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Posts Tagged ‘Jeff Hardy’

It appears Jeff Hardy is more upset at his brother’s release by WWE than Matt himself is. Jeff passionately defended Matt as a giving talent, willing to do anything asked of him, but who was treated like… umm, excrement? Jeff said it more colorfully.

Matt, meanwhile, said that since his brother Jeff had left WWE for TNA a second time, he felt pushed down and held back in his own career. He vows to go on to “bigger and better things,” perhaps outside of wrestling, while admitting that wrestling used to be his life.

With Jeff the new heel champ over at TNA, only contractual obligations related to his release would seem to be a barrier to Matt joining his brother in TNA. Unless he’s been taking too many prenatal vitamins.

Jeff Hardy is known for blazing many trails; his style of high-energy, high-acrobatic wrestling, combined with his penchant for taking risks in the ring, cemented his star in the pro wrestling universe early on. His daring jump – as a hot WWE superstar rather than one past his prime – to TNA blazed a trail for other bankable names defecting. And his surprising return to WWE after such a stunning betrayal of the McMahon family was the icing on the cake.

Now, Jeff Hardy is fighting for his freedom and wouldn’t be able to get a decent insurance quote on anything, thanks to a September drug bust that may or may not be the result of a sting operation. Either way, not only is his eventual return to the ring in serious doubt, but so is his long-term freedom.

If Hardy pleads out or is found guilty on charges like these, it will mark an ignominious end to the career of one of pro wrestlings great risk takers, as well as an excellent in-ring storyteller.

I love TLC matches; especially when anyone named Hardy is involved.

Jeff Hardy helped define what makes a good Tables, Ladders and Chairs match during his tag team days, so it’s only apropos that this kind of match is what sends Hardy onto a hiatus from in-ring action. The action was fast, furious, dramatic and edge-of-your-seat solid.

While giving Punk the win was nice, if a bit predictable because of Hardy’s hiatus, the cherry on top was the appearance of Undertaker at the end to begin a fresh storyline. Taker-Punk, anyone? Time to send out the Christmas invitations now!

Hate to be a spoiler for those planning to catch the replay, but Jeff Hardy put on an awesome 16-minute match with a very heel-like C.M. Punk to take home the World Heavyweight Title, putting on the second-best match of the night and saving an otherwise lackluster PPV outing.

With Punk and Hardy in the ring, the energy was up, the acrobatics were amazing and the match was nonstop action and entertainment. The win places Hardy in a position he’s long deserved: as a singles champ in the WWE. It’s a position he left the company for a stint in TNA over, in order to prove he had singles match potential in him after a period in which he and his brother Matt were among the best era of tag team wrestling the WWE has ever seen.

There will be no job hauling commercial furniture now for Hardy, whose championship victory left the whole crowd going home with a good feeling about them, and helping to establish Punk as a heel for the first time in his career.

It’s been predictable for a while, but Edge overcame Jeff Hardy in the show-topping PPV championship match at Judgment Day. The twenty-minute classic allowed both men high spots and plenty of in-ring psychology opportunities, but in the end, Hardy once again fell short of being trusted with the top belt in pro wrestling.

While Hardy isn’t exactly missing out on Westgate or anything, it’s unfortunate that WWE still hasn’t seen fit to give him an extended run with the strap; he’s clearly one of the company’s hardest in-ring workers, right up there with Chris Jericho.

Everyone was expecting Christian Cage to return to WWE tonight, and this was the match most folks expected it to occur in. So imagine the surprise when not only did Christian not return during this match, but the backstab a former tag partner move came from an unexpected source. It was a storyline so unexpected that it might require a Chicago accident attorney to clean up the mess.

So, what happened? Well, the match between Hardy and Edge was top-notch, but at the critical point in the match, Matt Hardy, fresh off his defeat at the hands of Jack Swagger, showed up and at first it appeared he would be helping his brother Jeff.

Then? The chairshot heard across the WWE as Matt attacked his own brother to turn heel and give Edge the win. Talk about defying expectations? A Matt-Jeff feud could be a huge draw for several PPVs to come!

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.

The match result on this one makes a person feel like Triple-H has wholesale ownership of the WWE Title, given that he’s the boss’s son-in-law. No one’s worked harder over on Smackdown to take the show to a new level than Jeff Hardy, and he was no exception in this match.

Unfortunately, though both men put on a solid show, the Rainbow-Haired Warrior was forced to job to The In-Law Assassin anyway, and perhaps even scratch his head in wonder about why he returned from TNA, which had made him a world champion, just to job out to an aging Hunter yet again. Ugh.

WINNER: Triple H
RATING: 7.8

Before this match, there was an entertaining segment involving MVP, Ted DiBiase Jr., Cody Rhodes, Manu, C.M. Punk, and Kofi Kingston that was entertaining, and a couple of too-brief filler matches in which Batista totally dominated JBL and Big Show won via TKO stoppage over Undertaker. But I’d rather skip right to the meaty dual main event matches, to shine a sconce on the real interesting matches tonight.

The first of these was a SmackDown match involving Triple H defending the WWE Title against Jeff Hardy. These two rarely hook up, but it’s always been memorable when they do and tonight’s match was no exception. Lots of fast-n-furious near-falls, reversals and such that really kept a person guessing at the finish, and Jim Ross was in top form on the announcing duties, really doing great at putting Hardy over as a legit threat to Triple H’s title reign.

The final minute or two is what put the match over the top and made this, in my opinion, the best match of the night. Great 17-minute match.

WINNER: Triple H retains the WWE Title

RATING: 9.1 (out of 10)

The airport incident involving WWE superstar Jeff Hardy has kind of been sorted out and clarified. According to online reports and news sources, Hardy was indeed detained at a Nashville airport, being denied boarding onto a flight because airport staff believed he “appeared intoxicated.”

Hardy has faced two strikes in the WWE Wellness Policy, and a third strike would lead directly to a major penalty, including suspension. However, contrary to some reports, there was no altercation over the incident and Hardy remained cooperative during the entire time.

Although the airline offered an alternative flight later on, Hardy made other arrangements to get to where he was going. Perhaps if he’d stayed at Laughlin hotels, he would have appeared more rested and none of this would have occurred.

Well, at least there was not enough to the incident to trigger a third strike in Jeff’s Wellness Policy; he’s a high-energy, very promotable talent with the ability to wear a major belt sometime soon. Let’s hope he stays smart and out of trouble, so that nothing messes up his momentum.

Now that he’s reached his 30th birthday, Jeff Hardy is planning to tone down his traditionally over-the-top in-ring style, which has in the past invovled acrobatic backflips and jumps from heights at which few other wrestlers would attempt. Perhaps he’s looked at how toning his style down will affect his life insurance rates.

Whatever the case, Hardy the high-flyer will slowly be giving way to Hardy the in-ring storyteller, according to Jeff’s recent interview with the Winnipeg Sun.

“I know what I can and can’t do,” Hardy said. “I go back to when I was watching wrestling as a kid. Macho Man, Hulk Hogan, and The Ultimate Warrior could have great matches by telling a story in the ring. They didn’t have to do backflips.”

Jeff Hardy is one of many top WWE talents who could be switching brands tonight on USA Network’s three-hour RAW broadcast, featuring the WWE Draft, which has become an annual event in which the company shakes up its respective rosters to freshen up storylines and feuds.

I hate to say it, but I’m already bored with the whole King Regal bit. While it made for a nice shocking moment the first time Regal ended Raw early, mid-match, the whole ongoing bit of turning out the ring lights and stopping good promos and good matches (while the bad ones seem to still go on uninterrupted) has quickly worn thin.

Regal’s power trip is about as intriguing as a natural acne treatment video to a senior citizen, and it’s ruining important moments in the Raw broadcast. The most blatent example of this from last night’s Raw was when Regal shut down the first promo Jeff Hardy has cut since returning from a two-month suspension related to the WWE’s Wellness Policy.

That was an important moment in re-establishing Hardy’s character, so having it cut off was more than just an angle; it cheated the crowd. Wherever this is headed with Regal, it needs to be over soon, since this is not creating the good type of “nasty villain” heat, but is actually resulting in viewer apathy, since it seems like any time a promo or match gets interesting, they pull the “Regal cuts the power” angle.

Drop it, fast, Vince!