LostHiWay
Golden Member
"Hardys & Lita have been taken off TV, which was the reason for their total burial by Undertaker on the various shows this past week. There have been problems with Jeff of late, which came to a head when he missed San Jose on 12/8 (which explains Matt having to work total babyface against Test right after his his heel turn). He's also been late for a few shows, his performance hasn't been at nearly the level it used to be (that was bound to happen given all the crazy bumps from high heights he's taken over the years--those do shorten careers and it's unavoidable). Then the Matt vs. Jeff match at the PPV was a flop in the eyes of most, and after the Raw handicap match, Vince decided to kill the feud and Vince sat down with all three to explain the situation. Vince explained he was taking them off TV to give them a chance to breathe." (Amy says Vince told them he was giving them a break, but she knows it's a punishment).
"The plan is for them to be working house shows but not doing TV for a while, with no timetable set for their return. There is also the feeling as we've talked about several times, that there is a certain shelf life to acts. The Hardys act has been on the downside for the brothers ever since HHH ruined Jeff's upward mobility in how he treated him in that feud early in the year, and Lita, who still gets big pops, lost her edge big-time after the manipulation from Chyna. This is precisely the reason why pro wrestling historically has had territories, and why the lack of territories has in the long-run hurt everyone. Nobody has any idea what to do with them, because they got stale as a tag team, it was time for them to go to another territory (and they are hardly the only ones that fit that label) and there is nowhere for them to go. They did a great job building the turn, but the bottom line was, fans didn't want to see them fight each other. I don't know about the idea of spending so much time building Matt's turn, and then pulling the plug on it in two days. It probably wasn't going to succeed, and it isn't like some people there didn't know that going in so the decision to do it can be questioned. But if you are going to spend so much time doing it, at least let them go a few weeks and build to a climactic reconciliation (we've seen so many great ones in the past that do invigorate tired acts) as opposed to just plug pulling."
Credit to Wrestling Observer newsletter
"The plan is for them to be working house shows but not doing TV for a while, with no timetable set for their return. There is also the feeling as we've talked about several times, that there is a certain shelf life to acts. The Hardys act has been on the downside for the brothers ever since HHH ruined Jeff's upward mobility in how he treated him in that feud early in the year, and Lita, who still gets big pops, lost her edge big-time after the manipulation from Chyna. This is precisely the reason why pro wrestling historically has had territories, and why the lack of territories has in the long-run hurt everyone. Nobody has any idea what to do with them, because they got stale as a tag team, it was time for them to go to another territory (and they are hardly the only ones that fit that label) and there is nowhere for them to go. They did a great job building the turn, but the bottom line was, fans didn't want to see them fight each other. I don't know about the idea of spending so much time building Matt's turn, and then pulling the plug on it in two days. It probably wasn't going to succeed, and it isn't like some people there didn't know that going in so the decision to do it can be questioned. But if you are going to spend so much time doing it, at least let them go a few weeks and build to a climactic reconciliation (we've seen so many great ones in the past that do invigorate tired acts) as opposed to just plug pulling."
Credit to Wrestling Observer newsletter
