The Scott Hall Award - Most Embarrassing Wrestling Personality of 2011

This award recognizes the person whose behaviour caused the most shame, or indeed, concern, to the professional wrestling industry. It may be awarded to someone who gave the business a bad name through his/her actions, or just someone who has acted like a complete idiot. Named after Scott Hall, who has had a sadly distinguished history of embarrassing behaviour.

Last Year's Awards:

Winner - Bubba the Love Sponge

1st Runner Up - Matt Hardy

2nd Runner Up - Scott Hall

WINNER - MATT HARDY

I wrote about Matt Hardy antics last year in a humorous manner, but it would be mean-spirited to do the same this time considering that he has regressed from what were attention-seeking and immature antics a year ago into genuinely self-destructive behaviour. He was hired by TNA early in the year after being let go by WWE late in 2010. Although he continued to post ridiculous videos and annoying messages online, the first sign of a serious downward spiral came in August when he crashed into a tree while driving drunk. He was soon released by TNA, although in typical Matt Hardy fashion, he claimed that the entire ordeal had been a rebirth for him, and that he had felt the "Blood of an angel" flowing inside him as he lay in the wreckage of his car. A few days later he did something truly frightening, posting a "Goodbye World" suicide video on Youtube. Concerned fans made around thirty calls to 911, and the police reached Hardy's home only to find that he had been faking. This of course lead to angry backlash against Matt online, including harsh words from Jeff's wife. Matt promptly backed down, using the preposterous reasoning that since the words 'suicide' or 'death' had never been in the video, it was all in our imaginations. He continued to have a horribly troubled year, including three arrests in a single month for counts of drunk driving and possession of drugs. He appeared to take a positive step by joining a WWE-sponsored rehab program, but was kicked out for secretly drinking alcohol, following which he was arrested again. It is sad to think Matt Hardy has reached this state when he was once considered the level-headed and easygoing of the Hardy brothers. I truly hope he manages to get his life back in order in 2012.

1st RUNNER UP - JEFF HARDY

Unlike his brother Matt who has only recently begun acting like an idiot, Jeff Hardy has had years of experience. WWE must be silently thankful that they got rid of him when they did, even though it seemed like a big blow at the time. Less than two weeks after Jeff's departure from WWE in 2009 did his infamous arrest for drug possession and trafficking take place. The game of legal hopscotch that he and his lawyers successfully played in 2010 continued in 2011, with innumerable delays, adjournments and continuances meaning that he successfully stayed out of jail for most of the year. He only ended up with a fine, 30 months of probation and 10 days in jail. I am not qualified to make an assessment as to whether that is legally fair, but I am still amazed that despite his proven unreliability TNA still wanted this man to be their World Heavyweight Champion at the start of the year. Their decision blew up in their face at Victory Road in March. Apparently Hardy showed up completely high and in no condition to wrestle. This resulted in one of the most embarrassing main events in wrestling history. With Jeff Hardy barely able to function much less work a match, his opponent Sting had to legitimately use his strength and pin him in a match that lasted 88 seconds. The crowd was justifiably furious, and even Sting was shaking his head and could be seen saying "I agree" to the fans. TNA had to offer fans who bought the PPV free access to their video library for six months in compensation. Jeff was sent home, and only returned months later to perform. The first thing he did was apologize to the fans and ask for one more chance to finally get his life back in order, and we can only hope he does because he is a genuinely talented and exciting performer.

2nd RUNNER UP - MELINA

Since I couldn't fairly mock Matt and Jeff for their serious problems, I am glad to able to write about Melina as the third most embarrassing wrestling personality of 2011 purely for her extremely vocal opinions, which thankfully coincide with outstandingly annoying personality traits, bad spelling and mild stupidity to make for some nice comic relief. As much as WWE did to promote Twitter in 2011, Melina was among the leading arguments against the website. Following her release from WWE, she continuously weighed in with expert critique on wrestling, using a shrillness usually reserved for fingernails on a chalkboard. She alternated between commenting that high powers were strangling the 'art of wrestling' due to certain events on the latest RAW and claiming that she did not watch the show anyway, so could we please tell her what these certain events on the latest RAW were. Yes, you read that right. The woman whose greatest contribution to wrestling was the sight of a full split in a skirt did in fact make choice comments on the art of wrestling. But let's back up a minute...why was she released? Melina had always had heat in the locker room, but the final straw may have come at Wrestlemania. Melina was apparently hugely jealous that Trish Stratus had got a spot on the card, feeling that she deserved it instead. Due to this, she and her boyfriend John Morrison were apparently hugely disrespectful to the universally-liked Trish. Morrison, who was in the match with Trish even refused to listen to her ideas and gave her the could shoulder during the post-match celebrations. We don't know if this was the breaking point, but Melina was released in a couple of months. Embarrassingly, she continued to accompany John Morrison on the road, and eventually had to be told to leave the arena before an episode of RAW. Here's hoping Melina sticks to what she does best and uses her Twitter account only to post pictures of herself doing splits.