"Did you see that! Jeff Hardy off the top of a 15 foot ladder!" (The Hardy Boyz)

Member Name: mmmbuffy

Product:	The Hardy Boyz
Date:	26/08/01 (5835 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: visually impressive, great technical ability, fans favourite

Disadvantages: could end their career with the risks they take

Everybody who watches WWF programming knows who the Hardy Boyz are, in fact their fame spreads beyond the boundaries of the WWF. Known for their technical expertise, risk-taking attitude and (what most women feel) good looks. They first shot to fame in that absolutely breath taking ladder match against Edge and Christian in 1999, during the October pay-per-view, No Mercy.

The Hardy Boyz consist of the brothers Matt and Jeff Hardy, who are also brothers in reality. Together with the lovely high-flying Lita, Matt and Jeff form Team Xtreme.

Jeff Hardy
===
Height: 6'2"
Weight: 215 pounds
From: Cameron, North Carolina
Finishing Move: Swanton Bomb, Twist of Fate
Career Highlights: Intercontinental Champion, Light Heavyweight Champion, Tag Team Champion (four time), Hardcore Champion (two time)
(Information from wwf.com)

Jeff Hardy is one of the youngest competitors that the WWF has to offer, and at his level, at 23 he still has a long, bright future in wrestling ahead of him. Jeff is my personal favourite WWF superstar, simply because he is just so good to watch, and the recent matches between him and RVD have more than proved that point.

Jeff has a rather unconventional style, and this doesn't only cover his wrestling style, but also the way he dresses, and in particular, the way he likes to have his hair in a variety of different colours. Jeff, along with his brother Matt, have a unique in ring attire. They use a style of goth clothing, he wears fairly baggy black combat pants, a tight top that is either white, purple or bright green, and some unconventional elbow pads that stretch from above his elbow, down past his wrist and attached to his hand. His hair, well that is a different story, usually blue, green, purple and yellow, he does sometimes have it just red and yellow, I'll tell you now, you wouldn't have any trouble spotting him in a crowed.

Jeff's style is also inn
ovative and unconventional. He takes normal moves and makes them his own personal style, for example his enzigury (reversal kick to the back of the head), instead of kicking his opponent in the back of the head, he spins his body in the opposite direction kicking his foe in the face with the heel of his foot. Other moves include his double leg drop to the groin, his sit-down jaw breaker, and (my favourite) his whisper in the wind moonsault reversal where he jumps on to the turnbuckle, flips backwards and spins his body landing with his legs to his opponents chest. One more innovative attack that I love is his 'witch', he doesn't do this often, I've only ever seen it twice, but to do this he gets a broom stick, gets on the top ropes and jumps, placing the broom between his legs, a bit like a witch, get it? Great stuff.

Jeff has two finishing moves, the Swanton Bomb and to a lesser extent the Twist of Fate, I'll describe the Swanton Bomb for Jeff and the Twist of Fate for Matt. The Swanton Bomb is arguably the most visually impressive finisher in the WWF, and it is probably one of the hardest to perform. To do it, Jeff climbs to the top ropes, whilst shouting Swanton to let the crowd know what is coming. He then stays bent down for a moment before standing and either doing the Hardy Boyz gun sign trademark with his arms out to his sides, or with his arms bent up covering his face. He then dives off so his body is horizontal with the ring with his arms out, and then kicks his legs up to flip his body perfectly to land with his shoulders making contact with his opponents chest. It is a really stunning move.

If you haven't seen the Swanton Bomb before, then my picture is of Jeff performing it, so you can have a look at that.

The risks that Jeff Hardy takes are amazing, and I have this real bad feeling that one day it isn't all going to end in cheers, but in tears. When you look at his style, you can see that every ri
sk he takes could end his career. One such example was when he did a Swanton Bomb off the top of a cage that was at least twelve feet high, he has really lost it somewhere along the line. After watching a wrestling video called WWF Hardcore, it had Jeff saying that he wanted try being chucked off a cage (he was talking about Mick Foley being thrown off the top of a cage by the Undertaker) just so he could see if he would be able tog get up after it! Nuts!

Matt Hardy
===
Height: 6'2"
Weight: 225 pounds
From: Cameron, North Carolina
Finishing Move: Twist of Fate
Career Highlights: European Champion (current), Hardcore Champion. Tag Team Champion (four time)
(Information from wwf.com)

Matt Hardy is the older of the two brothers, and as you can see he isn't as successful as his younger brother, although he does have just as much potential ability as Jeff, which you can see from his current run as European Champion. Although I don't like him as much as his brother Jeff, he is still one of my favourites, and one of the crowd's favourites too.

Unlike his brother Jeff, Matt has a very conventional style. Out of the two brothers, Matt is more grounded and doesn't take as many risks as Jeff, but this doesn't stop him from putting on one hell of a show. Matt's clothing style is different but the same as Jeff's, and he doesn't have the multi-coloured hair piece either. Matt wears the same black combat pants as his brother Jeff, however he wears a tight black or other dark coloured top. Underneath his top he also wears unconventional elbow pads, unlike Jeff's, Matt's elbow pads are black and don't have the holes in them.

Matt also doesn't have an array of unique, individual moves like Jeff, although he does have one, which isn't really unique. Matt uses a leg drop from the second rope, rarely off the top of the ropes, but it is still a good move.


Matt is the genius behind the works of the Twist of Fate. This is a very effective cross between a suplex and a neck breaker, showing Matt's technical expertise. To do the Twist of Fate matt first of all kicks his opponent in the midsection, which makes them bend over holding their stomach. He then hooks their head with his left arm, and sticks his right arm out doing the Hardy Boyz gun trademark. He then brings his right arm and hooks his opponents head so that he is now facing away from his opponent whilst holding their head with his two arms. He then falls to the floor, kicking his legs out so that he lands on his back, pulling his opponents face and neck into the canvas. This is usually, in tag team matches, followed by a Swanton Bomb, together putting their opponent down and out.

Out of the two of them, Matt is the powerhouse of the team, providing a great mixture of power and risk, making the Hardy Boyz a deadly team, and one of the best in the WWF.

The Hardy Boyz
===
The Hardy Boyz have burst onto the scene at just the right time. Five or ten years ago the tag team division was dominated by big teams such as the Legion of Doom, the Bushwhackers, Earthquake & Typhoon. Nowadays the WWF has many small and average sized teams such as Kaientai and the Dudley Boyz.

The Hardy Boyz have only two trademarks that I can think of. The first I have mentioned, the gun signs that they use before they perform their big moves. Everyone knows what the gun signs are, but if you don't I'll explain. The gun signs are when you have your index and middle fingers fully extended, with the ring and pinky bent facing towards the arm, and with the thumb pointing out away from the hand, you know, the gun signs you used as kids to play Cowboys and Indians. The second trademark utilised by the Hardy's is any match to do with ladders, ok it isn't really a trademark, but they are the masters of ladder matches.

The Hardy Boyz al
so have some great double team moves, with the best being Poetry in Motion. This is a very beautiful move to watch, although it doesn't really look all that painful and isn't a big finisher such as the Dudley Boyz 3D. To perform it, Matt and Jeff throw their opponent into the turnbuckle, Matt follows them in and gets in his hands and knees just in front of the dazed opponent. Jeff then runs from the opposite turnbuckle, steps on Matt's back and jumps towards his opponent, turning his body sideways so that his right leg is extended across the chest of this opponent, then lands on his feet. A truly great move.

The Hardy Boyz do have a few more double team moves that aren't as visually impressive as the poetry in motion. One of them is when their opponent is on the ground facing up, Jeff does a 360 leg drop (where he sends his leg round 360 degrees) onto the head whilst Matt does a body splash onto the opponents body. Another good one is used in ladder matches, it is where they climb half way up two ladders, whilst their opponent is lying in the middle of them. Matt does a leg drop onto the opponent's head and Jeff does a body splash to the body.

The Hardy Boyz are one of the best tag teams that the WWF has ever had to offer. Ok, they aren't the biggest and baddest, but they are, without question, the most entertaining team currently, arguably ever. Whenever you hear the Hardy's music, you just know that for the next ten, fifteen minutes you are going to be entertained. Speaking of their music, it is the fourth best behind Kurt Angle's, Chuck Palumbo & Shawn O'Haire and Lita's.

To finish things off then, the Hardy Boyz are great and are, thankfully, going to around for a long time yet. Still in their early 20's the only thing that I can see stopping them is if Jeff permanently injures himself from his high-risk antics.

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