Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
Throughout the history of pro wrestling bookers and promoters have always tried to come up with new, creative and innovative ideas to generate interest in their product. Some ideas have not only succeeded…but flourished. Others were DOA from the get go. Then there are those ideas which initially were innovative but, for various reasons, faded away. Those are the focus of this latest series of posts titled ‘Great Ideas That Didn’t Last’.
When you think about Jeff Hardy, what do you think of? Is it his years of teaming with his brother Matt as a part of the Hardy Boyz tag team? Is it the ‘charismatic enigma’ who treated his own body like a crash test dummy? Was it his time under a mask as Willow the Wisp? How about his run with Broken Matt as ‘Brother Nero?’ As good or as great as all of those gimmicks and characters were…how many will recall his time as the Anti-Christ of Wrestling?
It was during his time in TNA in 2010, where Jeff turned heel (The first proper turn in his career) and became the face of the company. It all began with TNA original Abyss talking about how “They” were coming. Who was “they” and what were they going to do in the company? They were eventually going to be revealed at the Bound For Glory pay per view on October 10th, 2010 aka 10/10/10. The main event of the evening was a Triple Threat match for the TNA world title between Kurt Angle, Jeff Hardy and Mr. Anderson.
The culmination of that match saw Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff come down to the ring…with Jeff Hardy turning heel, aligning with the two and winning his first TNA world title in the process. “They” was the formation of the faction known as Immortal. It was basically TNA’s first attempt to try and recreate the nWo angle from WCW. Instead of Hogan being the centerpiece of the angle like he was in 1996…it was Jeff Hardy this time. While not as shocking and impactful as Hogan’s turn was…it still was effective and caused TNA fans to throw debris in the ring as WCW fans did back in ’96.
The development of his new heel persona was aided behind the scenes by none other than Scott ‘Raven’ Levy who helped Hardy on his promos, facial expressions and his overall character development. Hardy would call himself the anti Christ of wrestling, altered his wrestling style a bit and renamed his Twist of Fate move to the Twist of Hate. Hardy would run down the fans in typical heel fashion and everytime he went for a high flying maneuver, he would give the middle finger to fans in attendance.
The heel Jeff Hardy was also awarded his own custom made world title belt. A belt that Hardy himself designed. The thinking by TNA management, was to have a title that they could eventually sell to fans. The problem was, many fans actually hated the look of his title. While marketing a belt that was deemed ugly by a majority of fans…it still played perfectly into the character that Hardy had become.
Jeff Hardy would defend his title against the likes of Mr. Anderson, Sting and Matt Morgan. While Hardy was being pushed hard as a heel by TNA management….Hardy’s real life was starting to fall a part. Personal demons such as drugs and alcohol abuse were getting in the way of his run. Hardy was reportedly drunk before his title defense against ‘The Blueprint’ Matt Morgan, but was sober enough to wrestle. It was also reported that Hardy was becoming more and more erratic behind the scenes. While this all made his heel gimmick look more effective, it certainly was doing the opposite for TNA management.
Of course, the culmination of all of Hardy’s issues came to roost at the now infamous Victory Road pay per view in 2011. It was during the main event match against Sting where Hardy was too high to safely compete and wound up losing the match in 88 seconds. It was a horrible ending to a once promising heel run.
