As reported on earlier, current TNA Champion Jeff Hardy was pulled from the Impact Wrestling UK tour just days before it began. Signs were posted at the first overseas event on 1/21 in Dublin, Ireland stating he would not be appearing on the show due to an injury. The “injury” was played out on the 1/24 episode of Impact Wrestling following the main event that was taped on 1/18 in Orlando before the tour officially kicked off a few days later.
Dave Meltzer is reporting that at the onset of announcing the UK tour, TNA had hopes they could “pull strings” and get Hardy to be part of the tour. In the remaining months Hardy was advertised as the main star for the tour being front and center on most posters. To make matters worse, TNA knew for some time they weren’t going to be able to send him on the tour due to his felony record of drug trafficking and continued to advertise his name.
Sting was added to the tour at last minute to fill in for Hardy and headlined a series of house show events tagging with Kurt Angle. As noted earlier, the UK tour last year was advertised as Sting’s final overseas tour of his wrestling career.