wrestling
The Shimmy 09.29.08: The Hardy Report Card (Part Three)
Welcome back, folks. How’s things? Good. That concludes the small talk portion of this week’s column. On to the Report Card!
2001 Royal Rumble Match (Royal Rumble 2001)
The Hardys got a little slice of the singles life here. While they were not the first two men in the ring, the battle did boil down to the two brothers. Unfortunately their fighting ended in one of the lamest Royal Rumble eliminations as they battled on the top rope and both fell off to the floor. This allowed Drew Carey (yes, THAT Drew Carey) to be the only man in the ring for a bit, at least until Kane showed up to scare the hell out of him.
My Grade: A-
World Tag Team Title, TLC II: Dudley Boyz© vs. Edge & Christian vs. The Hardys (WrestleMania X-Seven)
This was the last true TLC Match of the Dudleyz, Hardys, and E&C saga. If you look at these matches they all build on one another. The Triangle Ladder Match added the Dudley Boyz to the mix, the first TLC Match added the table and chair elements, and this one added the three teams’ seconds. For this match The Hardys brought with them Lita, the Dudley Boyz brought Spike Dudley, and Edge & Christian brought in Rhyno. In essence this was a nine person match because each of the three seconds played an important role in the match’s outcome. Rhyno even carried Christian up the ladder to secure the belts and win the match for his team one more time. Like most of these TLC Matches it’s hard to really do them justice with words, you just have to see them to believe them. Of course there is also the prophetic statement of JR that has become somewhat legendary in and of itself as he makes the call that “Lita is jerking Edge off…of the ladder!” Give it a few years, JR.
My Grade: A+
European Title, Triple Threat Match: Matt Hardy© vs. Christian vs. Eddie Guerrero (Backlash 2001)
Unfortunately I have not seen this match as yet, so there will be no grade. I still remember being pretty puzzled by this match. The original match was supposed to be Eddie Guerrero defending the European Title against Raven, which I thought was a pretty nifty feud. Then they had Matt Hardy win the belt (probably as a make up for ending the Two Man Power Trip feud prematurely) and Edge & Christian somehow convince William Regal to book this match instead and put Raven in a Hardcore Title Match against Rhyno. Why Edge didn’t get a match out of the deal, why they would even want Eddie involved, and why they’d want to given their buddy Rhyno a challenger I don’t know. This match is notable for the beginning of the intriguing Hardys-Lita-Eddie-Chyna storyline that never got a chance to get off the ground.
My Grade: N/A
No. 1 Contender’s, Tag Team Turmoil Match: Chris Jericho & Chris Benoit vs. Edge & Christian vs. X-Pac & Justin Credible vs. The Hardys vs. Dudley Boyz vs. APA vs. Dean Malenko & Perry Saturn (Judgment Day 2001)
I’ve always had a strange liking for this match. The early part of the match isn’t anything overly memorable but I really like the last two matches with the Canadian Chrises vs. X-Factor and Edge & Christian. At the time I was really hoping for Eddie Guerrero to be Jericho’s mystery partner but Benoit was a fine addition. I mark for Tag Team Turmoil Matches which is weird because I normally dislike matches where a fall occurs faster than it regularly would, but for some reason I like these matches and as far as I’m concerned this is the standard bearer for all Tag Team Turmoil Matches. The Hardys were really one of the filler teams here but at least they were good filler.
My Grade: A-
Light Heavyweight Title Match: X-Pac© vs. Jeff Hardy (King of the Ring 2001)
This is a forgotten gem, mainly because the Light Heavyweight Title was a forgotten title. For most of its existence the LHW Title was a title for small jobbers, but for a brief time in 2001 they tried to make it mean something, no doubt in order to have a competitive counterpart for the WCW Cruiserweight Title that they’d soon be bringing into the fold. This was also somewhat of a consolation prize for Hardy who had just seen his and his brother’s feud with the Two-Man Power Trip (and his brief IC Title reign) ended, and to balance things out since Matt got a run with the European Title.
My Grade: B
Hardcore Title Match: Jeff Hardy© vs. Rob Van Dam (InVasion)
Man, I didn’t remember just how over Rob Van Dam was in 2001 until I watched this match again. He could have turned into a true mega-star if he had been pushed to the moon upon his debut. Jeff also had a boatload of potential and in all honesty he still does if used properly. This match was a great hardcore affair, helping to bring the Hardcore Title some credibility following its 24/7 overload of the previous year. This was a high-risk fan’s dream match and a rematch of the initial ECW invasion of 1997 so there was the added trivia factor to make the match even cooler. I love the Van Daminator out of nowhere in this match. You know this match has to be pretty brutal when they use two sets of video and audio clips from this match in the “Don’t Try This at Home” video.
My Grade: A+
Hardcore Title, Ladder Match: Jeff Hardy© vs. Rob Van Dam (SummerSlam 2001)
I was really looking forward to this match at the time but I must say I was a bit disappointed. Watching the match back now and it really is a good match, but at the time it wasn’t nearly as spotterific as one would have expected. Jeff Hardy and Rob Van Dam are arguably the two greatest Ladder Match wrestlers of all time (Edge probably has a case as well) and as such I think most fans probably expect more when watching this match. It’s probably a good thing they didn’t kill themselves here, especially since Jeff Hardy would damn near kill himself in a match with RVD on SmackDown shortly thereafter.
My Grade: A-
World Tag Team Title, Fatal Four-Way Match: Dudley Boyz© vs. The Hardys vs. Lance Storm & Hurricane Helms vs. Big Show & Spike Dudley (Unforgiven 2001)
I’m a mark for multi-man matches so that may bias my view a bit here. The opening was really hot, but unfortunately the pace slowed down as the end of the match approached. I never liked the Big Show & Spike Dudley tag team (Tajiri was a better partner for Show) but the other teams all worked well together so it made it worth it. The Hardys and Dudleyz had worked together so many times at this point that it wasn’t as special as it once was, but at least you knew you’d get solid, if unsurprising, work.
My Grade: B
WCW Tag Team Title Match: The Hardys© vs. Lance Storm & Hurricane Helms (No Mercy 2001)
They took the better two teams from the Fatal Four-Way at Unforgiven and put them in a match here. I really liked the Storm/Helms tag team and at the time I wish they would have gotten the belts here. Given future booking it wouldn’t have worked out, and the titles already were treated like hot potatoes during the Invasion anyway, but still. The match itself was a nice little midcard encounter that ultimately didn’t lead to a lot, an Invasion staple.
My Grade: B
World Tag Team Title/WCW Tag Team Title, Steel Cage Unification Match: The Hardys© vs. Dudley Boyz (Survivor Series 2001)
Like I mentioned before, these two teams had wrestled so much at this point that it was kind of hard to get too excited here. Still, if you were going to unify two of the most storied sets of tag team titles then it’s hard to get much better than these two teams. The match was a pretty good capper for all their meetings (even though they’d still tangle a bit in 2002) and in a weaker year for matches this may have been hyped up as a MOTYC (probably undeservedly so, but hyped nonetheless) but as it was it was just a good Steel Cage Match. The seeds of the doomed Hardys breakup were laid here as Jeff threw away an opportunity to win the match in favor of delivering a Whisper in the Wind off the cage, angering his more serious brother.
My Grade: B+
Matt Hardy vs. Jeff Hardy; Guest Referee: Lita (Vengeance 2001)
And here we have what would be the culmination of the ill fated Hardys breakup. Matt turned his back on both Jeff and Lita (despite the fact he clearly had some valid points about both of them) and we got this match. The crowd did not want to see the brothers fight at all, and the situation was made worse by the fact it was pretty sloppy. The whole thing would be ended shortly thereafter and Undertaker would demolish all three on Raw only for them to come back as a united force at the Royal Rumble. I actually think a feud between these two could work pretty well these days, but in 2001 it just wasn’t meant to be.
My Grade: C-
The Shimmy Likes It Raw!
What’s on tap for tonight?
That does it for me this week. Next week is 2002 in the life of the Hardys. Until then, don’t die. Clark…out.
