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Matt Hardy vs Jeff Hardy. The Charismatic Enigma vs The Broken One
Two brothers, who’s careers are indefinitely linked no matter how far the either flies away from the nest. Jeff and Matt Hardy are two of the most successful brothers in the history of professional wrestling.
From their beginning in their own Trampoline Wrestling Federation, and to forming their Wrestling Promotion, the ‘Organisation of Modern Extreme Grappling Arts’ or “OMEGA”, where they competed under the names “High Voltage” for Matt and “Willow the Wisp” for Jeff, and finding success in the World Wrestling Federation during the Attitude Era, and beyond, the pair have shown an unsurmountable amount of talent and charisma that has translated to a sparkling 20+ year career.
The pair have teamed as the incredible “Hardy Boys” and with Lita as part of “Team Extreme”. Both have also embarked on singles careers. Jeff has had the more glittering of the two. He won winning multiple world Championships and being one of the top wrestlers in the WWE.
Matt, however, has had more a renaissance in his later years. Both men had spells in WWE and TNA. However, here is where Matt became one of the most popular wrestlers in the world with his “Broken Matt” character. He was a deranged character who was possessed by an ancient deity. The pair had a match, dubbed “The Final Deletion” which received rave reviews and innovated the “Cinematic Match” style. This was a match type which both WWE and AEW would utilise for years to come.
Matt Hardy vs Jeff Hardy – The Feud
The match between the two took place at Wrestlemania 25, which WWE erroneously called “The 25th anniversary of Wrestlemania”. It wasn’t. The 25th Anniversary would be Wrestlemania 26. Your first birthday isn’t the day you were born, is it? Learn to do maths, Vince. (You can view the match on the WWE Network here)
Matt Hardy vs Jeff Hardy was a match people had been wanting to see for a while. While Jeff was a top star and Matt was mainly focusing in on the Midcard, the duo had such great chemistry as tag team partners, then the results in the ring as opponents were bound to be just as good, if not better.
The Rivalry
The rivalry began at the 2009 Royal Rumble.
Both brothers went into the Pay Per View as recent Champions; Jeff as the WWE Champion, and Matt just after losing his ECW Championship to Jack Swagger on an episode of ECW, and the duo both had title matches that night.
(Note: The ECW Championship was not considered a World Championship by WWE, but I do. Undertaker was given the option to face the ECW Champion when he won the 2007 Royal Rumble, so it IS a World title)
At the start of the night, Matt Hardy unsuccessfully challenged Jack Swagger in an ECW Title rematch. Matt failed to regain the prestigious Championship. Jeff Hardy, however, defended his World Championship against the Rated R Superstar, Edge.
During the match, when Jeff looked to have beaten Edge. Matt turned on his brother, hitting him with a chair and handing the Championship to his former rival (Matt and Edge had a feud in the mid 2000s, where they feuded over Edge stealing Matt’s real life Girlfriend, Lita).
This lit the spark in a deadly feud that brought an intensity to the pair. This included Matt revealing how he messed with Jeff’s pyro to burn him, attacked him backstage and even set his house on fire, killing Jeff’s dog in the process.
Matt Hardy vs Jeff Hardy just turned from a wrestling match into a war.
Killing a man’s dog puts Matt Hardy on the level of even the most evil, disgusting heels in wrestling history.
There was only one way for this match to go, and that was violence.
Matt Hardy vs Jeff Hardy – The Match
Matt Hardy vs Jeff Hardy was not a wrestling match. It was a blood feud. A war between brothers. You can see it in the eyes of Jeff Hardy as he marches down the ramp toward his brother Matt, who is stood in the ring, waiting. The pair lock eyes and neither deflects the others gaze. They keep staring, letting the other know that they are not scared and are ready for a fight. Matt killed his dog for fuck sake.
Matt and Jeff Hardy face off in the ring. The referee stands between them, and they wait for the bell to ring. Matt Hardy tries trash talking, to put Jeff off his game, but the Charismatic Enigma’s concentration could not be broken. Clad in purple face paint and a steely gave, the bell rings and Jeff fires a hard slap straight into his brothers face. No lock ups, no holds. This is a war.
A war between brothers
Matt tried to return the slap, but Jeff ducks and performs a double leg takedown, dragging his brother to the floor and unloading a flurry of punches. He then takes them to the outside, where he grabs a giant, framed Wrestlemania poster, which he smashes on the head of Matt Hardy. Matt then dodges a trash can to the face, before eating the steel steps and feeling the entire weight of his brothers body come flying towards him, after running and jumping off the steel steps.
The pair move back into the chair, Matt groggy and Jeff with chair in hand. Matt is slouched in the corner, so his brother sets a chair up in front of him, runs and attempts hit a poetry in motion. Jeff is using the chair as a replacement for his brother, who as a team would be the base in which Jeff would run and jump off of. Jeff is telling his brother that he doesn’t need him anymore, whilst also trying to fill the void he has left.
The Match Continues
To no avail, however as Matt avoids the hit, before Jeff attempts a whisper in the wind only to be struck by a chair in mid air, mid flip. It was really cool.
With an extra chair shot for good measure, Matt goes to pin the former WWE Champion. Jeff manages to kick out at 2. After this he decides to pull out the big guns, hitting Jeff in the head with what looks like a Henry hoover, which shockingly is not the finish of the match. Back in my day, one Henry hoover shot would win you the world title, now it means nothing.
Matt starts to take control. He gets another near fall after a brutal Side-Effect onto a chair, Jeff’s head crashing into the steel chair. He then sets up a table on the outside. Quick thinking and a throw into the steel steps puts Jeff back on top, as he guides his lifeless brother onto the table, way he lays prone for quite some time.
He then does something that I attempted to do on Smackdown vs Raw 2008 all the time. In fact, this whole match is basically every extreme rules match I ever played on the WWE games, and I love it. Chair spamming and silly dives and more chairs and even more broken tables, it what wrestling is all about.
Jeff stacks another table on top of Matt, and ascends to the top rope. The crowd don’t believe this is going to happen, then it does! What a bloody madman! He flies through the air like an eagle, soaring so high he can scratch his dog in heaven. He crashes through the top table, then onto his brother, who crashes through the second table, and the pair fall into a splintery heap onto the floor.
This whole match is basically every extreme rules match on Smackdown vs Raw 2008
The match is travelling at a million miles a minute, and comes to it’s conclusion when Jeff rolls Matt back into the ring. He sets 2 ladders up in the ring. One large, and one humungous, and places them in a row facing the unconscious Matt, who is lying in his own filth in the middle of the ring. Because he’s the absolute mentalist that we know and love, Jeff leapfrogs off the small ladder, over the big one with a huge leg drop onto Matt.
That is, he would have, had Matt not sneakily moved out the way! It looked so painful and the fact Jeff could walk for the next rest of his life is a testament to his bones being made of jelly.
The finale of the match is brutal. Matt opens a chair and wraps it around the neck of Jeff Hardy. He then hits the pair’s move – The Twist of Fate – and Jeff goes crashing to floor, before the steel of the chair stops his head from getting down, and it bounces against the steel frame. It’s miraculous how both men aren’t dead, especially Jeff who has just taken one of the most brutal things I’ve ever seen in wrestling.
Matt pins his brother and wins the match. It was stupid that he won, because now Jeff’s dog died for nothing, and he let him down. The pair may have faced off again next month, but the big money match was won by Big Money Matt.
The Verdict
A brilliant match. It was shorter than expected, but exactly what was needed of it. Both men took brutal bumps, and both men sold it as a fight, not a traditional wrestling match.
Both men had murder in their eyes, and it came off in everything they did. Matt Hardy vs Jeff Hardy was a blood feud, in all senses of the word, and this match delivered
I give this match 4 stars out of 5. Very entertaining, brutal to watch and one you’d go back to watch in a week or two, just to see that final 2 minutes at the very least.
