, Show, JBL and Hardy will leave behind is that a future generation of wrestlers will know when to say enough is enough and walk away.

Thanks for reading and all feedback is encouraged to be sent to the above address.