The Hardy Situation [Spoilers if you haven't seen the rumble]

savemejebus

After seeing a number of posts in the rumble thread expressing surprise at what went down at the rumble,

Matt turning on Jeff

, I just wondered what proportion of boardsies were actually surprised by this?

I've left the poll vague in case anyone stumbles into this thread not knowing what happened at the rumble.

gimmick

It was surprising in the way that everyone was expecting the run in to be from Christian. It was not surprsing in regard of Matt being horrifically stale in recent months and his character needed something to turn that around.

IMO, it is a good move. Last time when they fueded, it was the other way round, Jeff was the heel and it did not really work too well. This time, the dynamic is better. Jeff is mega over and almost, if not the, top babyface, Matt playing the jealous older brother heel. I think if this is played out correctly, this is the type of fued which could headline PPVs.

I just hope to God they don't allign Matt with Edge.

JP Liz

No, it was pretty obvious what was coming

I dont see it coming up until Matt lost to Swagger and the way he looked and stayed in the ring - the camera focused too long on him - you knew something was going to happen.

I honestly did think Christian was returning and would cost Hardy the title

shenanigans1982

Didn't actually see it coming until it showed Matt sliding into the ring. Turns and shocks like that are what has been missing from wrestling the last few years.

Cactus Col

No, it was pretty obvious what was coming

I was pretty surprised. As gimmick said above Hardy had been pretty stale for a while, but he is one of those wrestlers in WWE that creative only have use for every 3 months, and in the preceding time they let rot. A bit of luck this will result in a bit of a sustained push for him.

Furious-Red

Don't really care, it's a boring storyline

gimmick wrote: »

IMO, it is a good move. Last time when they fueded, it was the other way round, Jeff was the heel and it did not really work too well. This time, the dynamic is better. Jeff is mega over and almost, if not the, top babyface, Matt playing the jealous older brother heel.

Wasn't Matt the heel last time when they broke up the Hardys around Vengence 2001? If they dont have Jeff in a title match at WM they should have a match against Matt in a street fight

Handsome Bob

Don't really care, it's a boring storyline

Yes and no.

No in the sense that I knew eventually some time down the road that Matt would end up screwing Jeff and turning heel. Yes in the sense that, as Gimmick pointed out, I expected Christian to do the run in. I was surprised that Matt turned this early.

gimmick

Furious-Red wrote: »

Wasn't Matt the heel last time when they broke up the Hardys around Vengence 2001?

He may have been heel, but they did not fued. During the "Mattitude Era" Jeff and Matt did not fued if memory serves. Was Jeff even in WWE at that time?

But Jeff was heel around 2003/4 and Matt dumped him out of the Rumble. Not sure did they actually do a programme though.

Cactus Col

No, it was pretty obvious what was coming

I can just about remember them having a short programme where Matt got annoyed with Jeff for taking unnecessary risks when it came to winning matches. There was a cage match which the hardy's could've won, Matt was on the outside already, Jeff climbed to the top, and swantonned whoever was inside.

This all led to a match on ppv, with Lita as special ref. For some reason they tried to have a mat based match, leaving out the highflying moves, and it was pretty bad.

gimmick

That did not lead to a split or a fued though

EDIT: Seems I am mistaken, Jeff was never heel, and Matt did not put him out of any Rumble.

Bubs101

No, it was pretty obvious what was coming

It led to a feud and said feud was crap. It was one of the reasons that Edge and Christian got up the ranks so much quicker because their feud was good as opposed to the Hardy's and the Dudleys .But both of them have far more star power now as well as singles appearances so this should be better.

As for the angle itself it was a really really stupid Russo-esque swerve and I can't wait for the Smackdown spoilers to see how they justify it. Edge broke up Matt and Lita, Jeff is his brother and it makes no sense at all. Matt helped Jeff win the title so a jealousy angle can't work and he was ECW champion at the time Jeff was attacked so that would also be stupid. Christian fitted perfectly. Tomko would have been a good swerve.

As for those who say they saw it coming, that, along with Randy's rumble win was a last minute decision so i don't see how you could

savemejebus

Don't really care, it's a boring storyline

Bubs101 wrote: »

As for the angle itself it was a really really stupid Russo-esque swerve and I can't wait for the Smackdown spoilers to see how they justify it. Edge broke up Matt and Lita, Jeff is his brother and it makes no sense at all. Matt helped Jeff win the title so a jealousy angle can't work and he was ECW champion at the time Jeff was attacked so that would also be stupid. Christian fitted perfectly. Tomko would have been a good swerve.

As for those who say they saw it coming, that, along with Randy's rumble win was a last minute decision so i don't see how you could

There have been plenty of clues in the last few months as to it being Matt. They were first brought to my attention by Kevin Eck http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/sports/wrestling/blog/2008/12/jeff_hardy_mystery_coming_into_focus_on_smackdown_2.html in early December and once you start looking at it from there things fit quite nicely.

You might also notice that Matt didn't even look at Edge after he clobbered Jeff, in fact Edge played his part well, looking worried that Matt would hit him next before cautiously going for the pin, so there doesn't have to be any illogical association of Hardy and Edge.

I think that 'IF' Christian returns to wwe he could do better than becoming a replacement for Ryder and Hawkins.

Cactus Col

No, it was pretty obvious what was coming

savemejebus wrote: »

You might also notices that Matt didn't even look at Edge after he clobbered Jeff, in fact Edge played his part well, looking worried that Matt would hit him next before cautiously going for the pin, so there doesn't have to be any illogical association of Hardy and Edge.

That's what I was thinking too. Matt and Edge didn't seem to have any arrangement or allegiance after the match. I hope it is kept that way, it would be a waste of a turn to have Matt immediately becoming part of La Familia.

JP Liz

No, it was pretty obvious what was coming

gimmick wrote: »

He may have been heel, but they did not fued. During the "Mattitude Era" Jeff and Matt did not fued if memory serves. Was Jeff even in WWE at that time?

But Jeff was heel around 2003/4 and Matt dumped him out of the Rumble. Not sure did they actually do a programme though.

It really wasnt a feud last time - they broke up team extreme by having Matt attack Jeff and dump Lita and accuse Lita of being with Jeff.

Rumours were that WWE wanted Jeff and Lita to kiss and both complained so it was scrapped - they had a bad match at Vengence with Lita as ref

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=GgIpG3CyVEQ

Diabhal Beag

Don't really care, it's a boring storyline

The look on Matt's face after losing to Swagger made it blatantly obvious

Rjd2

Don't really care, it's a boring storyline

This Matt swerve is very stupid. I can believe Matt wanting to screw Jeff out of his title due to jealously but I can’t believe that Matt would try to kill him. Matt will have to cut the promo of his life to convince us he wanted his brother dead.A swerve for the sake of a swerve sadly.

SASR

Don't really care, it's a boring storyline

Bubs101 wrote: »

As for those who say they saw it coming, that, along with Randy's rumble win was a last minute decision so i don't see how you could

So...?

Handsome Bob

Don't really care, it's a boring storyline

SASR wrote: »

So...?

Indeed. Even if it was a last minute decision, Orton was one of the favourites to win it without a doubt. I told my mate on Saturday night Orton or Triple H would win it, he reckoned Orton wouldn't and it'd be McMahon vs. Orton at WM. Shows how much he knows!

GavRedKing

Anybody see a TLC at WM this year between the to? Would be good to have it back or maybe put both in the MITB match?

I can only see this storyline slowing Jeff down though, Matt has nothing going for him at the moment and Jeff is only off the back of a title run, the storyline is going have to be amazing to generate intrest.