If I told you that I spent most of my freshman year of college doing The Hardy Boyz entrance pose with a couple friends, you wouldn't be surprised. The main point of being a wrestling fan at 19 is basically doing all of that shit, with your friends in the dorm halls or rooms. Bill Simmons wrote the most important thing he ever wrote, which was his eulogy of Macho Man, the main crux of which was how Randy Savage was the basis for a couple years of his college experience.
It is hard for any wrestling fan to not think about the time when Jeff was their favorite wrestler, as he was released by the World Wrestling Entertainment today. He was everyone's for a short time.
Around the turn of the century, The Hardy Boyz was found by most people in the middle of the Attitude Era. While Vince McMahon was trying to steer the company a little younger with plenty of blue material and references to one's junk, the wrestlers still mostly looked the same as they did when we were kids. They were big and strong. Triple H had flowing blond hair and was on top of the card. The Rock followed the same physical template as everyone else.
The stage would be taken by the Hardyz. They had a theme. I don't care what anyone says. The opening drumbeat portended to something much more once you knew the Hardyz. It felt like an approaching storm.
They looked different. They were not that big. If you saw them on the street, they were pretty big. They were not puffed up or body builders. It made them look normal. I was friends with these guys in high school. The kids who wore the JNCOs in high school would tell you that I mocked them relentlessly. I was a bad person and did that to everyone. There was at least one. He is the guitarist for Filter. The guys who would throw you off the bench at the gym looked like the guys you knew. They looked like guys you would want to hang out with.
StackSocial has a price of $179 for buy.
They would get in the ring. Above it, as they mostly did. I don't know how they got past Vince. There was nothing slow about them. They flew around the arena. There was nothing they wouldn't do. If you only knew about the wrestling in the World Wrestling Entertainment, the Hardyz were the only clue that there was more ridiculous things going on. As long as they were willing to throw themselves through a table and off a piece of furniture, they could be a wrestler. None of us were. What was wrong with them? We had grown up with wrestling, but it was more Cirque du Soleil than it was. There was beauty and grace in the chaos and broken tables.
We were riveted. We woke up at 1 a.m. and watched a tape of the Wrestlemania 16 event, but I have no idea if it was hacked or not. We watched a lot of other matches in the middle of the night, and Jeff would jump and flip off some surface, turning our neighbors against us. It was worth it.
Ah, the ladder match. The brothers are the greatest gift to the world of wrestling. Ladder matches had been done before, but the Hardyz, Edge and Christian turned it into its own art form. You watched every one through your fingers, terrified and yet excited at the same time, and then usually did. They have paid the price for it.
It wouldn't be too much longer before the company released him for the same reasons as today. He would return after that and add singles gold to his tag team honors, but eventually the injuries took their toll and he had to leave again.
Even if the bodies couldn't hold up in the same way, the minds of Matt and Brother Nero and Willow wouldn't stop even if they couldn't wrestle.
The important stuff is not that. The New Day are dancing in this video, so make sure to watch them along with the rest of the crowd at Wrestlemania 33.
I jumped out of the bar with my stool. The drums, guns, and lights. I was 19 again. It was not planned. I know I was not alone. It might be the hardest I have marked out since becoming a fan again. I was in his dorm at 19 again. Isn't that the point of all this? I haven't spoken to most of the guys from that dorm in 20 years. I can't remember their names. I think he was Tim. If I ran into him randomly, you can bet we would both be shooting at each other.
There are more wrestlers trying to be the Hardyz than there are Stone Cold or The Rock. The Young Bucks and Darby Allin jump to mind immediately. They were far ahead of their time. We want to be the guy who pushes it further. They were.
It doesn't matter if Jeff Hardy wrestles again. He needs to find the help he needs and can live a healthy life going forward. He has already given a lot more than he should. The Hardyz did more than they should have. We couldn't look away because of that.
