Jeff Hardy Returns to WWE SmackDown, Beats King Corbin at Performance Center
Jeff Hardy returned to WWE programming on Friday's episode of SmackDown with a victory over King Corbin after missing 11 months due to a leg injury.
Hardy beat Corbin with a Twist of Fate followed by a Swanton Bomb for the win.
A musical number from Elias, who was providing color commentary, distracted Corbin and helped Hardy execute his finisher.
Bad blood between Hardy and Corbin emerged earlier in the night when Corbin interrupted the WWE legend's backstage interview and joked about his past alcohol addiction.
Hardy responded by saying he and Corbin were slated for a match later that evening.
WWE officially announced Hardy's return ahead of time during Monday's broadcast of Raw. Hardy recently appeared on FS1'sĀ WWE BackstageĀ and revealed he was cleared to wrestle and waiting for his opportunity to jump back into the mix.
SmackDown was originally supposed to take place at Little Caesar's Arena in Detroit, but because of concerns regarding the spread of the coronavirus, it was moved to the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida.
While the 42-year-old Hardy has been out of the fold for nearly a year, he is still a huge name in professional wrestling, and as one of the most accomplished Superstars in WWE history, his return is a major coup for WWE this close to WrestleMania.
Jeff and his brother, Matt Hardy, returned to WWE in 2017 after years away, and they went on to hold the Raw and SmackDown Tag Team Championships together. Jeff also had a singles run mixed in that saw him win the United States title.
With Matt departing WWE earlier this month and likely joining AEW, Jeff has another opportunity to make an impact on his own moving forward.
In addition to holding essentially every tag title in WWE, Hardy is a two-time world heavyweight champion, one-time WWE champion, four-time intercontinental champion, one-time United States champion, one-time European champion, one-time light heavyweight champion and three-time hardcore champion.
Hardy has shown over the years that he can excel as a tag team or singles competitor and anywhere on the card from top to bottom, which is what makes him such a valuable commodity.
Now that Jeff is back and healthy, WWE has an opportunity to use his star power to its advantage at WrestleMania and subsequent big events in the coming weeks and months.
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