Does TNA Really Need Jeff Hardy as Heavyweight Champion?

[JasonSilverTX]

To the poster who said that TNA gave Jeff the belt in order to keep him from signing with the E....mind if I get some of that crack your smoking?


While im not a huge supporter of Jeff Hardy, anyone who knows behind the scenes aspects of wrestling(you know buissiness aspects), or anyone who payed attention, can easily attribute Jeff holding that title as TNA doing the smart thing and MARKETING off of Jeffs drug issues. The entire show they gave leading up to Jeff getting the title was all about Jeffs fuck up, the made sure to make note of his fuck up and that he could potentially be gone and they even aired the dirty laundry the wrestlers had with him over what he did with Sting. TNA did the smart thing to gain watchers when they took the broken down guy with demons and had him fight and claw his way back up and show hed changed. Since all that shit went down, TNA showed everyone this broken drug abuser who was getting in better shape, slowly having better matches, and staying clean. Then when they got as far as they could with it, they put the belt on him and look at it from a political or buissiness stand point. You just took a guy known for his demons, and showed an entire world that you could turn him around, get him clean, and make him your lead guy.

Does TNA NEED Jeff as champion? No, he could EASILY fuck up and ruin all the building they have done around him and make TNA look like more of a joke than they already are. But..unless he does fuck up, TNA is easily able to use this as a sign to show they support people to say no to drugs and turn their lives around. Blah blah blah, that good old speech.

And as many others said, he leads merch sales, he has fans of his music, he has fans of his custom art, there ARE people who actually enjoy his matches and his promos or appearance. TNA doesnt NEED Jeff as champion, but in the mean time, they can use this guy with all this exposure to not only benefit them, but to have work ALL their other guys in title matches to help fans get attached to those workers through him.

[GameOver]

Simple answer, no they don't. Whether he's over his demons or not he's still an aquired taste and is not the "best in the world" Bobby Roode and Austin Aries are far better faces of the company, but they aren't fan favs so Jeff is the best of the lesser evil

Really the only other options at this point on the face side are Kurt "always injured and mindfudged" Angle and James Storm that they don't want to push beyond being in the main event.

Sure Jeff appeals to the kids but like Cena there's more then enough viewers that couldn't stand him aswell and you are losing any possible viewers by keeping him as the champion instead of someone actually entertaining "overall".

[waylon p]

I do not care about Jeff's checkered past. It does not bother (much) me that he is a spot monkey with a limited number of spots. It does not even bother me that TNA has multiple workers that would make better champs.

What I do care about is that having him in a long title run, for reasons including those above, devalues the title and everyone he retains it against. Hardy is simply not credible. This is probably due to the fact that they have not bothered to make him credible. his ascent to the world championship was too fast, and too easy. There should have been a long, long program of him beating all odds over and over again, only to get screwed out of his title win multiple times. This is how you make a face champion credible in light of his limitations and checkered past. Then you continue to make him beat all odds over and over again. You do NOT have him retain in normal singles matches without building large doubt that he can prevail. He is small and his "moveset" is, too. They are booking him as if he is a Kurt Angle or a Bruno Samartino or a Hulk Hogan in his prime. This is not appropriate, and I think it is too late to fix it now. This injury that will keep him out of England should be milked heavily. They should strip him of the title for not defending it, and give it to a credible heel champ with a stable of lackies who can keep him from regaining the title for a long time, so that when he wears the strap again, it will mean something. And make him put away his vanity belt, because it makes the real title seem insufficient.

But none of this will happen, because Hardy knows he sells mad merch, and his ego is both large and fragile. TNA does not need Jeff wearing the title. They just need him happy, so they can rake in the bucks. Jeff is the one who feels he needs Jeff to have the title, and TNA needs to let him have what he needs to stick around.

[JasonSilverTX]

Originally Posted by waylon p

I do not care about Jeff's checkered past. It does not bother (much) me that he is a spot monkey with a limited number of spots. It does not even bother me that TNA has multiple workers that would make better champs.

What I do care about is that having him in a long title run, for reasons including those above, devalues the title and everyone he retains it against. Hardy is simply not credible. This is probably due to the fact that they have not bothered to make him credible. his ascent to the world championship was too fast, and too easy. There should have been a long, long program of him beating all odds over and over again, only to get screwed out of his title win multiple times. This is how you make a face champion credible in light of his limitations and checkered past. Then you continue to make him beat all odds over and over again. You do NOT have him retain in normal singles matches without building large doubt that he can prevail. He is small and his "moveset" is, too. They are booking him as if he is a Kurt Angle or a Bruno Samartino or a Hulk Hogan in his prime. This is not appropriate, and I think it is too late to fix it now. This injury that will keep him out of England should be milked heavily. They should strip him of the title for not defending it, and give it to a credible heel champ with a stable of lackies who can keep him from regaining the title for a long time, so that when he wears the strap again, it will mean something. And make him put away his vanity belt, because it makes the real title seem insufficient.

But none of this will happen, because Hardy knows he sells mad merch, and his ego is both large and fragile. TNA does not need Jeff wearing the title. They just need him happy, so they can rake in the bucks. Jeff is the one who feels he needs Jeff to have the title, and TNA needs to let him have what he needs to stick around.

You do know it took him almost a year to get the title..right?

From March 13 2011 up until - the pretaped September 8th show, Hardy was off TNA tv dealing with legal shit and rehabbing. After his return the ENTIRE progress of his time was spent showcasing his chase to rise back from the bottom. He gained a title shot and beat the champ by DQ causing Hardy not to get the belt and work for it again, he then got screwed several times in number one contender matches, time and time again causing him to have to keep trying for more matches. HARDY LOST A NUMBER ONE CONTINDERS match to RVD, He then tried for the tag titles unsuccessfully, he wrestled devon for the tv title to a no contest, he lost a number one continders match to Mr. Anderson, Hardy then entered the BFG Series tournament (this is 2012 now with Hardy still not become world champion and fighting his way back up the ladder against all comers often losing) Hardy WON the BFG series to become Number One Continder once again this time defying both an attack by aces and eight, a possible injury. Hardy then defended the Number 1 spot against Bully Ray the next night, Then on October 14th, Hardy FINALLY faces Austin Aries for the belt...


So im sort of lost on how making a storyline that lasted from March 2011 till October 2012 on a weekly show with ppvs added..was 'built too fast and too easy'. Maybe you just missed a few episode of TNA?

[Lorenzo von Matterhorn]

I've said it before and I'll say it again: every time I go back to disliking Jeff Hardy as World Champion, he pulls another 4-5 star match out of his ass on PPV. His title reign has been filled with quality matches. The recent main event at Genesis was good, but the ladder match with Austin Aries was probably my favorite.

As cool as it is that Christopher Daniels is in line for a title shot, I think handing it off to him at this point, with little-to-no story or drama between the two, is a bad idea. TNA has done great things with the World Heavyweight title in the last 18 months, and as much as I like Daniels, right now isn't the best time. If they wanted to make that a program going into Lockdown, than awesome! But don't just drop the belt in a one-off on Impact because they added some stipulation to a random match at Genesis.

Does TNA "need" Hardy as the Champion? No, I don't think so. We know he was a top merch seller in WWE, but I have yet to see facts and figures for TNA; wouldn't surprise me if he's up there though. I myself have a Jeff Hardy shirt from TNA, although it came in a brown bag special. It also came with a sick RVD shirt that I wear at least once a week, because it looks so cool. To the matter at hand though, i don't think TNA will fall in ratings or see a sales drop without Hardy. I think he's done great in the ring as Champion - still don't think he can cut a promo to save his life - and Roode and Aries have both carried their feuds on the mic, so it's worked out. Daniels might actually be a logical opponent for him next, but I do worry that he's a bit too similar to somebody like Austin Aries.

THAT BEING SAID, with TNA recording 4 weeks of Impact in the UK, and Hardy not being allowed to go on the tour, it is absolutely ridiculous that TNA could even think to film a month of television without the champion, should he indeed retain.

[waylon p]

Originally Posted by JasonSilverTX

You do know it took him almost a year to get the title..right?

From March 13 2011 up until - the pretaped September 8th show, Hardy was off TNA tv dealing with legal shit and rehabbing. After his return the ENTIRE progress of his time was spent showcasing his chase to rise back from the bottom. He gained a title shot and beat the champ by DQ causing Hardy not to get the belt and work for it again, he then got screwed several times in number one contender matches, time and time again causing him to have to keep trying for more matches. HARDY LOST A NUMBER ONE CONTINDERS match to RVD, He then tried for the tag titles unsuccessfully, he wrestled devon for the tv title to a no contest, he lost a number one continders match to Mr. Anderson, Hardy then entered the BFG Series tournament (this is 2012 now with Hardy still not become world champion and fighting his way back up the ladder against all comers often losing) Hardy WON the BFG series to become Number One Continder once again this time defying both an attack by aces and eight, a possible injury. Hardy then defended the Number 1 spot against Bully Ray the next night, Then on October 14th, Hardy FINALLY faces Austin Aries for the belt...


So im sort of lost on how making a storyline that lasted from March 2011 till October 2012 on a weekly show with ppvs added..was 'built too fast and too easy'. Maybe you just missed a few episode of TNA?

Wow. I realize that you are completely correct, here. I guess that it was all too uninteresting to remember. There was no major villan in the vast majority of the story arc. Hardy is not Anderson or Angle. He is not a lot of guys who can take a minimalist plot like that and make it exciting. He is a cartoon character. This is not a rib. I like cartoon characters. But those guys need a nemesis. The nemesis (if a heel) needs lackies. Think how easy it would have been to build credibility if he had to take the title off of someone who had three minions to send to weaken Jeff, then to help their boss cheat. The BFG series was the wrong place for this. They had been building Storm toward a BFG victory for well over a year. They just inserted hardy into the storyline when he started to mention a possible WWE offer. His rise should have been his own story, instead of a hijacking of someone else's. I do not blame Hardy for this. He did nothing wrong, or even badly. TNA screwed up by punishing Hardy for a year and using the BFG series as a patch of sorts. It was really bad planning.

But, no. I didn't miss any episodes of impact, or even any PPVs. I just forgot about all that because TNA never gave me any reason to care.

[Revelations]

I like Jeff Hardy but the belt looked better on people like Austin Aries and Bobby Roode. I hope this is Jeff Hardy's like run as champion because I would like to see the belt on others to have them in the main event picture.