"If you want me to watch the shows, buy tickets when you come to town, buy t-shirts, and pay for a PPV every three days, you bet your ass I'm going to hard to impress. And when you give me stuff that blows and then tell me I don't get a vote on sharing that opinion, I'm going to tell you to go catch an STD." - Hogan's My Dad
"My brother saw the Undertaker walking through an airport." - Rex "Was he no-selling?" - Me
I really don't know what to tell you. Young Randall never replied to me peripherally, at least not in any certain way. (He said some things that I could have extremely vainly interpreted to be about me, but that's it.) So you have to decide how much damage to do. Obviously, Matt is never going to be your buddy, no matter what happens. So what do you care about?
Personally, if I were really convinced of the rightness of my point, I'd tear his response to bits. To be honest, you couldn't have asked for a better response from him: he practically restates your point for you (unawares).
Originally posted by asteroidboyDude, I have a Randy Orton now???? Jeb, how to proceed?
I liked how he called you a kid. if that's your true birthday in your profile, Matt is getting really old.
I thought the same thing. I mean, we have to be close, at least both Gen-X'ers. I was also waiting for the inevitable fat geek in his mother's basement comparison.
Originally posted by JebI really don't know what to tell you. Young Randall never replied to me peripherally, at least not in any certain way. (He said some things that I could have extremely vainly interpreted to be about me, but that's it.) So you have to decide how much damage to do. Obviously, Matt is never going to be your buddy, no matter what happens. So what do you care about?
Personally, if I were really convinced of the rightness of my point, I'd tear his response to bits. To be honest, you couldn't have asked for a better response from him: he practically restates your point for you (unawares).
I loved how the column starts off with merchandise shilling. First things first, I guess.
There's no need to respond, because there's nothing to respond to. Rereading it, he never really says *why* the column is asinine, he just says that anyone who doesn't know him and Lita personally can't comment. But I never commented on them personally, just their characters. And I tried to write it from a jilted fans/best-friend-who's-watching-his-buddy-date-the-wrong-kinda-girl perspective.
Well, and I implied that Lita is easy and might have suffered some consequences. But when has that ever caused trouble between two guys?
(edited by asteroidboy on 13.8.04 0913)
(edited by asteroidboy on 13.8.04 0914) -- Asteroid Boy
"If you want me to watch the shows, buy tickets when you come to town, buy t-shirts, and pay for a PPV every three days, you bet your ass I'm going to hard to impress. And when you give me stuff that blows and then tell me I don't get a vote on sharing that opinion, I'm going to tell you to go catch an STD." - Hogan's My Dad
"My brother saw the Undertaker walking through an airport." - Rex "Was he no-selling?" - Me
Come on, dude. Milk it for all its worth. How many of us columnists would KILL for a response like that? And the crazy thing about it is... you're 100 % in the right.
Anyways, like I said yesterday in the Inside Pulse thread, excellent work. And it looks like it's getting noticed...
Originally posted by asteroidboyBut I never commented on them personally, just their characters. And I tried to write it from a jilted fans/best-friend-who's-watching-his-buddy-date-the-wrong-kinda-girl perspective.
Well, and I implied that Lita is easy and might have suffered some consequences. But when has that ever caused trouble between two guys?
Ha, yeah. That never happens.
That best friend vibe that you mentioned seemed so self-evident that his reply couldn't have possibly been funnier. "No way, you don't know me and you don't know her! We're perfect! You just wouldn't understand! My life has never been better, and she's one of the biggest parts of that! You just don't get it!"
I mean, that's at least in the low 80s on the Unintentional Comedy Scale. Especially given that you never assert that you know them personally, and his first defense is, "You don't know us personally!" At times like these, it's painfully obvious that they don't administer a reading comprehension test when you try out for a WWE contract.
And I'm with Bulldog. Milk that sucker. If you don't, I will. I'll use "Matt Hardy" as my default example in similes and analogies from now on. "That guy was madder than Matt Hardy seeing someone interrupt Lita's dance performance set to Jeff's emoetry."
I liked the article AND Matt's response, but I hate it when wrestlers go to the "you're not ME or a WRESTLER, so you wouldn't and CAN'T know"-place. And did he have to go to "nobody thought I would beat Kane at Vengeance, but I did"? NO YOU DIDN'T. THAT WAS SCRIPTED. EVERYONE reading your column knows that. Jeez. Saying you believe in yourself because you've overcome ACTUAL obstacles, like people doubting you could be in the WWE or that you could overcome the "jobber" stigma to be a singles star, is one thing, but to throw out the outcome of a match as part of your argument? LAME.
I wish for once one of these guys would actually take the time to question why Internet fans would have a certain perception about where their career is going as opposed to just out-and-out trashing them EVERY TIME.
“To get ass, you’ve got to bring ass." -- Roy Jones Jr.
"Your input has been noted. I hope you don't take it personally if I disregard it." -- Guru Zim
Originally posted by JayJayDeanI wish for once one of these guys would actually take the time to question why Internet fans would have a certain perception about where their career is going as opposed to just out-and-out trashing them EVERY TIME.
I agree with everything you've said (as is required by law). HOW-EVAH, there are a lot of internet fans out there who do just out-and-out trash everything *they* see on TV for who knows what reason, and I bet wrestlers can only take so much of that before flipping out.
AB, I like you and have always liked your posts here. But that being said, I think you were kind of off-base. Not to the extent that it would require a written rebuttal from Matt, but hey.
(It is more than a little scary that not only does Matt read fucking 411Wrestling, he used the initials "IWC." That's just unfortunate.)
When he says the Kane angle is the highest singles spot he's ever been in, he's right. Cool Matt Facts entrance or not, the reality is that before this, he had not been given a single significant thing to do since losing the cruiserweight title to Rey Mysterio in May 2003. Even though the pregnancy angle is horrible, you're a hell of a lot better off beating Kane on PPV than you are losing to Val Venis on pre-PPV Heat. You're a hell of a lot better getting in one of the four Raw matches for SummerSlam than you are going programless on literally every PPV since Wrestlemania XIX.
I like the Version One character better than Lita's Boyfriend too, but this notion that he threw away some kind of glorious heel run of Mattitude on Smackdown for the pregnancy storyline of crap on Raw is a real misconception. There was no glorious heel run of Mattitude to throw away, and there hadn't been one for six months before he jumped to Raw. I would much rather be "stuck" as featured player in a bad angle that is one of the major parts of the show than I would be a non-entity with a cooler, unpushed character. And that's not even touching the implicit criticism of egregiously wanting to travel with your girlfriend of four years instead of rarely seeing her.
As far as why the nerve was touched, I think he misread your credit card thing about Lita's character and took it to be about Amy D herself. Which would seem quite insulting if you'd actually meant it that way, which I don't think you did. Even besides that, if I was Matt, I'd be pretty annoyed if people were telling me they felt sorry for me because I gave up a cool entrance and no push for an actual spot on the card. Thanks but no thanks. I think it's hard to argue that going from not doing anything (including while on Smackdown) to doing something that sucks but actually got him PPV matches and a win over Kane is a backwards move.
Shapiro, I can accept that. I certainly wasn't arguing that he was a main-event heel on Smackdown, because he wasn't. He was portrayed as Brock Lesnar's evil toadie. But I thought he had the potential to be more.
And I agree that his RAW feud is his highest-profile, but I think it's more a factor of the writers getting jazzed about being able to work in a soap opera storyline into the show. Maybe Lita gets amnesia after this, I don't know.
But what does Matt do after this? I don't see anything for him. And the writing staff has been notoriously unreliable in coming up with anything for established faces like Rey Mysterio, much less a middling one like Matt.
I like Matt and I want him to do well. Who knows, he could make this is a stepping stone to bigger things. But if Kane beats him, Matt's just been pinned by the heel that every quality face goes over. And if he wins, well, then I guess they re-do the "Match Made in Heaven" ceremony.
Anyway, here's my response to him: Click Here (411mania.com)
"If you want me to watch the shows, buy tickets when you come to town, buy t-shirts, and pay for a PPV every three days, you bet your ass I'm going to hard to impress. And when you give me stuff that blows and then tell me I don't get a vote on sharing that opinion, I'm going to tell you to go catch an STD." - Hogan's My Dad
"My brother saw the Undertaker walking through an airport." - Rex "Was he no-selling?" - Me
Wow, I hate coming out of lurking, but you've gone and made me do it. That response was the biggest piece of garbage I've read at 411, a crowning achievement. What business is it of yours to degrade him like you just did is that article? I had no problem with the first article, which did make some good points, but there's still that "minor" fact that Matt Hardy doesn't write his own storylines. If given the choice between being in one of the top three angles on RAW, and quitting, sitting on his ass until his contact is up and appear in the (DYING) TNA, I wonder which one he would take. Also, he said flat out in his article that he has a bum knee that will be putting him out shortly. A bum knee that, by the way, he is still wrestling on so people like you can bitch and moan about the storyline. I'm pretty sure any idiot who has ever played EWR (or watched wrestling) could tell you it's probably not the best idea to put somebody on the pending injured list over your monster heel.
Personally, I think you're just picking out the criticism and whining about it. - Asteroid
I'm sorry but Matt's doing the right thing by standing by the storyline. Opportunities are few and far between in WWE and he's got one. He's been handed a shitty storyline, yes, but what can he do about that? Bitch, moan, and complain? Or hope that all this TV time he's getting will allow management's faith in him to grow and lead to better opportunities?
What happens to him as a result of this storyline, isn't really anything he can worry about because he doesn't have the power to control it. He's gotten two big PPV matches out of it so far which equals $$$. He's higher on the card at house shows as well. He's been gutting it out through an injury. He's defended the angle all over the place. These are things that will help him in the long run. Maybe this storyline blows but obviously Vince likes this stuff and if he likes Matt's part in it, it can only lead to better things for Hardy.
An opportunity is an opportunity, no matter how shitty or small it is. Somehow Matt has managed to remain optimistic and continue to bust his ass to try and make the most out of it.
Insensitive Funny Comment of the Week: "You don't buy prostitutes ... They're human beings! You rent them!" Artie Lange
Preface: I have disliked Matt Hardy's work since the tag breakup.
That said, I give the bugger credit for putting in an effort behind this stupid storyline, if for nothing else than it could get him in the bosses' good graces for something more substantial later. Why screw things up now?
Is this story any stupider than the whole "Eugene" thing? Not really, and it has given the WWE a reason to keep a solid worker like Dinsmore, and drastically enhance the returning Regal.
"Personally, I think you're just picking out the criticism and whining about it. - Asteroid"
Pot kettle black.
(edited by Eddie Famous on 13.8.04 1716) "In the sky. Lord, in the sky..."
I think you should have just left the whole beef end and not done a second column on it. I think you both made some really good points but if you put yourself in his shoes you would notice that to him it came across as a personal attack on him and his girlfriend. I know you were just trying to point out how you felt that the whole Kane storyline has really made him look like a joke but lets face it worse wrestlers have recovered from worse angles before. I think Matt has enough talent on the mic and in the ring to make sure that it doesn't become a total bomb but really he can only do so much with what the writers give him. If you were offered one of the top story lines on the top show would you not want to be part of it? For me at least the angle has improved a ton over the last few weeks and I for one want to see how it ends. Good work though as you are one reason people should bother to go to 411.
In Asteroid Boy's defense, when did we stop being allowed to criticize wrestlers and storylines?
I think the whole thing about both of those columns is, he's not criticizing Matt Hardy the wrestler, but the situation he's in. And dammit, he's right? How could WWE possibly come up with gold in this crappy Lita-Kane-Hardy triangle? I'll admit after watching the way they turned around Eugene, it's certainly possible. Just not likely.
And you know what... Matt Hardy SHOULD be defending this gimmick; as I think Eddie Famous mentioned, he'd be in a lot of trouble if he said anything BUT kind words about the whole angle. I honestly think Matt *will* eventually bounce back from this, so being a happy employee is a good thing.
But I still think discounting a fan's opinion because they "don't know what it's like" isn't valid. We're all entitled to our own opinions, that's all I'm saying....
I think that Hardy referred to you as "a kid" because your pen name is "Asteroid Boy". No offense to you but I always find it hard to take people seriously when their pen names are nicknames.
And if a columnist has a right to criticize wrestlers, wrestlers has a right to criticize columnists, simple as that.
My opinion? I'm just happy that Matt has freaking tv time for once.
(EDIT: Oh and I just read on InsidePulse that Matt Hardy will miss 6-8 months of ring action so I guess we won't see him in that storyline anymore)
(edited by Dave Gagnon on 13.8.04 1837) Columnist and NWA TNA recapper at www.411mania.com . Check out the good stuff NOW!
Everything I say is a lie. Except that. And that. And that. And that. And that....And that.
The link that Double M posted above now automatically forwards to a July commentary; And being that I'm kind of anal about things, I went to the actual WWE Mattitude site via Google and the commentary link actually no longer exists there.
And finally...Just cause I'm nothing if not a completist, I got the cached file of the commentary in hopes that I could finally read the entire commentary... and it forwards to ...nothing
Huh. Grassy knolls, lone gunmen, deep throat....Mattitude?
Someone in the office must have heard the infernal buzzword known as "IWC" uttered in his commentary and created some good old fashion WWE revisionist history.
OH...MY...GOD... That was so funny...I think I blew a funny fuse...nothing else in the world will make me laugh ever again after seeing that Nirvana of unintentional hilarity... Long live the 80's...