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Posts Tagged ‘Jeff Hardy’

You know, looking back over the main matches at WrestleMania again, I’d have to say that my favorite match was still the WWE title match between Randy Orton, Triple H and John Cena. While the Flair-HBK match had way more emotion, the truth of the matter is that the WWE Title match just had more youth and energy.

You don’t have to be a futures broker to see that John Cena and Randy Orton will be WWE mainstays for some time to come. The question here is where the next big stars are, who are lining up behind them.

I still like the long-term potential of Ken Kennedy and MVP, and Jeff Hardy isn’t exactly new, but his solo work in WWE since returning from TNA is like a fresh start for him. My main complaint, though, is that in both WrestleMania and now the upcoming Backlash, WWE continues to insist on overpromoting the inferior SmackDown brand.

Let’s face it; Raw is where the action is. Let’s start structuring the PPVs to reflect that, shall we?

While a 4.0 in the Nielsens is no big whoop for most network shows, it packs the equivalent whallop of an ECA stack for Monday Night Raw, which has been riding the low 3.0 range for the past few months during the writer’s strike.

Now that the strike is over, people seem to be coming back to TV again, and that includes wrestling. While WWE Raw is by no means riding high with a 4.0, considering they were drawing almost three times that number at their peak about a decade ago, it’s still an impressive number.

Of course, this is pre-WrestleMania season and interest in the Fed always seems to take a leap up at this time of year, no matter what else is going on. Let’s hope the new viewers like what they are seeing and tell a few friends just how good Cena, Orton and Hardy can be, when they set their minds to it.

Despite a lot of story elements necessary to build hype for the last PPV event before Wrestlemania, namely No Way Out, if anyone had a checking account, this was not a week to bank on Raw ratings as the show offered up few matches that lasted longer than three minutes.

A lot of squashes and in-ring segments filled much of the broadcast, and while the Hornswaggle-McMahon ass-kissing/biting segment was entertaining in a juvenile way typical of the Fed, much of the night was wasted time that did nothing to promote the in-ring abilities of most of the performers.

A notable exception was the six-man tag match that served as the show’s denouement, involving Jeff Hardy, Chris Jericho and Shawn Michaels against Snitsky, JBL and Umaga. That match went 16 minutes, highlighted everyone, and was genuinely entertaining.

The rest of the show? Well, let’s just say it left a lot of its game on the bench this week.

Despite an effective storyline that had WWE fans believing in the possibility of a title change so close to WrestleMania, Jeff Hardy failed in his bid to unseat Randy Orton as the WWE champion at the 2008 Royal Rumble on Sunday. They threw everything but Kohler sinks into the title match, but while Hardy and Orton took turns dominating the match, Hardy seemed on the verge of victory, about to deliver a Twist of Fate for the win.

That’s when Orton hit the reversal and an RKO helped him retain the title off a clean victory. The real question now is where the WWE will take the storyline from here. Will they continue to develop the Hardy-Orton storyline that worked so well, or will they switch storylines as the company focuses in on WrestleMania hype?

Given the winner of the Royal Rumble… well, let’s just say it’s looking like back-burner time for Jeff Hardy, through no fault of his own, and unless his character takes a hard heel turn soon, he’ll soon be out of the WWE title picture once again.

This week’s WWE Raw broadcast drew a 3.6 rating, down from 4.1 for the same week last year. However, that’s about what the broadcast has been averaging in recent weeks, so at least it’s staying level.

While many in the industry expected WWE’s ratings to skyrocket as a result of the writer’s strike, due to WWE featuring new episodes every week while other shows go into reruns or are replaced by reality shows, just the opposite seems to be true.

Instead of Raw, SmackDown and ECW benefiting from the wasteland of reruns, it seems are viewers turn out other programs, fewer are also tuning out in general from WWE broadcasts as well. The Republican Party is fond of the saying, “A rising tide lifts all boats,” meaning that good economic times benefit everyone. In this case, it would seem the opposite is true as well; a sinking tide lowers all boats.

It’s the loss of those who don’t tune in, though; if ratings were based on well-executed storylines, the feud between WWE champ Randy Orton and challenger Jeff Hardy would be drawing in record ratings the way buyers swarm real estate offices when they hear that there is South Carolina land for sale.

Jeff Hardy is a great Cinderella story going into the upcoming Royal Rumble PPV.

Along with his brother Matt, the rainbow-haired warrior helped define high-risk tag-team wrestling throughout the 1990s. When the time came to split the pair up and allow the brothers to move on with their singles careers, the process caused so many migraines, Jeff left WWE for TNA, where Jeff Jarrett eventually put the championship strap on him.

So far, Jeff is the only WWE-to-TNA refugee that Vincent Kennedy McMahon has brought back into the WWE. That in itself is a minor miracle; even Kurt Angle hasn’t been offered that deal.

But now, the big question that is plaguing the McMahon family is whether they can swallow their pride enough to put the WWE title on a wrestler who once abandoned them for a minor-league TNA promotion and wore their strap. Certainly, there has been a huge push behind Randy Orton as a heel champ, and the preferred plan would be to keep the strap on him until John Cena returns.

But is that what’s best for Raw ratings and the WWE? That’s what we’re all waiting to find out.

It was unexpected and the kind of match most wrestling fans would give up their gold cufflinks to see. No, I’m not talking about the excellent Jericho vs. Orton match, or the somewhat less than stellar triple threat match between Batista (yawn), Undertaker and Edge.

No, this time I’m talking about the number one contenders match for the WWE title shot at the Royal Rumble next month, between Triple H and Jeff Hardy. On paper, it looked to be an big squash match to continue endlessly promoting Hunter as an unstoppable monster on his way toward regaining his title at the next WrestleMania. Right?

Wrong! WWE threw everyone a curveball by finally having Hunter give the rub to someone else in a match that mattered. For 19 glorious minutes, Jeff Hardy did what he does best, which is to put 110-percent of himself into his match against Hunter, and Hunter played along.

But when the dust cleared, it was Jeff Hardy who stood victorious over Triple H. What? That’s right! Jeffy Hardy, who nearly incurred the lifelong wrath of Vince McMahon by jumping to TNA a few years ago is not only back in WWE for a bit over a year now, but is back in a way he was featured in TNA, but never WWE: in the heavyweight title picture!

Hardy was champion at TNA briefly during his run there, but in WWE had never been featured as more than a tag champion with his brother, Matt. As a singles wrestler, Jeff was never featured higher than as a third-tier contender, wrestling well in gimmick matches but never in contention for a title shot.

That changed at Armageddon. With a win over Hunter, and his work ethic, Jeff Hardy is set to make the Royal Rumble something special this year, as he faces off against Randy Orton. Hardy may not win, but to even get this shot in the WWE is evidence that the old order is changing and a new set of contenders are being groomed for top spots in the company.

Way to go, Jeff! Congrats!

Finally, what is for me probably going to be the highlight of this PPV! A real, traditional, five-on-five Survivor Series elimination match. Only trouble is, a real-life injury to Matt Hardy means it’s not even five-on-five, but four-on-five. Geez, can’t they at least pull off a surprise here and insert someone?

I mean, with all that footage of Edge with his chainsaw, it’s not like it would require some highly technical plasma cutting to write someone new into the match. Oh well.

This match had the best in-ring psychology of the night, even if it ran a bit predictably. OK, so Matt’s out and the odds seem against Triple H’s team of babyfaces? No problem. Let’s get the boring ones out of there right away. So DOWN goes Kane. Then DOWN goes Rey-Rey. Now it’s five on two and we have some classic ring psychology to work on here.

I will say, it was nice to see Mr. Kennedy and MVP in the same ring again; they have good in-ring chemistry and although Kennedy is on Raw and MVP’s on SmackDown at present, I predict big things for these two; they will be tearing it up against each other sometime in the next five years, at some major PPVs, and doing it for a championship strap. Both are great “talents of the future.”

After that, the other team began to thin out. First down goes MVP. Then Kennedy. Then Big Daddy V. Then Finlay.

By the time it’s down to Triple H and Jeff Hardy vs. Umaga, I half-expected Hardy to get eliminated. But not this time. Triple-H and Jeff show some good teamwork in a crowd-pleasing, feel-good, Thanksgiving PPV finish that has both men celebrating a babyface win. And the match was appropriately long! Over 20 minutes of ring time and with interviews and entrances, almost twice that!

OK, I’m a happy man as far as this PPV goes with, after THIS match.

WINNER: Triple H’s team
RATING: 8.7

You can influence the next WWE pay-per-view. Cyber Sunday is a once-a-year PPV event in which WWE lets fans have a hand in deciding opponents, match types and other key elements of an upcoming PPV event.

The idea was originated about three years ago and has been a popular one with fans ever since. Personally, I find Cyber Sunday a bit limiting and wish they’d offer fans a wider palette of options, especially on main events.

Not that Shawn Michaels, Jeff Hardy and Mr. Kennedy aren’t good options, but what if fans wanted to vote for someone else to lock up with Randy Orton? That’s all I mean.

Anyway, here’s WWE’s press release on the whole thing… two weeks and counting!

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Log on, take over. WWE Cyber Sunday is the only interactive Pay-Per-View that lets fans take control. Visit WWE.com and vote to decide matches and more as the fans will control the fate of WWE Champion Randy Orton, CM Punk, Rey Mysterio, Triple H and all your favorite Superstars at WWE Cyber Sunday on Sunday, October 28th, live at 8pm ET/5pm PT, only on Pay-Per-View. A World Wrestling Entertainment Production. Go to wwe.com for more details.

As their limited-run reunion recently proved, the WWE’s top tag-team assets are four wrestlers who are still with the company but haven’t been wrestling as tag teams in quite a while.

Mercury, Nitro and Melina (MNM) were one of the top “rising star” tag teams until nearly a year ago, when Joey Mercury was suspended, forcing the team to break up. But Mercury’s been back for months now and remains on Smackdown while Nitro and Melina are on Raw. It makes no sense.

Then there’s Matt and Jeff Hardy. Both are electrifying individually, but as a tag-team, they’re magic and other than that limited engagement over the holidays, where they Hardys were reunited for a feud with MNM. It made for some of the most watchable tag-team action to come out of WWE in ages.

Yet in both cases, WWE continues to keep both MNM and the Hardys completing individually, rather than as tag teams. Without those teams active, Raw is forced to trade their tag titles between unlikely pairings like Team Rated RKO, as well as the John Cena/Shawn Michaels pairing. All four would be better off in the singles division, but at teams they make for good matches.

SmackDown is in far worse shape, being forced to promote the uninspiring Brian Kendrick and Paul London team that absolutely no one watches. In fact, I’d rather chill in Orlando villas than watching their matches.

Give it up already, VinnieMac! Reunite MNM and the Hardys on a permanent basis already, and make your tag divisions respectable again!