In Hindsight: Matt vs. Jeff (2009)

[I Like Your Poetry]

So I was watching WM25 last night, and I couldn't help focus on the Hardy vs. Hardy feud that on paper was supposed to be great, but ultimately was poorly executed and kind of lackluster.

It seems that Matt and Jeff have been eager to have a successful feud for some time, and yet their past attempt in 2001 failed miserably and was poorly received. Again, their riff in 2002 caused Matt to leave Raw and find his own (and best to date) identity, but Jeff's release ensured we wouldn't get a match in 2003 either.

So when we finally do get a feud between the two brothers, it's seemingly at the best point for either brother: Matt has just been ECW champ and is claiming he's only achieved mediocrity, while Jeff has finally grabbed the big one, the WWE Championship, but was cost it by his jealous brother. To escalate it, the stakes were brought up even higher when it was revealed that Matt attempted to run Jeff off the road, miscued Jeff's pyrotechnics, and EVEN set Jeff's house of fire, killing his dog of which Jeff shared a deep emotional bond.

The stage is set for Wrestlemania in an Extreme Rules match, and yet... I thought the match was very run of the mill. I give the benefit of the doubt, but even in the return matches involving gimmicks such as Stretcher Match and the "I Quit" Match, I never feel like the feud gets anywhere near its potential.

And yet here we are, over 6 months later, Jeff is gone from the picture (and with his own problems) and Matt has apparently sought forgiveness, but not without karmic retribution as he never really risen above 1 or 2 main event matches, of which he lost decisively.

So ultimately..where did this feud go wrong? Was it Matt being drafted to Raw too soon, ultimately rushing the feud? Too inconceivable for two such close brothers to actually have a blood war with each other? Was Jeff simply too big for this feud at this point?

[Brother Ike: Thread Killer]

I think that the main problem with the execution of the feud was that it was clearly nothing more than a last minute decision by creative done in order to get Jeff on the WM card with no real follow through planned.

Also Matt playing 'super serial heel number 300' didn't help things imo

[Big L]

It wasn't that much of an intriguing feud IMO

[Albino Heat]

Neither really had the emotional depth to make me care. Their WM especially just seemed like random high spots, not Jeff wanting to beat the ever loving hell out of his brother.

[Slingshot Suplay]

What made no sense is when Jeff "left" Matt's house after that party. The party was at matt's house and no one noticed that he left the party? How did he catch up with Jeff? He had to be going over 100 mph!

[wrestlecrapcrap]

I really enjoyed the feud - I thought Matt had finally found the character that could push him to main event level and on Raw could have got a serious push if it wasn't for injuries.

Every good main event player has that one good character trait that makes them. Edge has opportunism. Orton has his psycho character. Cena has his never back down character. Matt's could have been his jealousy. After Jeff he could be jealous at a bunch of other guys for a bunch of different things to spark feuds, like how Jericho acts self riteous to a bunch of different guys for his.

I still can't understand why they turned Matt back. He's so lackluster as a face and will never get anywhere.

[Sumbody Gon' Get Dey Kneelift]

LoveLoveLoved this feud.

Their match at Wrestlemania was SPECTACULAR in my eyes, especially with Jeff's risk taking coming back to kill him in the end...as always. Good continuity, good follow through, and I even kind of like the "we worked things out offscreen" angle, just because it made realworld sense and that's so rare in WWE.

[carp (SPC, Itoh Respect Army)]

First off, it WASN'T that bad, and neither was the 2001 feud. Everyone just had really really high expectations because my god it's a Hardy brothers feud! It really was perfectly okay and had perfectly good heat, it just wasn't as super extra special as we all felt like it could have been.

I think a big problem was injecting Jeff's real-life stuff into it. The on-screen jealousy stuff should have been enough, but there just wasn't the oomph that there should have been, do they panicked and had Matt kill Jeff's dog. Big shark-jumper, there.

This is always a little silly to me, but I also think the fact that it wasn't for the title hurt things. Jeff getting revenge isn't really deep down that interesting, since who cares? He's still the dope who isn't the champion.
But, if this is about a true sibling rivalry and Matt wanting to prove he's his brother's equal and Jeff wanting to prove he's passionate enough to give his all even against his own flesh and blood (which is what it was supposed to be about in the first place) then the feud has GOT to be for the title. It's the only way it makes sense.

[azz0r]

I honestly felt Matt being a boring heel killed it for me.

[Bubble Lead]

I dont know why WWE bothered with this feud, considering they tried it before and it just did not work, even using Lita as an extra element to make it interesting.

Matt, beyond his V1 character could never be a good heel. If they tried it during the V1 era it probably could have worked but that never happened. In the end, the whole thing was completely pointless outside of producing a few good matches.

[skiller]

Nov 5, 2009 16:06:42 GMT -5 Sumbody Gon' Get Dey Kneelift said:

LoveLoveLoved this feud.

Their match at Wrestlemania was SPECTACULAR in my eyes, especially with Jeff's risk taking coming back to kill him in the end...as always. Good continuity, good follow through, and I even kind of like the "we worked things out offscreen" angle, just because it made realworld sense and that's so rare in WWE.

It does? So would it go down?

Matt - Hey bro. Sorry about burning down your house and all. Oh, and killing your dog, my bad. I really hope we can put that entire running you off the road business behind us... Plus that pyro thing. Yeah, it was weird month for me there lol. Won't happen again, promise.

[manstis1804]

Honestly, I think those stupid promos on Smackdown with the eerie music playing in the background killed the whole angle. That was such a terrible idea and made it seem like a lame daytime tv show.

[James McCloud IS John Godot]

I just don't think Matt and Jeff have great chemistry wrestling each other. That's not their fault, it's just the way it is. Being brothers doesn't mean you're going to automatically 'click' in a match.

[barley96]

The PG rating is one thing that ruined the feud due to the no blood policy. With how personal the feud was, there needs to be blood to add to the psychology of the match. Also the feud ended way too soon. It rivalry was getting better and all of a sudden Matt Hardy gets drafted to RAW.

[Slim Loves Lily]

I liked their match @ WM25. I'll bet I'm one of the 2 people who enjoyed it.

[Sumbody Gon' Get Dey Kneelift]

Nov 5, 2009 17:14:16 GMT -5 @skiller said:

Nov 5, 2009 16:06:42 GMT -5 Sumbody Gon' Get Dey Kneelift said:

LoveLoveLoved this feud.

Their match at Wrestlemania was SPECTACULAR in my eyes, especially with Jeff's risk taking coming back to kill him in the end...as always. Good continuity, good follow through, and I even kind of like the "we worked things out offscreen" angle, just because it made realworld sense and that's so rare in WWE.

It does? So would it go down?

Matt - Hey bro. Sorry about burning down your house and all. Oh, and killing your dog, my bad. I really hope we can put that entire running you off the road business behind us... Plus that pyro thing. Yeah, it was weird month for me there lol. Won't happen again, promise.

In the distorted hyperreality of the WWE, where Triple H is cheered and well liked by the roster even though one night he pedigreed Lita and beat her prone body with a chair, then yes, yes everything is forgivable.

Also, even in the real world, people forgive their family for INSANE things, not limited to violence, theft, and murder.

[The Charismatic Enabeler]

It didn't work for me because Jeff was being booked as a serious competitor and Matt was still just kind of a guy they needed to find something to do with.

[MrBRulzOK]

The problem is they had a perfect idea with Christian helping Edge beat Jeff Hardy at the Royal Rumble. Then they decided to throw it out the window instead just because everyone figured it out before hand and replaced it with a nonsensical swerve by substituting Matt Hardy in the role.

[Fade]

Nov 6, 2009 1:03:01 GMT -5 MrBRulzOK said:

The problem is they had a perfect idea with Christian helping Edge beat Jeff Hardy at the Royal Rumble. Then they decided to throw it out the window instead just because everyone figured it out before hand and replaced it with a nonsensical swerve by substituting Matt Hardy in the role.

To this day, I think that would have been the better way to go. Have it be Christian, get Matt involved, get Edge further involved, do a fatal 4-way, do a tag-match, do something with those 4. Cause Christian ended up doing a nice little cameo in the MITB and Edge was part of what was, IMO, a lame feud leading up to WrestleMania.

I thought Jeff and Matts match was okay at WrestleMania. I thought the feud showed promise (Was this the theme for WM25 or something?) but kinda derailed into being boring. You'd think, and i'm pretty sure it was designed, to get Matt elevated. And now here we are months after WrestleMania, Jeff's gone, and I'd say Matt's worse off now then he was during that feud or even before that. So...where's the payoff?

[no2humanorchid]

I liked all their matches this year, and I think that their WrestleMania match is severly underrated (as is the PPV IMO). I do like Matt as a face again though and really hope he does make it to continuous strong upper mid-card status or main eventer. With the right booking/push, I really feel he could go places and be somehwhat of a face Bret Hart type character, which is who I considered him akin to during his ECW days.