Post by Sephiroth on Oct 5, 2021 18:20:28 GMT -5
First off, I'd like to point something out: Jeff named this character Willow the Wisp on the indies before he brought it to TNA. That is an anagram of Will O The Wisp, which is a nickname for a naturally occurring event that happens in swamps when the gases emitted by decaying plants and other organisms become luminescent. So Jeff named his character after dead gas. Just let that sink in.
Anyhoo, I was thinking back on this one because of the prospect of Bray Wyatt in Impact. In a way, I think of Willow as a major missed opportunity and sort of the inverse of what Matt achieved not long after with the Broken gimmick. Certainly the idea of Jeff Hardy him tapping into a darker sider of himself was fitting, given his own history of personal demons and tragedy. And in those TNA promos the character certainly came across as having possibilities with a pretty cool look and cryptic imagery. And I think a solid argument can be made that at that point his career definitely needed a bit of a reset, and that moving away from his usual daredevil antics toward a more character driven style was in order, where it would be more about haunting promos and eerie backstage antics.
But instead what we got was just Jeff Hardy as we are very familiar with-but wearing a mask and face paint, and acting slightly goofier than normal. He made no real attempt to alter his move-set to reflect a new persona, sort of a precursor to Finn Balor's Demon shtick. And I think my favorite part was how he tried to speak in uneven tones to match the pre-debut promos, never minding that those were done with audio distortion, which meant he came across more like someone was just randomly grabbing his cajones in a vice below camera sight.
My favorite part was obviously the Hunt for Willow skits with EC3 and Rockstar Spud. But I had been so hoping that Willow would put in an appearance during the Broken Matt/Bray Wyatt feud. I badly wanted to see a full on Scooby Chase with Bray, Harper, Rowan, Matt, Jeff, and various others going through all these doors and coming out as their various different incarnations. Anyone else got any thoughts or memories?
Anyhoo, I was thinking back on this one because of the prospect of Bray Wyatt in Impact. In a way, I think of Willow as a major missed opportunity and sort of the inverse of what Matt achieved not long after with the Broken gimmick. Certainly the idea of Jeff Hardy him tapping into a darker sider of himself was fitting, given his own history of personal demons and tragedy. And in those TNA promos the character certainly came across as having possibilities with a pretty cool look and cryptic imagery. And I think a solid argument can be made that at that point his career definitely needed a bit of a reset, and that moving away from his usual daredevil antics toward a more character driven style was in order, where it would be more about haunting promos and eerie backstage antics.
But instead what we got was just Jeff Hardy as we are very familiar with-but wearing a mask and face paint, and acting slightly goofier than normal. He made no real attempt to alter his move-set to reflect a new persona, sort of a precursor to Finn Balor's Demon shtick. And I think my favorite part was how he tried to speak in uneven tones to match the pre-debut promos, never minding that those were done with audio distortion, which meant he came across more like someone was just randomly grabbing his cajones in a vice below camera sight.
My favorite part was obviously the Hunt for Willow skits with EC3 and Rockstar Spud. But I had been so hoping that Willow would put in an appearance during the Broken Matt/Bray Wyatt feud. I badly wanted to see a full on Scooby Chase with Bray, Harper, Rowan, Matt, Jeff, and various others going through all these doors and coming out as their various different incarnations. Anyone else got any thoughts or memories?
