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Archive for December 15th, 2008

OK, so there was this match at Armageddon tonight and both Edge and Triple H were involved … and Jeff Hardy overcame those odds to win it all, taking home the WWE Title for the first time in his career, and becoming the first wrestler to ever wear the TNA belt and THEN go on to win a major WWE title.

No, this is not a practical joke, a dream, a prank, and you’re not on Candid WebCam. Jeff Hardy really did beat Triple H and Edge to win the title at WWE Armageddon tonight. At long last!

Hardy, often believed to be one of the most under-appreciated wrestlers on the WWE roster both before and after his stint and title run over at TNA, overcame staid and stale booking habits and other long odds to finally win the biggest belt of all … or at least the biggest belt on SmackDown.

Of course, the booking was scripted to make Hardy look a bit flukey for his first major singles title win; Triple H did the heavy lifting, delivering a Pedigree on Edge for the apparent predictable win, but then Hardy hit the Swanton to dislodge Hunter, take his place pinning Edge, and earning the three-count and a free set of luggage… or not, on the luggage.

Let’s hope WWE and Smackdown play it smart and keep the title on Hardy a good long time… like, all the way to WrestleMania, at least.

This is the match WWE needed to book to cement Cena’s first-night-back title win at Survivor Series last month, or so the theory goes. The good news is that the match was quite solid.

Jericho, who has been turning in match-of-the-year contenders most of the year with Shawn Michaels, is now primed for a long feud with Cena, and his experience from the extended Michaels feud benefited him tonight. Both Cena and Jericho earned their designer watches tonight, and although Cena predictably won, the match didn’t necessarily resolve the feud, so much as add fuel to the fire.

But considering we’re now in the run-up to WrestleMania, that’s only apropos.

At least the second match of the night, though it ran only twelve minutes, was an enjoyable one, even though a titles wasn’t involved. CM Punk proved a great opponent and style match for the over-exposed Rey Mysterio and the two men provided some nice, solid action and decent ring psychology, minus the disposable diapers, to the table during their time on stage.

I half-expected Rey-Rey to get the win, but apparently the WWE wants to keep Punk’s momentum up; I must say, Punk’s handling his post-title-run stint near the top of the mid-card like a seasoned vet; like Chris Jericho, he’s simply wrestling his heart out every time he’s in the ring.

Remember when John Cena used to do that?

The best diet pills in the world can’t make up for the bloated sight of Vladimir Kozlov in a WWE ring. But we’d better get used to it for a while because Matt Hardy lost his title match against Kozlov to become the new ECW champion.

This shows just how little regard McMahon now holds the ECW brand in; punking out a marketable, popular champion like Hardy after a brief run to the underexposed, overrated Russian big man is just not a way to draw viewers to the SciFi show, nor will it put many butts in the seats at TV tapings.

Does anyone remember The Big Show?