They had MONEY in a Booker/Goldust feud and it never happened.
Kanyon was no Chris Masters, but golly gee I enjoyed his matches.
And Rico was fucking awesome. Unique moveset, legitimate background, and heat eternal from the Billy/Chuck run. If they hadn't face painted and neutered him he might've made it.
Opportunity and care to complement talent can make anyone into a money maker.
Remember Shawn Michaels used to be the little blonde guy in tassles who flipped a lot when hit with clotheslines.
It's a shame, because I do feel that Matt had a lot of potential that the company basically squandered, but I can't really argue with the company's decision to cut him. For one thing, we do not know all the details or what the specific political climate is backstage. But just going off of what we do know, Matt's behavior was juvenile, and has hurt the company more than anything Edge and Lita have done. Now, I'm not saying that Matt's the villain here, but if he'd let them handle the whole situation in-house, he'd have probably come out of this looking pretty good in management's eyes. But instead, he got on the internet (which the company hates, remember) and blabbed the details to anyone who was interesested. I can understand why he'd do something like that, but it's just not very professional. He should have dealt with private matters privately, and let management deal with any internal problems themselves.
It's at least four. I haven't bought a PPV since the Wrestlemania in Toronto and I was getting all 12 and I don't see starting to do that again anytime soon.
Tim
Vocatus atque non vocatus, Deus aderit. -- Erasmus
Originally posted by Tenken347But just going off of what we do know, Matt's behavior was juvenile, and has hurt the company more than anything Edge and Lita have done. Now, I'm not saying that Matt's the villain here, but if he'd let them handle the whole situation in-house, he'd have probably come out of this looking pretty good in management's eyes. But instead, he got on the internet (which the company hates, remember) and blabbed the details to anyone who was interesested. I can understand why he'd do something like that, but it's just not very professional. He should have dealt with private matters privately, and let management deal with any internal problems themselves.
Did Matt really become "juvenile" over the internet and "blab the details" of the situation? Unless later on he personally got all into detail on his website about what Lita did to him and with who, all I can recall him saying was that Lita and him were no longer an item (and this was only after people were flooding his site asking him why Lita's pictures had been removed) and that if people wanted to know the reason, then they would have to ask Lita themselves.
I found out about all the unpleasant details from "The PWTorch" website (and I believe they found out about the details from "in house" wrestling sources, not Matt's website.)...I never read any specific details coming from Matt himself on his website, but please disregard this rant if I may have missed it. :)
"This just got a hell of a lot better." - Stifler, American Pie
Everyone wants to bawl and claim they hate WWE because they fired people like Kanyon and Goldust and Rico and Rhyno and Matt but none of those people were ever going to make them money, for a variety of reasons.
It's not the job of the mid-to-lower-card guys to make money. That's the job of the guys in the ME. The midcard guys are supposed to fill out the rest of the show & to keep the crowd interested, and any money they make the company is a nice bonus. Yeah, it may not seem like much when they release these guys, but suddenly you start having fans disgusted/disinterested enough that all their favorites are gone that they stop paying you for your product.
As for Matt specifically, he made the company a ton of money w/ the Hardy Boyz merchandise. He probably could still move merch. to the teenage fangirls, so it's a pretty big stretch to say he never made them any money or never would have in the future. So what if he generated some bad press? What about Vince's "any press is good press" motto? JBL got a 10-month World Title reign out of generating bad press for the company. Both were really only reported on the Net, and it's not as if Lita has been boo'd out of every arena she's been in, so any damage Matt may have done is pretty minimal compared to the amount of heat Edge/Lita might have in the back and the number of Hardy fans who are probably done w/ the company.
But, hey, the WWE does what it does, we bitch, circle of IWC life.
I’m saddened by Hardy’s release. I mean, if anyone knows ANYTHING about me, it’s that I really like Matt Hardy. I think he did just about everything he could to step out of the shadows as Jeff Hardy’s brother and Lita’s boyfriend. When he went over to SMACKDOWN!, he really showed the WWE what he could do as an individual and it was gold… Well, up until the Zach Gowan crap, but it was good.
While I can’t take sides of the ‘triangle’, I agree that he should have handled it better. He could have just removed Lita’s pictures, as he had done (I’ve heard) and when asked about it just gave his fans a drab ‘it didn’t work out’. Sure, we instinctively want a bigger peek into the lives of famous, some-what famous, 15 minutes famous, people… But Matt didn’t have to vent in that forum. He has friends and family to cry to, I’m sure.
He basically forced the WWE’s hand in this matter. It’s hard to separate business and personal affairs but the WWE is a business, not a soapbox. You are there to make money for yourself and the WWE. If you drag out personal business, ignoring your purpose for employment, you become a liability. This isn’t to say that Hardy was right or wrong; it’s just to say that the WWE put more in stock in Edge than Hardy.
In any event, I wish him well. Maybe we’ll see him in TNA or something. Sorry it had to end that way
(edited by Ticamo on 12.4.05 0735) Nick Rivers- Listen to me Hillary. I'm not the first guy who fell in love with a woman that he met at a restaurant who turned out to be the daughter of a kidnapped scientist only to lose her to her childhood lover who she last saw on a deserted island who then turned out fifteen years later to be the leader of the French underground.
Hillary Flammond- I know. It all sounds like some bad movie.
I'll add myself to the list. I haven't bought a PPV since WMXX of last year. And other than the library releases (Best of Flair, Best of Benoit, ECW, etc.) I cannot imagine myself wanting to buy dvd's of any of their shows. If I am going to spend money on contemporary product, I'll buy ROH shows and ROH tickets.
That said, I cannot imagine myself spending money on TNA to see a Hardys reunion, though it might get me to sit down and watch an episode of Impact.
I mean, it's great that hardcore fans buy shows just for one match between their fave mid-carders, but the company can't really worry about alienating the Matt Hardy fans when on the whole Edge and Lita draw money for the company. Matt messed up by taking things public. I wonder if some of the others that spouted off (didn't Shannon Moore and the Hurricane post some things too) might not be on the chopping block as well. I never liked Edge, both as an in-ring performer and for the fact that he always came off to me as a prick in real life *which oddly enough was right*
And let's not blame his release entirely on this situation. His career since the Cruiserweight reign has really been in the toilet, clearly the company lost faith in him a long time before Lita and Edge hooked up.
I like Hardy more than most, but he never inspired be to buy PPVs (in fact, I don't buy PPVs period, except for WM.)
I mean, it sucks. Maybe he'll be back one day. He's still young. At the very least, perhaps having his brother around will be good for Jeff (that is, if TNA is even around 90 days from now, the Observer sounded some ominous tolls for the company. Sorry, I'm getting off topic, har.
WWE sources say that Matt Hardy was released because WWE creative say that saw him as a mid-card wrestler without a big upside. He had been scheduled to talk to John Laurenaitis, V.P. of WWE Talent Relations, right after WrestleMania to determine his return to TV. That call turned into his dismissal instead. As previously reported here, he was never scheduled to be part of the ladder match, even before the Lita-Edge situation became an issue. WWE creative had always planned to reintroduce him after WrestleMania, not rush him back into a ladder match coming off of an injury. Although it's not being said officially, two other main reasons Hardy was let go are (a) he made a public issue of his private life and even though most everyone believes he was a "victim," WWE wasn't pleased it went public; (b) Edge is much higher on WWE's depth chart right now and it would have been a headache for management to try to keep them apart, and the animosity is so intense it would have led to a problem down the line.
Originally posted by Torch (second hand)WWE sources say that Matt Hardy was released because WWE creative say that saw him as a mid-card wrestler without a big upside.
Originally posted by Kawshen (third hand)Matt Hardy doesn't have an upside. Wow.
I believe this is how they play "Telephone" as well!
(edited by CRZ on 12.4.05 1418)
When it seems like the whole world is full of idiots, maybe your standards are a bit high. - Guru Zim
"Hey Vince, what's up? Hey, yeah, I was just wondering why three of your more entertaining wrestlers are gone now."
We're the middle children of history...no purpose or place. We have no Great War, no Great Depression. Our great war, our defining crucible, is a spiritual war.
It's almost as if the WWE was happy that Rhyno and Matt gave them a reason to release them. I think they were basically planning on doing it all along....its just that Rhyno and Matt gave them an opportunity to bump up their time table.
"This just got a hell of a lot better." - Stifler, American Pie
Originally posted by spf though it might get me to sit down and watch an episode of Impact.
As an avid Impact viewer I'll be the first to tell you that's probably a bad idea.
Matt Fact: If Matt's best case scenario is laying down for five hundred interferences and a guitar shot OR selling Monty Brown's weakass shoulderblock he might want to think about retiring to an attack play with dolls.
In all seriousness though, Matt was being too much of an internet guy, and WWE hates the internet. Edge is headed for a big push, and they didn't want that spoilt. Its all business I guess.
She can't seem to make up her mind whether she wants to try to forgive Edge and Lita, or insult them. She does insinuate that Edge still uses steroids though.
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