Do you still care about Jeff Hardy?

[PhD]

I want to qualify that based on the recent update on his legal status, I'm aware that people are still interested to see how Jeff Hardy's case may play out for his current TNA run. But I want to ask more specifically, how much has his lackluster work of late affected your opinion of him?

When Hardy concluded his most recent WWE run, I have to admit that I felt a strong emotional attachment to the guy's performances. The loser-quits match on Smackdown, even though I was aware Hardy's contract was up and he would be leaving, was one of the more immersive moment's I've experienced as a fan in the last year. While Punk deserves a lot of credit for the effectiveness of their storylines, I really bought into Hardy during that period from Extreme Rules to Summerslam in 2009.

However, in recent weeks, I've found myself growing increasingly indifferent toward Jeff Hardy. It has been widely noted that he looks out of shape, his ring work has been sloppy, his promos often nonsensical. All his matches seem to be him going through the moves in order to get to the point where he hits a twist of fate and a swanton.

Part of my growing disinterest is no doubt due to the way TNA has booked him as a featured but ancillary figure. He is not involved in the company's storylines with any depth, and is seldom placed in positions that could create emotional investment from audiences, other than the general good faith he brought with him, and which is pretty much completely squandered for me at the moment.

So, I want to ask, does anyone here still feel emotionally invested in seeing Jeff Hardy as a performer? Do you feel that even if he makes it through his legal troubles, you'll be able to care about him again? Does the low-rent environment of the Impact Zone make it impossible to take him seriously compared to the bigger stage you saw him in in the WWE? Personally, I have to answer yes to these questions. Whatever Jeff Hardy had that made me care about him, I don't see it coming back.

 

[Dynasty Era]

Well i use to be a huge fan of Jeff Hardy from the attitude era till when he left WWE,But Tna Really change him for the worse....When this whole court thing is settledi think Jeff needs to go back to the WWE.

 

[TechWrestFan79]

I was a fan of Jeff Hardy during his last run in the WWE. But seeing him in TNA as you said out shape and his rambling "creature of the night" promos often leaves me wondering what I ever saw in him in the first place. With the uncertainty of his legal troubles looming over his head, TNA is left in a tough spot. They just don’t know if they can bank on him. Under normal circumstances, Jeff was often seen as a flake. But now when he may actually be taken away for a considerable time period, they just have no choice but to book him in an upper mid card capacity. I also think the Impact Zone isn’t conducive to his wrestling style. It just seems rather cramped compared to the spacious WWE sets/arenas. Additionally, I just don’t see the effort anymore. He seems to be coasting. When he was trying to break the glass ceiling in the WWE, he went balls out and tried to put on a show. Now as an established main eventer, he comes off as lazy and a little full of himself.

 

[Charismatic Enigma]

Even though Jeff is likely one of (if not my favorite) wrestlers of all time, I'd be lying if I said TNA didn't hurt that a little. On the one hand you could say that in both his TNA runs he's been out of shape and displays sort of a "going through the motions" type of attitude. But I think a lot of it really has to do with TNA.

I'm not gonna bash TNA because it's the cool thing to do, but they really need a lot of work. Jeff Hardy is a larger than life personality currently performing in a glorified sound stage. He needs to be in arenas, with fireworks, and 20,000 on their feet when he hits the swanton. It's kind of a give and take relationship in my opinion. The WWE fans don't make him what he is, but they excentuate his performances. Also whether the guys working there want to acknowledge or not...TNA is second rate. I think they know they can get away with less and still collect a check and it shows in Jeff's case. Is it right? probably not. My honest guess though, is that Jeff doesn't really want to be there anyway. He was burnt out on WWE, and left on a REALLY high note, so seeing an opportunity to pick up a huge current star TNA made the offer, except that star power doesn't translate to a show that (comparatively) no one watches.

 

[TellMeWhy]

The only reason you cared about him so much is because of the type of angles he was involved in. He was involved in a constant chase that made people want to see him overcome. For a long time, WWE was putting emphasis on how Hardy couldn't reach the big one, (the World Title). Month after month, promo after promo, he was confronted about not reaching world champion status. Almost every week or month, he had a close but no cigar moment for the world title. They built him up and people cared. Not too long after he won the title, he would lose it right away also. WWE invested storylines in Hardy where he constantly had to overcome things. And then to add to that, you had storylines about him almost being ran over and pushed to the side of the road and having a mystery about who was responsible just for it to end up being his brother Matt who turned on him. In addition, you had the whole CM Punk angle, where Hardy struggled to win the world title back after a grueling ladder match with Edge only for CM Punk to cash in his MITB on him and win the title within seconds over Hardy's drawn out hard fought battle. He was constantly put in situations where people wanted to back him and see him win.

In TNA none of those storylines are present because 1)The guy has a case. You can't emotionally invest in him when he can go to jail anytime soon. For what it is, TNA is using him pretty okay imo. U can't expect for him to be in a world title chase. The truth is that his case has set him back but he is still recognized as a top figure within the company. Personally, I don't see his performances as bad. His match with Anderson last month at Sacrifice was a good match and his match with James Storm 2 weeks ago on Impact was also a very good tv match. Once the case is over, I'm sure TNA will proceed to take the steps needed to have the pieces come together with Hardy.

 

[Straight_EdgeQuezzy10]

I genuinely felt for Hardy over the years, Vince Mcmahon had always overlooked him as a champion; this was until it hit Vinny that everybody loved him and he was clearly a massive talent and a great attribute to the company. As a fan of his i was thrilled for him when he finally won a world championship and felt really happy for him.

However over the years since then this care for him has decreased with his drug abuse, being fired as a result and finally leaving to TNA i felt like he personally screwed me over. I know many people agree with me but a part of me still thinks he is an amazing entertainer, sure hes put on some weight and hes lacking that 'pace' he had as a wwe main eventer but i still see the spark and think to myself he may still have it.

So in answer to your question PhD, do I still feel emotionally invested in seeing Jeff Hardy as a performer? its hard to say, maybe after all of this legal nonsense has gone away. part of me feels let down by him but i still care about him as he is a great talent and is a thrilling entertainer. p.s good thread.

 

[TellMeWhy]

I genuinely felt for Hardy over the years, Vince Mcmahon had always overlooked him as a champion; this was until it hit Vinny that everybody loved him and he was clearly a massive talent and a great attribute to the company. As a fan of his i was thrilled for him when he finally won a world championship and felt really happy for him.

However over the years since then this care for him has decreased with his drug abuse, being fired as a result and finally leaving to TNA i felt like he personally screwed me over. I know many people agree with me but a part of me still thinks he is an amazing entertainer, sure hes put on some weight and hes lacking that 'pace' he had as a wwe main eventer but i still see the spark and think to myself he may still have it.

So in answer to your question PhD, do I still feel emotionally invested in seeing Jeff Hardy as a performer? its hard to say, maybe after all of this legal nonsense has gone away. part of me feels let down by him but i still care about him as he is a great talent and is a thrilling entertainer. p.s good thread.

I just wanna know if you're getting mixed up? Hardy was fired in his 1st WWE run which is why he was in TNA in 2004-06 but he wasn't fired after he left the WWE the last time in 2009. He chose not to renew his contract. I just thought I'd correct you on that.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

As of right now, most of what they've been doing with Jeff Hardy hasn't interested me all that much. Jeff Hardy's wrestling career and even his life as a free man hangs in the balance right now and TNA isn't going to put him in a title scene until it's all settled. It's just common sense really. After all, what if TNA spent all the time of building Hardy up into a championship contender for any title in TNA, devoted television segments, promos matches, ppv build up surrounding said title matches, etc. and Jeff Hardy ends up convicted and serving prison time? All that time and effort would have been an absolute waste of time and TNA would be criticized endlessly for a complete lack of common sense for pushing Hardy in the first place.

Jeff Hardy's overall future as a potential headliner in wrestling is going to be put on hold and, right now, they're just thinking of ways to keep him on tv and give him something to do. Most of it probably won't be meaningful but the fact that they're still keeping him visual on television is an indicator that they ultimately do want to plan big things for Hardy within the company.

 

[Dave]

Jeff Hardy is the paradigm of my indifference.

Seriously, I would be hard pushed to find someone that I care as little about as Jeff Hardy. His work ethic sucks and he doesn't seem to care about anything, so why should I?

Now, I should say that I haven't watched TNA in a long while but I know that Jeff Hardy no longer seems interested in wrestling and the same could be said of his WWE run, towards the end. Everything was just so mediocre that it was hard to make a real connection with him and WWE just wanted hi to run with the whole "stop screwing me out of the title" angle. It was boring and he had lost the charisma that he had when he was teaming with Matt or feuding with Edge.

Personally, I can't really speak about him in TNA because I have seen very little of him. However, I have seen enough of him to know that he is not giving it 100%. At his best, Jeff Hardy is one of the most exciting and riveting people in the business but he just seems a shadow of what he was in the WWE. His current criminal offences must be playing on his mind somewhat but TNA showed a lot of faith in him and I am just not buying it right now. At the moment, it is hard to forge a connection with him but hopefully once his troubles are done with, he can get back to what he does best and that is entertaining us.

 

[Caitiff]

Short answer: No.

Long answer: Jeff hardy is a spot monkey. That's the only thing he ever had going for him. His wrestling ability is lackluster. His ability on a mic is just this side of non-existant. And, on top of that, he's a legitimate horrible bad role model. How much of what drugs was he caught with? If there is any justice in this country, he will be convicted for his crimes, and his career will be over. Or, to put it into a soundbite.... Fuck Jeff Hardy.

 

[Straight_EdgeQuezzy10]

I just wanna know if you're getting mixed up? Hardy was fired in his 1st WWE run which is why he was in TNA in 2004-06 but he wasn't fired after he left the WWE the last time in 2009. He chose not to renew his contract. I just thought I'd correct you on that.

Sorry i might not have made it very clear, I was just saying in general what turned me against Jeff, I didn't mean for it to look like i was saying he was fired in 2009, I was saying his drug addiction leading on to his firing (when he went to TNA for two years) and his final move to TNA (his run at present)
sorry if i worded that wrong LetEmKnow

 

[Mark0820]

The title of the thread would imply I ever cared about him. He's just gotten worse in TNA though. He's a guy that was at the top of the WWE ladder and he goes to TNA and does nothing. He's always been the lazier of the two Hardys, worse in the ring and on the mic but he got pushed because kids saw flippies and facepaint and thought "COOL!"

 

[Nicole13Edge/HardyFan]

The question is do I still care about Jeff Hardy yes I do I always have and I always will. Jeff Hardy is one of my all time favorites wrestler I love the Hardy boyz definatly one of the best stables in WWE history.

Also yes I do belive that Jeff going to TNA kinda missed up his wrestling career. I mean he had finally reached the main event scene in the WWE and he was a 3 time champion {1 time WWE and 2 time World Heavyweight} and he went to TNA. Mabey that is why it took Vince so long to push hard to the main event scene {I always saw Hardy as a main eventer} because he wasen't sure he was going to get caught with drugs again or jump ship to TNA again.


I think that after Hardy is done with all his legal troubles TNA will push him toward the main event and let him challenge for the title. Jeff will probley be involved in better storylines once his legal troubles are over. Hardy is great in the ring and is an awesome high flyer he is also great on the mic I can't wait for all of his legal troubles to be over so that TNA will move him up to the main event scene.

I would also like to see Jeff go back to the WWE but I think it will be a while if ever before he steps foot in a WWE ring again but I think that he really shined in the WWE not in TNA.

 

[Nicole13Edge/HardyFan]

I just wanna know if you're getting mixed up? Hardy was fired in his 1st WWE run which is why he was in TNA in 2004-06 but he wasn't fired after he left the WWE the last time in 2009. He chose not to renew his contract. I just thought I'd correct you on that.

When he went to TNA in 2004-06 it wasen't because he got fired from WWE it was because he got suspended just thought that I would correct you.

 

[Big Nick Dudley]

During his last run with WWE, Jeff Hardy made me give a shit. I never cared about the Hardy Boys. I never saw what all the hype was about. Jeff hit some big spots, and Matt was shit. The TLC matches at Mania were entertaining stuff, but outside of that, the tag team of Matt and Jeff never mattered to me.

When Jeff went one on one with The Biker-Taker on Raw back in 2002 (I think, the years get foggy), I was shocked. I really liked the guy as a singles competitor. He had a Shawn Michaels, underdog kind of thing going, and I was into it. But then he left, did some independent stuff, went to TNA, etc. I didn't watch TNA at that point, and I didn't care to. I just kind of lost track of the guy. When he came back to the WWE in 2006, he had a decent feud with Umaga, and then later, a great one with Orton leading up to the Royal Rumble in 2008. Then he became a main eventer, and you all know the rest.

But since his departure from WWE and return to WWE, I have been more than disappointed. I understand TNA can't book the guy into the main event, and they shouldn't. He's on trial, basically for his life. And let's not kid ourselves, he hasn't been anything compared to what he was during his last run with WWE. Jeff might not be an option for the TNA title picture right now, due to his legal issues, but he's not doing himself any favors for the future either.

He's out of shape, slow, and doesn't seem to give a shit. I may be wrong, but he looks like he's F***** up on something everytime I see him. I understand he's going through a tough time right now, but he's not what he was a year ago. The fans in the Impact Zone and his hardcore marks are alway going to love the guy, but he's no spring chicken, he's almost 33. I like the guy, and I hope he cleans up. But right now, he looks like a dope addict who needs money. He rushes through his matches, like someone said earlier, basically going through the motions before he, A. Hits the swanton, gets the pin. or, B. Is pinned by his opponent. The passion seems to be gone, and it's a shame. His passion for wrestling was one of his best qualities, and I hope he can regain that.

 

[mlp420]

With all due respect I think it's totally unfair to bash TNA's booking of him right now. The guy's future is uncertain, he could do years in jail. The guy would definately be TNA's champion and top guy if it wasn't for his legal troubles. I think we should wait until those troubles blow over until we judge TNA on this.

 

[brighamosity]

To be perfectly honest, I never really cared about Jeff Hardy and I think he is one of the most overrated wrestlers in the business. His work ethic is horrible and he has been completely unreliable over the years. It seems like he can't go more than a year or two without quitting or getting fired. He's like a cruiserweight Scott Hall. And considering all his legal problems, I think it's a shame that this guy is even viewed in a positive light.

 

[Rated-CMS]

Ive been watching wrestling since 1998 and ya jeff hardy was one of my favorite ...and ya i gotta say that when he joined TNA i was a little excited becaues i wanted 2 c wat they could do with him...but they havent really done anything.. and i dont blame them ...he is out of shape..and his ring style isnt wat it was...i say jeff should get his shit 2gether..stop doin drugs and then come bck and wrestle cuz all he is doin right now is makin himself look bad

 

[PhD]

I think a major point of this thread seems to be whether or not TNA is using Hardy correctly. Some have said it's hard to fault them given his current legal situation, which I agree with to a point.

However, I also believe the fact that he remains in a kind of kayfabe limbo mirroring his real-life status is killing any potential future interest I may have in him. I'd much rather have had Hardy stay on the sidelines until he was free and clear and could be used correctly. At this point, I believe it was a huge mistake for TNA to have kept Hardy occupying a non-role for such a long time. Ultimately, he's been cashing a paycheck while adding almost nothing to the product besides his name brand.

If he ever reaches a point that he can participate in storylines, I think it will be very hard, or perhaps impossible, for TNA to make me care, especially if the quality of his work stays at its current level. This was the major thrust of my original point, and I'm wondering the extent to which others agree.

 

[Cookie14]

I never really cared that much for Hardy to begin with. He has ability, both in the ring and on the mic, and has always been over with the crowd, but he has never done anything for me because he has always squandered his opportunities.

Am I the only person that looks at Hardy and thinks 'Sean Waltman'?? Because that's how I see him ending up

 

[RIPMOOSE316]

I have never cared about Jeff Hardy. I honestly never understood why people would even like him. Was it cool to see him jump off ladders? Sure, too bad that's where his in ring ability end. I don't recall him ever having a good match where there wasn't a gimmick involved, a third person, or him simply wrestling someone who could carry anyone into a good match. Hearing him cut a promo is like watching a skinnier modern day warrior, its mindless rambling. He is easily the most undeserving champion in the history of WWE. He was champion because his merchandise sold and the little kids loved the guy who's faced was painted like a clown, and the women well women always seem to like people who look like assholes(sorry ladies).

So do I still care about Jeff Hardy?
Yes, I care about him the same as i always have. I might even like him a little more simply because i don't have to watch him "wrestle" in WWE.