Did Jeff Hardy Make Matt Hardy?

[Khalifa]

"What! Did Jeff Hardy make Matt Hardy? Are you crazy?!" No I am being dead serious. I was just watching Backlash 2007 when the Hardys reunited to win the gold on Raw and defended them against Cade and Murdoch, and it got me thinking, would Matt Hardy be anything without Jeff. Jeff no doubt was the more over face than Matt while Matt was the better wrestler. However I believe Jeff is the only reason why Matt got so over. If Matt was to come in by himself without Jeff he would of not made it as far as he did or even a little bit far. Matt got the most pops when he was with Jeff. No matter what the scenario, whether it was Matt coming in to help Jeff or if they were tagging together, Matt would get a bigger pop compared to when he was by himself. Even when Matt was in ECW he wasn't getting much cheers and people probably only cheered for him because he is a Hardy.

I like Matt Hardy and have nothing against him, I just think he wouldn't of made it without Jeff. What are your thoughts?

 

[Police Penis Sucking Goat Fucker]

Matt hardy was a good wrestler He was the better wrestler and cared more about the business than Jeff. I like what they were doing with Matt Hardy when he was doing the V1 gimmick. I use to always look forward to the random Matt Hardy fact. I was big on Matt when he came back to feud with Edge but after that he didn’t have any big main event push. I always wondered if deep down inside Matt gets a little upset how he never got the push like Jeff did

 

[RyanAn]

I'd say no. I've never been a fan of Jeff - I'm just gonna be honest. Matt has always came off to me as a more traditional, less gimmicky person and that appeals to me. I think Matt has stood on his own in many notable feuds quite well and when sober, can really outshine his brother.

 

[GI Cake]

Jeff and Matt Hardy have one of the best stories for any indie wrestler wishing to make it into the WWE with their indie group. Jeff and Matt Hardy toured the country with nothing but the shirts on their back, their wrestling ring in tow in their truck in a little well known group called OMEGA. But for those who never really know this but Matt Hardy was the butter and bread for OMEGA and made sure his brother and his friends had work. And if it wasn't for Matt Hardy constantly getting OMEGA out there in the indie circuit Jeff would have never been the star he is today.

With that said, Matt Hardy has always had an overall better business sense than his brother. He was always trying to think of the next big way to entertain the fans and back in his prime, was a much better overall wrestler than Jeff. And that is not even a knock on Jeff Hardy by any means. But when Jeff and Matt became Single stars, Matt Hardy was by far more entertaining with his Mattitude gimmick, his feuds with MVP, his feud with Edge. But the one thing that held Matt Hardy back the most was Matt fucking Hardy.

The difference between Matt Hardy and Matt Fucking Hardy is that Matt Fucking Hardy gave up on Professional wrestling. Matt Fucking Hardy felt like Professional Wrestling was a job and not a career. Matt Fucking Hardy let his personal issues get in the way of his love and passion. Matt Fucking Hardy thought he should stop hitting the gym, and start hitting the Twinkies.

Jeff Hardy is a great wrestler. Possibly one of the best wrestlers of the last decade. But if it wasn't for his older brothers guidance and business sense, Jeff wouldn't have had his run in the WWE, and then his current stint with TNA. But with the current downward spiral Matt Hardy has had it is going to be sad but all his hard work is going to be overshadowed by his brothers success.


In short, no. Jeff Hardy didn't make Matt Hardy. But Matt Hardy helped shaped Jeff Hardy into the star he is today.

 

[PlayTheGame]

I agree with Khalifa, I think Jeff did make Matt. They both achieved a certain level of success as a tag team together, no doubt about that. But Jeff was always more over and more popular with the fans. Just something about him, maybe it was the fact that he took more risks in the ring, who knows, but he was always more connected with the crowd than Matt. There's really no doubt that it's always been easier for Jeff than Matt in terms of gaining popularity. He just has the "it" factor that jumps out to people, a certain excitement that Matt doesn't quite possess. That's why Jeff's been given world title runs and Matt hasn't. It's funny, because I actually think Matt's the more dedicated worker, at least during their WWE careers, but Jeff was always given more, because he was more over. And, I think a little of "Jeff-love" did roll over onto Matt. Since he's also a Hardy, I think Jeff's popularity was also given to Matt after they disbanded as a team. Look at it like this: it seems as if Matt's always been more successful with either Jeff at his side or not too far away. To be honest, I think Matt's kind of lucky that he's a Hardy.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

In my mind, Jeff Hardy certainly made his brother. I've never been a particularly huge fan of Jeff Hardy and I flat out can't stand Matt Hardy.

Jeff Hardy, if nothing else, was someone definitely worth watching inside the ring during his prime. His matches were usually entertaining and exciting. Jeff is someone that also does have some degree of natural charisma that fans were able to gravitate towards.

Matt Hardy, to me, on his very best day can only be described as average. I never saw anything special about Matt Hardy unless he happened to be teaming with or wrestling against his brother Jeff. On his own, Matt was nothing and continues to be highly overrated in my eyes. Most of the time, Matt's matches were just flat out dull and I think the reason he continued to be a star to any degree is because his last name happened to be Hardy. Like Jeff, it was painful to see Matt try to cut a promo. Neither one of them can cut a decent promo if their lives depended on it, but Matt never had the general athleticism or charisma that his brother brought.

The past few years, it's been very difficult to watch either one of them. Both of them have made some horrible life choices during this time period and have been looked upon as running jokes. Jeff is someone that could have been a truly massive star with a permanent and deserved berth in the main event scene, but his personal choices have screwed that up. In the back of people's heads, they're always going to remember Hardy's struggle with drugs. While he seems to be doing well, he's still not the same he once was. As for Matt, he's become a complete mark for himself and has never displayed the level of talent that he insists that he has.

When it's all said and done, however, Matt Hardy will always be in his brother's shadow and would have never been nearly as successful without him.

 

[Little Jerry Lawler]

The two times where I thought Matt Hardy was real successful was when he was V.1 and when he won the ECW Title. Jeff was out of the WWE for the first one and he was busy fighting HHH for the Title the second so I don't think Jeff made Matt. Shit, I think Matt helped Jeff more than the other way around because I viewed Matt as the grounded older brother and with Jeff's history of drug problems, who knew where he would be without Matt.

 

[SacredMesa]

Being honest I don't think either of them made themselves. I think they are a product of right time right place. I think team extreme became so over because of a few things...

1--Lita. With or without team extreme Lita was going to be huge because she was such a rare breed of womans wrestler with her high flying style. It made her the perfect complement to them and imo she is what really help get that team attention.

2--E&C and the Dudley Boys. These two teams provided a solid group of guys who could really work with the Hardys. High flying tag teams really haven't created anything special on their own they need some people who can do a bit of everything. E&C stood out in the fued between these three. They could high fly like the Hardys, ground and pound like the Dudleys but they also mat wrestle which made the over the top matches this fued had believable. The Dudleys brought the extreme over the top ground and pound to the fued as well. All these things created a perfect storm for an over the top high flying tag team to just go crazy. It also created the perfect storm between the Dudley's use of tables, the Hardy's use of ladders, and E&Cs use of chairs for the TLC matches that people love today. Without this perfect storm I simply don't think the Hardys really go anywhere.

3--Attitude Era. Durng this point in time the over the top out of control wrestling styles got a chance to shine. This made things perfect for the Hardy Boys since that is what they where.



Without these three things I don't think either of them really get over, they are a product of right time right place as far as a tag team.

When it comes to singles I think Jeff is a product of shock value. He got over because he would jump off the top of a 20 foot ladder which at the time was something we hadn't really seen in WWF(E). His actual mat skills are subpar at best and his mic skills are about on par with Johnny Ace, IE not very good. He was an acrobat in a time when acrobats where fresh and people got hooked on it. I think if you put him into the WWE/TNA as a fresh faced new guy today he goes no where.

Matt Hardy imo was always the better hardy, better mic skills and far more solid on the mat. The thing with him though was even his mattitude wasn't really doing much and as much as I know I am going to get flak for this, he got over because as Edge said "his girl friend fell in love with a main eventer." He just didn't have a gimik and then when that whole thing became public it exploded into sympathy for him and complete hatred for Edge, which was fitting with Edge already being a heel. Couple that with the awesome matches he and Edge had and that entire fued he finally got over to what people would consider a main eventer and could of been great...and then WWE, just as they did with Christian, dropped the ball. They stopped pushing him like a main eventer and he fell back into obscurity. People simply stopped caring.


TL: DR Jeff didn't make Matt, Lita cheating on him with Edge did.

 

[Alex]

In terms of popularity in the wrestling business yes. Matt Hardy, while a perfectly good wrestler in his own right (better than Jeff technically) has really been by the numbers whereas Jeff has been the unique one.

Jeff's unique look and attitude have what made him stand out, and their tag team days Matt had the same sort of look and attitude. When they broke up Matt had the unique look and attitude (V1) and he would have climbed the ladder at some point. However he ended falling into a by the numbers role, his gimmick when he came back in 2005 (and pretty much till he left again) was essentially himself, problem is he isn't that interesting to carry it off. Jeff is though, he has something that allows him to be himself and be interesting.

Not saying Matt didn't contribute, like Numbers said Matt helped the both of them get into the business and in turn Jeff helped them both get over, so its sort of balances itself out.

Sure you can argue that Jeff's spots got him over but if that were the case guys like Amazing Red and Sin Cara would be over as hell.

 

[Paralyzer Z]

I have always been a fan of the Hardys. For the most part Jeff has entertained me more, Matt did initially but afterwords sunk deep. Which one do I think made each other? It's obviously Jeff.

I was watching the No Mercy 1999 Ladder match against Edge and Christian and even then Jeff looked like the predominant leader of his team. Matt plated second fiddle to him from what I saw. Sure both men have been extremely entertaining at times, but Jeff was always more interesting. It's simple, Jeff had more charisma (hence the charismatic enigma) that pulled more fans emotional investment his way, Matt relied on mostly his in ring work as opposed to personality. Of course there instances of exception to that (Matt Hardy V.1 and Enraged Matt Hardy in summer 2005) but Jeff was more consistently full of personality. Like I said even back then he seemed like the forefront leader of the tag team. Both Hardys got over because of their charisma and connecting with the audience to a high degree, but it's obvious that every time they went their own ways Jeff always went higher up than his brother. Which leaves me to believe that Jeff did indeed make Matt and his career.