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| Cruel Twist Of Fate (Pt 2) |
Matt Barnes |
With Jeff gone, will Matt Hardy finally get the success he deserves?
Matt Hardy; elder brother, scorned lover and veteran of the Age of Xtreme. Sometime TLC legend, sometime internet-blooger, Hardy’s career path in WWE has been chequered at times, and his fans and friends within the business alike have long been desperate to see him smash through the proverbial glass ceiling. Undoubtedly, his best days in the ring have so far always been borne of his association with his younger sibling Jeff, but his failure to emerge from the ashes of Team Xtreme has, at times, been massively frustrating to watch. Still, his popularity has never dimmed. His consistency when the icons around him fall to Wellness Failures (Jeff and Rey, we’re looking squarely at you…) has made him a key player in the company and surely has given him a foothold to potential greatness. But, with Jeff out of the picture, can Matt really make the step up for good this time?
Many believe that Matt has never reached the main event because he’s always lived within the shadow of the ‘charismatic enigma’ Jeff – a man who, it seems, was quite simply born to entertain – but that’s too simple an analysis when you consider that Matt is a technically-gifted pro wrestler and, on the whole, a very proficient entertainer. Certainly, Matt has never been quite as engaging a personality as Jeff, but being clean and being consistent must count for something, right? Well no, actually… and we don’t mean that in any WWE-bashing kind of way. WWE sells entertainment first and wrestling second – if Ric Flair couldn’t talk people into a building, he wouldn’t have a prayer of making it out of WWE’s midcard were he new to wrestling today.
The reason lesser wrestlers such as MVP and John Cena have sometimes garnered such a huge response compared to Matt isn’t strictly down to personal choice on the part of the masses – it’s as much down to catchphrases, flashy gimmicks and, of course, the fact that the WWE machine has been so heavily behind them. Any wrestler with the full backing of WWE’s creative team would struggle to get over with the masses given just how much screen-time and support can be invested into them when the company really wants to. Matt, though, has never genuinely had the company’s unwavering backing, although there are certainly potential reasons as to why that’s the case…
For the rest of this feature, check out issue 47 of FSM - available at WH Smith and all good retailers. (For US readers we are now carried at Borders and Barnes & Noble, so check for local availability or click here to subscribe.)
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