Live For The Moment (The Hardy Boyz)

Member Name: star500

Product:	The Hardy Boyz
Date:	24/05/03 (4544 review reads)
Rating:

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A few weeks back, I was sat in front of my computer, racking my brains as to what review I could write for dooyoo when another member popped up onto MSN and set me a mini-challenge in an attempt to get me to write something.

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"Nobody ever writes wrestling reviews any more", he said "It could be a laugh!"

"Yeah," I replied "For you anyway when my Not Useful total shoots through the roof!!"

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But I'm never one to back down from a challenge hence the reason why I'm now sat in front of the computer attempting to write a review about the Hardy Boyz and you are all wondering if I really have gone insane!! :0)

Hardy Boyz? Who are they I hear you ask? Well I have to admit that they are WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment wrestlers So if you aren't the least bit interested in the great American "sport" then I suggest you stop reading now and errr forget I ever dared write a wrestling review ;0)
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Still with me? Good!!!

Now I'm usually not one to make assumptions but I'm going to assume that if you're still reading then you have at least a teeny weeny bit of interest in the WWE or at least in Matt and Jeff Hardy. But fear not, because if you don't, then I suggest you read this rather long review one night when you can't sleep and I guarantee it will bore you to tears and you'll get a good night's sleep. However, I won't take responsibility for your dreams which might involve the odd Twist of Fate, a Swanton Bomb or liberal doses of Mattitude!!

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~~ So who are these guys anyway? ~~

Duh - they're the Hardyz - one of the best tag-teams to ever come out of the WWE. They did split up a while back hence why this review is going to touch upon both their tag-team careers and their singles ones.


>~~ Are they really brothers? ~~

Well, they were born to the same parents, so errr I think we can safely say that they are.

Matt was born Matthew Moore Hardy on 23rd Sept 1974
Jeff was born Jeffery Nero Hardy on 31st August 1977

Their mother died of cancer when they were both very young and they were brought up by their father. I'm not going to go into much detail about their background but suffice to say that they were BIG wrestling fans and used to create characters, make costumes and wrestle each other. They even have home-made videos of interviews they recorded when they were young. (There are two videos & dvds available which have excerpts of these and I'll talk about them towards the end of this review).

So basically they taught themselves to wrestle from watching early WWF programmes (for back then it was called WWF and had nothing to do with pandas or wildlife) and going to amateur bouts hoping to get a match. They never made any money, came home covered in bruises but enjoyed every minute of it. After a few years of this, they were offered a contract by Vince McMahon (owner of the WWE) and the rest, as they say, is history!


~~ So what makes them so special? ~~

Well, at the time they first arrived in the WWE, they were kind of different to everyone else. They were both young (Jeff was still a teenager, Matt was in his early 20s), weren't overly big or muscle-bound (their combined weight was a little over 400lbs which by wrestling standards isn't much) and their style in the ring was unique. They were classed as high fliers and, especially Jeff, was able to pull off the most amazing stunts and moves not seen before in the ring. Matt was a little more grounded but just as entertaining and the crowd went wild for them.

They had great matches with the fantastic Edge and Christian (who rock!!) and took part in several TLC matches - that is Tables, Ladders and Chairs.
This gave Jeff in particular a chance to show what he could do by pulling off crazy things such as diving off a 15ft ladder onto a table which, of course, he smashed right through. They also won the WWE tag-team titles on a number of occasions.


~~ But what happened? ~~

Well, to be honest, no-one is quite sure what exactly happened but it was decided that the Hardyz should split. I personally think if was because the fans were finding them a bit repetitive because there wasn't any scope for decent storylines and thus the writers decided to have the brothers turn against each other - which, unfortunately, turned out to be a major disaster!

The fans didn't buy into it and although the match in which they faced each other should have been a good one (as they know each other so well in the ring) it just didn't play out as it could have. As a result, the Hardyz were taken off tv for a while to give them and their fans a break and then returned a few months later as if nothing had happened.

But there were still problems with their characters and the WWE took the opportunity to split the brothers up once again and move Matt to Smackdown while Jeff stayed on Raw. This proved to be a better decision as they were apart but not necessarily hating each other as their paths rarely crossed and the fans could like both brothers as they didn't have to fight.


~~ So what happened to Matt? ~~

Well, as I said, Matt moved to Smackdown where everyone thought he would be a complete flop as he had no character, few fancy moves and was always classed as the weaker of the two brothers in terms of wrestling ability. However..........he proved everyone wrong!!

Not long after going to Smackdown, Matt Hardy version 1.0 was born. It was pretty much the same Matt Hardy that we know and love but with a more cocky and confident attitude - which he himself dubbed Mattitude!! At first he played the good guy
- well,
his character was a classic heel (bad guy) but he thought the fans loved him and as Mattitude took off, he turned into a fully-blown, but extremely well-liked heel character.

At the same time he was able to prove his wrestling ability in the ring and show that Jeff was not the only talented one in the Hardy Boyz. His alliance with Shannon Moore (who looks nothing like George Dawes from Shooting Stars!) has provided some great comic moments, of which this year's Royal Rumble is a prime example.

So Matt's move to Smackdown and the birth of Mattitude has, in my opinion, been a great success for him and a winner with the fans.


~~ And how did Jeff do? ~~

Ah Jeff, hmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Y'know, I always liked Jeff - he was my favourite of the two Hardyz for his mad antics in the ring and his strange uniqueness but unfortunately the split has not worked as well for Jeff as was hoped.

You see, Jeff was always the one regarded as the talented on in the Hardyz. His Swanton Bomb looked impressive and he could pull off the most unique, high-flying moves that no-one else could. But take him away from the security of a tag-team match and strip away the daredevil-esque moves and you're left with......not a lot really.

This is a shame because he has such potential yet, for a while there, he had become sloppy in the ring and his mistakes were blatantly obvious. One match which sticks in my head was from a Raw episode back in 2002 where he was fighting Triple H. All I can say is that I'm surprised HHH didn't actually have a serious injury as Jeff botched up so many spots and ended up dropping Triple H on his head due to a badly executed hurricanrana or similar high risk manoeuvre.

However, we all have our off-days and nobody can expect to be perfect all the time - it's just that Jeff's off-days are becoming more and more frequent. In saying that though, I do like to watch
him wrestle even though he can be a bit repetitive at times. He is still a fan favourite but the writers have not been doing him justice as they haven't been giving him any decent storylines or back-stage dialogue.

Unfortunately, just as I'd finished writing this review, Jeff left the WWE and nobody is quite sure why. There are rumours abound that he lost his passion for wrestling and left; that he was taking drugs and was fired; or that he wanted to leave and concentrate on his music career. Whatever the true story is, I'm sure the fans will all get to hear about it one day, but I personally think (and hope) that we haven't seen the last of Jeff Hardy wrestling.

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Ok - so that's my opinion on the Hardy Boyz but, as this is a consumer site, then you'll be looking for some consumer-type products to read about, eh?

Now there is absolutely LOADS of merchandise for the Hardyz but I've picked out a few that might be of interest to some of you.


~ Leap Of Faith (video) ~

This is the Hardyz very own video (also available on dvd). It tells the story of their childhood, how they got into wrestling and also has footage of Jeff's volcano which he built in his back yard. Yes, you did read that right, Jeff has a volcano!! (Watch the video and all will be revealed). I personally have only seen the vhs video version of this but I believe the dvd has quite a few extras including Matt and Jeff's first televised WWE debut.

"Leap of Faith" is quite a hard video to find these days (as the WWE were forced to delete a lot of their videos because of a court case with the World Wildlife Fund) but is still available to buy from some websites (at time of writing Play.com were selling it for £13.99 if you are prepared to wait for them to order it for you).


~ Before They Were Superstars (dvd) ~

Now this isn't actually a specific Har
dy Boyz dvd but i
t dedicates a whole section to them. It is like a summary of their childhood (almost a condensed version of Leap of Faith) and contains some of those childhood interviews of wrestlers that they did (these are very funny). For anyone that is interested, the dvd also dedicates a section to Edge (cool guy) and Christian (who rocks!!) RRP £17.99 available in the high street and on sites such as Amazon and Play (at a discounted price).


~ TLC - Tables, Ladders and Chairs (dvd) ~

Again this isn't a specific Hardyz dvd but it contains all of the TLC matches - of which they played a key part. I haven't personally seen this one so can't say very much about it but it retails at £16.99 and looks quite good (but again might be difficult to get a hold of).


~ The Hardy Boyz "Exist to Inspire" (book) ~

Yes, the Hardy Boyz have written an autobiography. Well, I expect that they got a ghost writer to do it for them, but still, we have a Hardy Boyz book - yay!! It was released in the US a few months back and is officially available in the UK on 16/06/03 Of course, there are plenty of sites on the internet who will gladly import it for you (and charge through the nose and take weeks) so I'm waiting until it is released here in June.

It is 288 pages long and has an RRP of £17.99 for the hardcover version (paperback won't be available until later in the year). I'll make sure to update this review when I've read it and, you never know, I might even write a separate review on the book if it's any good.


~ T-Shirts ~

Now, the WWE are famous for their merchandise and they certainly do have a few Hardy Boyz t-shirts. The newest ones available are:

~ Mattitude Version 1.0 t-shirt - this is black with a V1 logo on the front and the slogan "The era of Mattitude has arrived" on the back). It is available from wweeuroshop.com f
or £15.50 (+P&P) and at live WWE events (for around £18).

~ Jeff Hardy Flying Objects T-shirt - this too is black but has a green JH logo on the front and the slogan "Beware of falling objects" on the back. It too is available at wweeuroshop.com at the same price (but due to Jeff leaving the WWE, you may find it on sale very soon along with other Jeff Hardy merchandise).

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So that's it - 2000 words on the Hardy Boyz and my challenge is now complete......phew!! And my final thoughts on them?......Matt rocks and Jeff kinda does too!! ;0)


[PS apologies again for the lack of capital letters at the beginning of this review but Dooyoo won't let me change it :0( ]

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