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Matt Hardy: High Flyer to Pathetic Jobber...Shame Shame !!
January 26, 2006 by Gord Baker

When the Hardy Boyz broke onto the scene they were instant gold. Fans loved their high flying aerial assaults and their charisma kept them on top for quite a long time. They had feuds with the Dudley Boyz and Edge and Christian, producing some of the most exciting tag matches in history. Who can forget the Spear Edge put on Jeff Hardy from the top of the ladder" It seemed they had no where to go but the upper stratosphere as far as WWE superstardom was concerned.

As happens time and again, with great success comes great disappointment. Jeff Hardy was rumored to have developed a drug problem and was released, Matt soon followed. In the blink of an eye the Hardy Boyz were gone. Not too long after the Dudley Boyz were gone as well and Edge and Christian broke up. No one really knows what happened to the Hardyz. Some say it was drugs, some say it was back stage politics, some say it was all Jeff, being intolerable and Matt was swept out with him.

Lucky for us Vince McMahon saw an opportunity to bring Matt back and try to exploit his very public break-up with Lita (Amy Dumas). His return was electrifying. A feud between Edge and Matt Hardy spawned some great matches culminating in a cage match at Unforgiven that was an instant classic with Matt paying homage to Jimmy Snuka and jumping onto Edge from the top of the Cage. Matt was back. The crowds loved him. He had a huge fan base. He was a high flyer and was moving to Smackdown to try and help improve their ratings.

When Matt Hardy joined Smackdown the sky was the limit and he was already flying. It took only a short time for him to come falling to a THUD!! The Smackdown bookers and writers had no clue what to do with him. As a face there were no heels that matched up with him and he began feuds with JBL and others that went no where. Soon he was jobbing for guys which culminated with a horrible job with a no talent brawler named Finlay the other night. Just a horrible match and it was sad to see Matt sink to that level on Smackdown.

In this writer's opinion, Smackdown needs to re-think what it wants to do with Matt. I believe its time for a Heel turn for Matt. A feud with Rey Mysterio would spawn some classic matches. The high flyers would be back. If they don't want to do that then Tag Team him up with Rey. Those 2 would be electric together.

Smackdown has an experienced, exciting, entertaining and popular wrestler in their stable. His fans want to see him soar again. The WWE is misusing a valuable commodity. Let's see Matt fly again. Let's put him back into the stratosphere where he belongs!!!

by Gord Baker ..

Andrew P. wrote:
Nicely written but with a few minor points missing, Jeff Hardy was let go by wwe because of drugs and left Matt behind, Matt wasn't released until a while after and only because he voiced his opinion on the Edge/Lita situation on his website other than that great column and i agree he definitely needs t turn heel again.

Steven P. wrote:
Matt Hardy was never respected by Vince McMahon and company. Vince saw the success of The Hardy Boys and waited for the split. Upon realizing that Jeff was the really crazy one, McMahon saw a huge opportunity for him. If yu think back to 2002, Eric Bischoff lost the Intercontinental Championship to SmackDown and had one chance to get it back. He was talking to RVD and The Hardys got involved. Bischoff said he was a huge fan of Jeff's and asked "Who are you"" to Matt. That's the real deal. Matt came back with a ton of momentum and it was quickly crushed when he lost to Edge right away. His return was unexpected and fun, espicially when he attacked Edge on his way to the ring against Kane and attacked him in the ring again. Follwed by his famous speech telling the WWE fans that Edge was a bastard, Lita was a whore, he was going to make their lives miserable and the WWE could kiss his ass. A quick plug for his upcoming appearance in ROH and he was off. You never know though. SmackDown has such a thin roster when it comes to main eventers, that Hardy may get a chance one day.

Langdon Beck wrote:
You were making some decent points, until you called Finlay a 'no talent brawler' and lost any and all credibility you may ever have had. Now I'm afraid I can't take a single word you say seriously. If you had any appreciation for real talent in wrestling you'd know Finlay is about a hundred times better than most of the rest of WWE.

John Postons wrote:
Matt Hardy did not job to some guy named Finlay. Dave 'Fit' Finlay has been wrestling since the 1970's and has trained god knows how many people on the WWE roster. I suggest the column writer does some research before he makes such statements in the future.

Chuck P. from NY wrote: "When the Hardy Boyz broke onto the scene they were instant gold."

If that is true then I still believe wrestling is real. When they broke onto the scene, they weren't a tag team. They were jobbers to superstars such as Hunter Hearst Helmsley(Triple H),Rob Van Dam, Waylon Mercy, Owen Hart and Kane. This was during the 1995-1997 era when this took place. The Hardy's were stuck as single jobbers but later a jobber tag team with a very stupid gimmic. They were dressed like the Hardy Boys from the mystery novels. It was no mystery to me that they were not going anywhere. Then they also had an even worse gimmic as the Jynx Brothers, dressed up as gay colored monsters with stupid masks. If you were to tell me that Matt had become a jobber, I'd say that he never left being a jobber and that Jeff, the better wrestler with a better company(TNA...#1), did all of the exciting moments they tagged together. True he did some high flying manuvers, but Jeff surpassed Matt as the superior wrestler and brother.

Also, you said that Finlay had no talent. You have obviously not seen him in WCW. If you had I think you would change your tune about him. He is a great mat wrestler and submission wrestler. The WWE is portraying Finlay as a brawler so the mat skills probably won't show very often. Don't get me wrong he is a brawler but also a well accomplished wrestler. He only had one title, beating Booker T for the TV title. He also had the one and only Junkyard Invitational hardcore trophy, won at Bash at the Beach 1999. A very underrated and overlooked individual.

I'm not a smark and I'm not trying to be one but please remember or research history of wrestlers you talk about because if you don't, what you are talking about will sound very very stupid. Matt will never go anywhere because he compained and whined like a baby for his job back and he got it. Whatever he gets he deserves. Thats why he lost Lita and his spot on Raw. B*tching will never get you anywhere and thats where he is: NOWHERE!!!!!!

All in all a very bad collumn and if you do another, I'd research before you do another!!!

Matt Kopp wrote:
Gord, I agree with you on the fact that Hardy has talent, and deserves to be better than he is, but my friend you have no business taking shots a Fit Finlay. Contrary to what you said, Finlay is actually a very talented wrestler, and I was actually disappointed that he had to win his first match by DQ. As a matter of fact, I was disappointed that he was wrestling Matt Hardy. I was hoping that Finlay would interrupt Booker T's celebration as US Champ and sat something like " You have to be a fighting's champ, you're the worst excuse for a champion I've ever seen!" Then Finlay beats Randy Orton to become the US Champ in his debut match. I think that they need to push Finlay harder, and that Matt should have gone to TNA, where he would have been used properly. Really, I don't have much sympathy for the guy. He just keeps making mistakes.

Navin Panesar wrote:
wow 1st of all Fit Finlay is one great in the business, some of the facts in this column are abit rusty but the rest is good, some excellent points in this article, you touch on soem very good points, but i shall tell you something that i think many of you already know, that is that matt seems to be regretting signing back with WWE instead of the offers from TNA, think of it, the hardys back together once again. i dont know about the rest of you but i think that would be awsome. WWE are known for taking advantage of real life problems well trying to and failing in most of them, look at the whole Brock 'No Talent' Lesnar law suit, wont be long before they take advantage of that will it but back to the point hardy will fade into black and become a nobody who jobs to the bigger deals in the business like finlay as was mentioned, so i beg one thing ----- MAKE HARDY A U.S. CHAMP

Aaron Fowlow wrote:
I agree with Langdon Beck here. Fit Finlay is in no way a new guy, and in no way a no talent. This guy is something like 50 years old, older than my dad, and he is "fit" in shape, and very versatile. Sure, he's a brawler, but I can see this guy being put into a great feud. Maybe Finlay and Hardy could feud. Leave Hardy on the shelf for a while, bring Hardy back to face off and get revenge against Finlay for smashing his head on the ring steps. It's a golden opetunity for a mid card rivalry I think. Besides that, and now just focussing on Hardy here, Hardy reminds me of a little punk who takes personal life into his profesional life. I have never been a fan of Hardy, although he has great skill, and well, he "is" a veteran when the WWE is concerned, because he has been there for years, as a jobber teamed with his bro, until they finally started winning matches, and suddenly became the big shot tag team in the wwe to feud with E&C, Dudley's, and any other team that surfaced. But when Matt started bringing his personal life into the business as something to capitalize off, I lost even more respect. Matt Hardy is where he belongs. Some say he has so much charisma... well I say give me a break. On the mic, he is as boring as listening to your grandma's old records.

Brandon Louthan wrote:
I like Hardy as well, and yeah, I will disagree about Finly though, however, I agree that ever since Matt has moved to Smackdown, he has done nothing but jobbed. I agree that he should either turn heel or form a tag team with Rey Mysterio.

Pete Coochie wrote:
An excellent article. Yes you abbreviated some things but others on here should learn from that. Getting to the point should be something more writers on here should adhere to ( Langdon Beck). Speaking of Mr Beck, he attacked you for not having seen Finlay before. I assume that you had not seen him wrestle before that night or you would not have made that statement. If that was the 1st time you saw Finlay wrestle then I completely understand why you would make that comment. It was indeed a horrible match and Finlay himself showed nothing. On this weeks smackdown he wrestles Funaki and has a much better showing but his mic skills are horrible. Anyway good job. You hit it right on the money. Matt is being misused.

Pete Coochie wrote:
An excellent article. Yes you abbreviated some things but others on here should learn from that. Getting to the point should be something more writers on here should adhere to ( Langdon Beck). Speaking of Mr Beck, he attacked you for not having seen Finlay before. I assume that you had not seen him wrestle before that night or you would not have made that statement. If that was the 1st time you saw Finlay wrestle then I completely understand why you would make that comment. It was indeed a horrible match and Finlay himself showed nothing. On this weeks Smackdown he wrestled Funaki and had a much better showing but his mic skills are horrible. Anyway good job. You hit it right on the money. Matt is being misused.

Guy Rugged wrote:
Sorry, but I have to agree with almost everyone above, you seem to know nothing about Dave "Fit" Finlay, you should have taken a look at his profile on here and looked at all the titles he has held since his debut in 1978. Finlay is a 2nd generation wrestler and has worked all over the world, he was one of the biggest heels in Europe in the 1980's and 1990's and had his WCW run cut short when he severed a nerve in his leg after going through a cheap table. His job as WWE road agent was given to him because he is a legitimate hard man who really will fight to the finish, does anyone remember the "Hardcore" Holly incident" When Holly had allegedly been working very stiff with some young jobbers, it was Finlay who sorted him out back stage. Finlay has to work in a "brawling" style as that is what a WWE audience expects unfortunately, they just don't understand mat skills and submissions, but to question his talent makes no sense.

Branden Bukky wrote:
one quick thing to say while I laugh at whoever wrote this column. *Laugh*. Alright, As for you bashing the "Unskilled Brawler" Finaly, He has trained 1/2 of the WWE roster, and is one of the most respected people in the business. I never thought I would see him on a mainstream wrestling show again, but anways...As far as Matt Hardy goes in the ring he is talented, but on the mic he's about as talented as good ol' double J Jeff Jarrett. *Laugh*

Michael Nader wrote:
Wow. Everyone is totally overreacting to the comment about Finley. I mean yeah he trained half the roster. But I think the point of the article was to expose Matt Hardy's misuse, not to bash Finley. I mean the WWE tried to portray Edge and Lita as the greater of two evils when it was the WWE that stuck there nose where it didn't belong. Matt Hardy doesn't even get the last laugh on Edge because poor Edge got injured before Taboo Tuesday 2005 (Someone get Edge his friggin bottle) and now they're trying to bury Hardy so everyone forgets what the WWE has done. WWE is only interested in how they look. If the WWE hadn't fired Matt, a lot of people might not be chanting you screwed Matt or we want Matt

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