How is Matt Hardy a bad champion?

[Khalifa]

Yeah I said it, how is he a bad champion? I must admit he is a good chaser for titles but people always bag about he is a bad champion and doesn't deserve any single titles. Lets look at how he has had his last two title reigns.

US title: Ok well he had a greta chase for this. He had a remarkable feud with MVP that went on four about 5-6 months. During this feud, Matt Hardy showed what he could actually do. They brang comedy into this feud which made it even more better. So after sitting on the sidelines for 2 months Matt Hardy comes back and throws MVP of the ladder at MITB match at WrestleMania 24. Thus making the last match of the feud at Backlash and Hardy ends up winning the gold. During is 3 month reign he had what 1 title defense before loosing and that was against MVP. So how could he have done anything better? It's not his fault he didn't get any title defense matches. During is time as US champ I thought he did pretty good considering the reign MVP just had and it would of been hard to live up to that reign.

ECW title: Well after being drafted to ECW he immediatly went for the ECW title. Having a match at Summerslam and then finally winning it at Unforgiven in the scramble match. Then for the next 5 months he has like 1000 matches with Mark Henry for the ECW title and only one title defense against someone different ( that being Finlay). Then he finally looses it to the up and coming Jack Swagger. So again how is it his fault he had so many matches with Mark Henry. He probably made the title better than what it was before and he didn't do that bad of a job.

So tell me what he did wrong and how he could improve on his title reigns.

 

[thewrestlinghero]

Matt hardy united states title regins was avrage i mean it was better then most us title regins but it still was not that good and his ecw title regin was his best single title regins yet he had matches with evan bourne finley mark henrey and jack swagger which were not that bad axcept the henrey match was okay nuthing speacil though

 

[Dale B]

They cant market Matt Hardy. Your Title Reigns always depend on how well you go over with the Fans. If Matt cant go over against Jeff at WM then his chances of being a Good Champion will forever diminish. It could also be that Matt is a Victim of The WWE Brands.

 

[Lee]

Great thread Pippen ma boy.

Matts US run was a bit of a disaster due to his injury, his feud with MVP was building up building up and he gets injured. So you have stupid things like arm wrestling etc. by the time he wins it, you just thinkman I can't be bothered with this anymore. The same with his ECW title, feuding with Henry just became a bore.

Yet not all his reigns are bad, look at his European reign, beating Eddie Guerrero to win it, he held the belt for 125 days (which is actually 7th longest combined reign for the belt, despite only winning it once), that to me says he can be pretty over as a champion, it just depends who he is feuding with and whether it becomes boring or not.

 

[Miko]

Matt's ECW Title title reign when considered that he only had Mark Henry to fued with was pretty damn good. His US run wasnt great but then again Sheltons is worse and longer so. . . .

Anyway Matt isnt a bad champion, he is a better chaser when he is a babyface although his cruiserweight run (as a heel) was one of the best ones I can think of, not saying much because the CW belt was pretty shit.

With 2 World Title belts there really is no reason not to give him a try, I'll put money on him being a better champion than CM Punk.

 

[the_king_boi]

Matt is truly awful...However i will admit i do think that his ECW title reign was good...tbh i thought that he maybe would of had it longer but i'm glad he didn't he's just an average wrestler and thats it. Unfortunatley for Matt he will always be known as Jeff Hardys brother.

 

[AnthonyMango/NoFate007]

Its because Matt Hardy has no charisma. He's over with the crowd - for god knows what reason - but he doesn't do anything exciting in any way.

The reason his feud with MVP was decent is because MVP was planting all the seeds and Matt Hardy was just responding to it. He's the straight man in a comedic duo. He's the "who's there" to a knock knock joke. Everything that happened in that feud was a result of MVP's character. MVP would issue the challenges and Matt would just win them. MVP would cut a promo and Matt would just come out and give him a Twist of Fate or something. MVP continued to postpone the title defense through the tag team championship and Matt would just go "ok". Then, when he won the title, he was a bore because he's not a guy that can create the sparks for a feud.

Matt can't cut a promo along the lines of someone like Cena or HBK or HHH or hell even CM Punk. Because of that, and the fact that his character was a face, all of his feuds fell into 4 categories: 1) Someone who is better than him starts the feud and carries it with promos, like Edge 2) He's blandly just chasing a championship and seeing if he can win it and the whole feud stems from "will he win the title or not?" 3) A heel attacked him so now they're fighting 4) It has absolutely no direction and doesn't even become a feud because its sucks so badly that there's nothing to latch onto

I was thoroughly unimpressed with his ECW title reign. That whole scenario was essentially Option #2 from above, with Henry being the guy he was chasing. Then when he won the title, again, like with the US title, there was nothing else. We had him beating Mark Henry and Finlay over and over and over again for months, having no real solid feud and just cruising along with the sheer simplicity of having to defend his title because he's the third highest champ. If he was an IC, US, or tag champ, he wouldn't have been on the ppvs and he wouldn't have had feuds either.

Hardy isn't good enough to be exciting with ground wrestling, he isn't a good high-flyer, he doesn't look all too different from other people, he has generic rock music for his entrance, he has no exciting moves that nobody else can do, and he can't cut promos. He's the textbook definition of "average" in every single way. Matt Hardy by default is a bad champion because he can't carry the feud himself. He requires someone else to do the work and for him to just be there to get his ass kicked and lose by cheating until he either wins/retains his title or wins the feud. There would be more of an opportunity for him to be successful in this new heel role, but only the slightest bit, because when you eliminate the shock value of seeing Matt vs Jeff, who really could he be up against that he could carry into a feud? If the heel is usually the one that starts a feud up and Matt couldn't start any before, does that mean he's just going to decay into "the heel that attacks someone randomly and then has a meaningless feud with them for the next month and a half"? Snooze.

 

[klunderbunker]

Yes he is a bad champion for the most part. Hardy is great at chasing titles but awful at winning them. He chased the title when MVP had the US belt for months and months but it never went anywhere once he got it. It was almost as if he was saying what am I supposed to do with this? The ECW title was better though. He won it and had one off matches with everyone. At the end of it though, he was just dull with it. He'll likely never be a world champion, which to me is definitely a great thing. Just not a great champion.

 

[hArdyPUNKmArk]

I wouldnt classify Matt as a 'bad' champion.

His US Title run was average and was probably more just to take it off MVP. He didnt really defend it then lost it to Shelton and they werent eve fueding. I remember thinking it was random.

His ECW Title run was better. I think this run is what defines Matt as a champion. He's a good champion if there is no one else to put it on. Really, there was no one else on ECW that could have held that title. Henry was getting boring, Finlay wasnt right for it and... well that's everyone... until Jack Swagger came along, someone that could hold the title and be built up, thus why Matt dropped the title to him.

I'd say his ECW reign wasnt bad. It was what it was supposed to be, he was the biggest face on ECW when it was getting really boring and brought some popularity back to it. Matt, of course is far from a really good champion but i wouldnt say he is a bad one, i dont think he's had a proper chance at one but what all you guys are saying about him being heaps better at chasing a title... I fully agree.

 

[Compton]

I personally would agree that Matt is better at chasing a title as opposed to holding the title. His feud with MVP before he got injured was great to watch but I agree with whoever said it, but MVP carried it. When he won the US belt I was hapy for him but then nothing came of it and to be fair it is because he is an average wrestler.

Though his ECW Title reign was a bit better, he was the most popular wrestler on the ECW roster and that's more than likely why they put it on him. His feud with Mark Henry wasn't that exciting and him beating Finlay, well... it just wasn't right and the only match I can think of during his ECW Title reign that excited me was against Evan Bourne at Cyber Sunday 2008, but to be fair that's because I think Bourne is an awesome aerial wrestler.

But to sum up, he's good at chasing the title. Bad at holding the title.

 

[y2j930]

Okay, now some of you people have no idea what you are talking about and do not read house show results, because at those, Matt basically defended at nearly every single one. He is a great champion for every title he has held and I hope he gets an even better push than he is right now, 2008 was Year of the Hardy, Matt won his two biggest single titles in his career and defended him with much gusto and Jeff won the big one, and well, got more title shots then Batista in 06.

 

[tfs706]

I can't really say anything about his US title run, it was uneventful but so is every mid-card run in the last few years

I can't stand to listen to jeff or matt on the mic but i do enjoy both of them other wise. but if the E is gonna keep putting them on the tv i dont see why not let Matt have a shot as a real world champion. i personally have not been interested in the ECW title since RVD lost it and Matts whole chase and reign had me interested. its just i dont want to hear him talk hes better than jeff but worse than early batista and lashley combined.

 

[JJYanks121]

There are a lot of factors as to why Matt Hardy is a lousy champion, but the top reason is that he plateaued career-wise and just doesn't have the drawing power of a major player. I understand he is the 2008 version of a Benoit (not the murderer but the hard worker that was finally rewarded with a title), but guys like that just don't work as champion. When they are in a face role, it's fun to watch them chase for a long time, but the only thing that can make them work as champions is a dastardly heel "stealing" the title from them. Matt only can work that way.

We readily acknowledge that heels carry feuds as they are the instigators and they provoke the face to fight, and now, Matt Hardy is thrown into a situation where he needs to be that guy. His 2 best feuds are with Edge and MVP, two of the best heels I've seen in terms of mic skills. It is a necessity of a heel to act and speak against the guy you are feuding and give you reasons to root for the face. We know that Matt was stuck into the Jeff feud because they backed off of Christian and it will be a HUGE mistake. I'd argue it already is. When a brother turns on a brother, you need the promo of the year, and Matt might be the worst upper card player at cutting promos. The one he cut on Jeff the day after the Rumble was so bad, you weren't going to buy the feud from the beginning.

Essentially, Matt is a nice wrestler, albeit not a high flyer like he once was, but he can't wow you in the ring and can't wow you on the mic. Guys like that dont' belong at the top of your card, despite how hard they work. That is why he makes a bad champion, because he cannot sell himself as one. If the heel Matt were to steal the title from say, HHH, would you honestly believe that HHH won't beat the hell out of him and take it right back?

PS: I used to think Jeff was bad on the Mic but he's really improved, he has that "it" about him, but not to the level of some of the greats. Unfortunately, his brother does not.

 

[Decarow]

i think he was a great champion. If you've ever gone to an event, you'd know the roof blows up when either Hardy enters the arena. Yes, he's the 2nd rate Hardy, that's why he was only given the ECW Title. He connects with the fans. He might not be as charismatic or daredevilish as Jeff, but he gets the jobs done. And to be honest, him holding the ECW Title resparked my interest in ECW. I didn't care when Chavo, Kane, or Henry had it. It was interesting up until the point Punk lost it to Chavo (however it was good to see Chavo finally become a World Champion). But I digress. Matt winning the ECW Title brought ratings. Now, his US title was a different story. Nobody cares about that title anymore for the simple fact that they hardly use it nowadays.

 

[Only watchh wwe for taker]

Matt wasn't a bad champion, MVP is the longest reigning US champion because he only defended it 4 times in 10 months, and he got himself DQ'd in two of those matches, that's a bad champion

 

[Stickstar 16]

Well in the sense of drawing people and keeping their interest Matt is a bad champion, as everyone said his US title reign really wasn't much to tune in for, and that can also be related to his gimmick at the time, with the whole "will not die" thing he would take on all comers, which left him to have multiple matches against shelton and chuck palumbo, which isn't doing much for him.

He was better on ECW though, i think he helped to put some prestige and diginity into the title with his reign, seeing as he's a Hardy and over as hell. but once again we had the problem of there was no one to feud with, he'd had like 30 matches with mark henry, 1 with evan bourne, and i think 1 with finlay, and although Matt works a decent enough style, he can't keep you glued to the set with his moveset taking on Henry that many times. But he did what was needed, he kept the audience there and made a platform for Swagger to come along and show some of the bright young talent thats coming through into the E. So in that sense he was a good champion

 

[enigmaticdude]

Matt Hardy wasn't a bad champion. The WWE is just not using him right. Kind of like Kane. The WWE gave Kane a championship for one night. He gets absolutely no respect at all from the WWE. Every time he gets a championship match, he has either been beaten by someone half his size or loses terribly or it ends in a DQ. He is basically a jobber to other wrestlers and we are still supposed to believe that he is The Big Red Machine. I feel that if Matt Hardy is put in his element, he should be able to be more than a mid card wrestler, put him in matches which will make him move around, Get rid of that ridiculous standing elbow drop from the 2nd rope and that clothesline bulldog from the turnbuckle, Come up with some new moves or try some other moves that are more fitting to his wrestling style, lose some weight that he put on when he was released by the WWE back in 2005. He is slowly slipping between the cracks of the WWE's chopping block and being "good luck with your future endeavors" by them. I really would like to see him wrestle more. Matt and Jeff should be in the Hall of Fame(more Jeff than Matt though). They were great together. Separated only one of them held the group together. And that one was Jeff. Without Jeff's uniqueness and risk taking in the ring, Matt Hardy was just a typical wrestler. If I remember correctly, Jeff Hardy was the first one of the Hardy Boyz to receive an opportunity to wrestle with the WWF in 1993. He is the one who always put his body on the line for the fans, and for the company. I don't think he ever thought "I am the MAN!!!" I think that Jeff wrestles for the Fans. That is what Matt is missing. And the storyline that he is in with his brother seems to be fitting of what is really going on making Matt sounding like a whiny older brother. "Why do the fans like my younger brother better than me?" seems to be the basis of this storyline. The fans like Jeff Hardy better because he has never made it about himself. He doesn't wrestle for a paycheck, he wrestles for the fans(though he still gets paid). I just hope that Matt Hardy figures that out sooner rather than later.

 

[Phoenix]

I do agree with enigmaticdude in thinking that it's more to do with Matt living in his brother's shadow. Sure a Hardy will get the fans cheering, but what moments in wrestling history do we remember Matt for? The best I can think of is having his girlfriend of 6 years cheating on him, him getting fired, and then being brought back for ratings.

Matt is the bigger (size wise) brother and most of work was on the floor. The big drops he would make a leg drop at most, Jeff is more willing to put his body through so much more to keep the fans entertained. He's had some great matches from time to time, but if I had to choose a Hardy to watch, it would be hands down Jeff. I just really fell that Matt can be boring and stale, but he can makessome great promos, though his last one was tainted by that stupid music and clips.

If I had to be serious, I do think the only reason he's around is purely because of a. Jeff b. His name sells merchandise. If they had to sell a Best of Matt Hardy DVD, it won't make as much as a Best of the Hardys. If he can make a great match, without Jeff carrying it, at Wrestlemania, he might make a believer out of me.

 

[Scott Free]

Matt Hardy is in no way a "bad champion", he had me actually watching ECW when he was champion, even through the horrible Mark Henry feud. Then they decided to take the title off him to give it to Jack Swagger, cutting his title run short. I have no idea what they see in Swagger, he's green, awkward, and terrible on the mic, even with Christian there, I'm not watching ECW anymore.

 

[Scott Free]

Essentially, Matt is a nice wrestler, albeit not a high flyer like he once was, but he can't wow you in the ring and can't wow you on the mic. Guys like that dont' belong at the top of your card, despite how hard they work. That is why he makes a bad champion, because he cannot sell himself as one. If the heel Matt were to steal the title from say, HHH, would you honestly believe that HHH won't beat the hell out of him and take it right back?

Gee wiz, now you're dwelling into the realm of impossibility, nobody, and I mean nobody, not even Superman and the Justice League combined could steal the title from HHH and get away with it. Once I read a rumor that Trips wanted to bring back Sid to wrestle him for the title of "Master and ruler of the Universe." Apparently, The Game, The Cerebral Assassin and King of Kings aren't enough for him.

 

[justinsayne]

Matt Hardy was not a "bad" champ, but he sure as hell was a boring as fuck champ, both his US and ECW title reigns were just boring, maybe it was due to bad booking or maybe it was due to Matt Hardy being one of the blandest wrestlers I have ever seen, but neither of his reigns were anything special, neither really made people give a fuck about him as champion, personally I couldn't care less if Matt ever touches gold again, his reigns just come across as being boring and meaningless

 

[crymetyme]

Matt Hardy's US title reign was much better than Shelton's. Hardy defended against MVP on smackdown, Chavo at night of champions, Shelton Benjamin MVP and Chavo on the 4th of july, before loosing it to Shelton, that's almost as many decent defenses in 3 months as shelton has had. Shelton has defended against Jeff hardy, two weeks in a row early in his reign; r-truth (once online before cyber sunday, and then on smackdown a couple weeks later (which I was at), and then in december, he defended against Hurricane helms, who has amounted to nothing since. Matt Hardy built that title up, before Shelton Benjamin came and took it away.
As ECW champion, Hardy defended against Mark Henry (about 3 times), Chavo Guerrero, Evan Bourne, and Finlay. Matt Hardy was trying to be a workhorse champion, appearing on all three brands to get the ECW name out there, in that respect he was not a bad champion. Look at Chavo, Kane, or Henry, were their reigns any better? Chavo's one good moment as champion was the gulf of mexico match where he got GTS'd into the gulf of mexico. Kane's one good moment was the five man signapore cane match for the number one contendorship for his title. Henry had no good moments.

 

[richardleaf20]

I'm not so sure that I would call Matt Hardy a bad champion. The build-ups for his title chases are always pretty good, but he can't be blamed for mediocre booking once he won the title. I think his US reign was very good considering he only had the title for 3 months after chasing it for the better part of a year. Him being pushed for the ECW Title was a little rushed I think; it kinda made the US Title look unimportant when Matt became #1 contender to Mark Henry's title just 2 days after losing the US Title to Shelton Benjamin at The GAB. His run at the toip of ECW was pretty good too, considering that he actually got a few good matches out of Mark Henry and had an amazing match with Evan Bourne at Cyber Sunday. I still think he should have lost the title on PPV, but we now know why he didn't. I'm just saying.

 

[Joup7]

Matt Hardy is a good wrestler and a good talker. As a good guy everybody loves him and wants to see him. If you notice, despite non-stop Hardy v. Henry matches people did tune in to watch ECW (anymore more than a 0.0 rating does mean people tuned in).

It remains to be seen what he'll do as a heel. He can have some good fights with Jeff. The key is going to be what happens after he's done with his program with Jeff. When he was a bad guy before, people listened, but it got stale, and the only thing that "saved " his career was Edge fucking Lita.

 

[Swolfsta22]

Matts just boring watchin him has become more stale everytime i watch him i will admit i use to be a huge fan of matt but his recent US title reign was mediocure (probably spelled that wrong sorry) his moveset is always the same stuff every match clothsline elbow of 2nd turnbuckle, side effect and the twist of fate, unless he re amps his movesset i dont see him being anything more than a glorified midcarder..