Did the RR hurt Jeff Hardy?

[rra]

Did that whole booking, and the match* itself, hurt Jeff Hardy's recent massive push to the main event scene?

*=Haven't watched it yet.

[Mr. Mediocre]

Yes, yes it has. Jeff's back to where he was before Survivor Series.

[MGH]

Definitely. The match itself was fine, but it never captured the special feeling the build to the match had. The clean win told me they aren't doing a rematch, then Cena's return in my eyes gave Hardy a nice shove off the stage he had just pulled himself on to over the past month. I don't see Hardy getting a rematch for the belt any time soon, I really don't.

[Ken Ivory]

Time will tell. He got an applause at the end so he still seems over with the crowd and has probably become a more credible main event contender as a result. It all depends what creative do with him in the next month,

He needs to drop the IC title.

[Loki]

It didn't hurt him because his match was good and he looked like a million bucks.

On the other hand, the outcome of the Rumble itself has killed whatever hopes of Gold he may have had.

The applause was more like a "farewell" thing.

[Veladus Jobs To Dead Computers]

explodinglimo said:

Yes, yes it has. Jeff's back to where he was before Survivor Series.

That's true. I'd bet everything I own that the IWC won't breathe a word of HHH's clean job to Hardy after SS again. In fact, I bet people complain that HHH buried him.

[Widow's Peak]

I vote neither at the moment. He's still going to be an upper card guy, but it he didn't really break through the glass ceiling here.

[Dynamite Kid]

The match didn't live up to the hype, but I think it will help them both in the long run. Orton had a successful, non-cheating title defence, which is good. And Hardy didn't disgrace himself, he was in contrl for a lot of the match.

[MGH]

The big question now is does Jeff Hardy end up going the "Orton in 04" or "Edge in 06" route.

Does he get to his big match, have his big moment, lose and then be inconsequential for 3+ years? Does he stay over, still get relatively strongly pushed, and re-emerge later in the Summer back in the title picture?

Time will tell I guess, but I feel the same way about last night as I did with Edge/Cena at the Rumble two years ago. Not good.

[VeggieOverlord]

It was a hell of a match, but I feel the clean finish sucked a lot out of Jeff's push. Sure, the standing O at the end helped rebuild him a little, but with Superman returning you need to wonder what's happening to Jeff now. It's a shame because he has caught fire and it appears he could be lost in the shuffle rather quickly

[Loki]

mygreatesthour said:

The big question now is does Jeff Hardy end up going the "Orton in 04" or "Edge in 06" route.

I was thinking more about DiBiase '88, Mr.Perfect '90 or Owen '94

[Hiroshi Hase]

loki said:

mygreatesthour said:

The big question now is does Jeff Hardy end up going the "Orton in 04" or "Edge in 06" route.

I was thinking more about DiBiase '88, Mr.Perfect '90 or Owen '94

I don't think Perfect needed the World belt to be honest, he was just fine the way he was.

As for the booking of the match, and him losing clean I seem to remember Benoit losing clean in 2003 to Kurt Angle and a year later he wins the Rumble, so unless Hardy gets squashed and goes to ECW or Heat, I think he'll be fine.

[rra]

veggieoverlord said:

It was a hell of a match, but I feel the clean finish sucked a lot out of Jeff's push. Sure, the standing O at the end helped rebuild him a little, but with Superman returning you need to wonder what's happening to Jeff now. It's a shame because he has caught fire and it appears he could be lost in the shuffle rather quickly

Well, we'll have to see how WWE pushes Jeff in the next month or so....will they treat him as a legitimate top-title threat...

...or simply the IC champ, and head of the mid-card?

[twiggy101]

I don't think it's the end of the world. I hope that he takes the title from Cena.

[comahan]

I think it did more to solidify Ortons reign as a very good one than it did to kill Hardy's momentum.

[xroads]

jeff has been working hurt for a long time, from what i read he is in pretty bad shape.

[canDELjak]

I agree that it depends if they keep Hardy at the top. He had two months as the number one contender and he did step up his game but he's going to have to stay there which will be a combination of him doing well and being booked strongly.

[Head Detective Aaron Enigma]

Gonna have to say it did. I mean Jeff hit devastating move after devastating move, yet Orton has the coordination to reverse the Twist of Fate into the RKO? Why does Orton always have to sandbag? He got jumped on like 8 times, Whisper in the Wind, Moonsault, Two times Jeff jumped over the top rope onto him. Baseball Slide hit his neck off the barricade. Kicked off the side of the apron into the barricade. The whole thing was ridiculous in my opinion. Orton pretty much did nothing the whole match except the RKO.

[Loki]

headdetective said:

Gonna have to say it did. I mean Jeff hit devastating move after devastating move, yet Orton has the coordination to reverse the Twist of Fate into the RKO? Why does Orton always have to sandbag? He got jumped on like 8 times, Whisper in the Wind, Moonsault, Two times Jeff jumped over the top rope onto him. Baseball Slide hit his neck off the barricade. Kicked off the side of the apron into the barricade. The whole thing was ridiculous in my opinion. Orton pretty much did nothing the whole match except the RKO.

As I said, shades of SummerSlam 04 against Benoit.

[erik316wttn]

kenivory said:

Time will tell. He got an applause at the end so he still seems over with the crowd and has probably become a more credible main event contender as a result. It all depends what creative do with him in the next month,

He needs to drop the IC title.

Not necessarily.

He could have a great feud with Mr. Kennedy over it once Kennedy is done with HBK. Now is a great chance to elevate the IC title to where the US title is, or even higher.