Personally I found the way the WWE booked Jeff Hardy’s absence from the Survivor Series 3-Way a little off putting but I didn’t know how against it you could be until I read Paul Heyman’s thoughts on it in his latest article for The Sun UK:

The callous view taken by WWE chairman Vince McMahon and those around him, not even taking into account how brazenly insensitive this storyline may be viewed, is yet another in a long line of demonstrations by McMahon that getting people talking is paramount.

He feels that no rules apply because ‘it’s only entertainment’ and people should embrace the soap opera-like enticements to stay tuned.

I think it was just bad business.

WWE made the conscious choice to present a scenario that called for speculation as to why the reportedly twice-suspended Hardy was found unconscious in his hotel.

Not once did WWE report the entire day ‘Hardy was jumped by an unknown assailant’ — that ‘new information’ was revealed only during the PPV broadcast.

To make matters worse, WWE acted like regional promoters in the 1970’s, appearing to be almost giddy at the fact several mainstream news agencies picked up the story as legitimate.

“They’re buying it as a shoot!” Whoopie!

This type of behaviour just leaves such a bad taste in the mouths of people who already look down on pro wrestling/sports entertainment.

God I wish this man was still booking a wrestling show ANY WRESTLING SHOW! Heyman continues to show he has full grasp of what people want to see. What I found most disturbing is that this fake story was reported as real news by several legitimate news organizations including AOL News, CNN.com and ABCnews.com. In an industry where a wrestler being found dead in a hotel room is at least a once a year occurrence the WWE should not be intentionally fueling the stereotype of the drugged out wrestler especially if that want a more “family friendly” image. Read the entire Pual Heyman rant here.

-sideshowRaheem