The Steel Cage

I didn't have a problem with the angle, probably because I knew it was a work from the outset. However I do see the danger in it.

The next time there is a legit death or health crisis it will seem phony.

The fact that the website reports actual injury reports alongside worked injuries further blurs the line.

While I appreciate the job of the company is to create illusion and story arc, they also need to accept the consequences of those blurred lines.

How would Vince feel if one of his children died and rather than being taken seriously, it was viewed as a work?

My only problem with the angle is having Jeff Hardy show up during the match. Kayfabe-wise, if he shows up, he should legally be able to participate in the match. That's how it's worked countless times in the past: In a tag match or other multiple-person match, the face gets attacked before hand, the match starts, and midway through he comes out to make his triumphant comeback.

Nail on the head, Ron. There were ways this angle could have been fully appreciated, and there were ways this angle could have been truly offensive. I think WWE may have landed somewhere in between, but their website definitely cried wolf and it's things like that which create mockery towards pro wrestling.

I honestly didn't take the angle too seriously. I mean like the article says the whole wrestler being attacked before the match has been replayed over and over throught the years. I figured hardy would comeback and win the belt. He should have competed in the match and not just beat up on HHH, and kozlov. By the way I didn't see the match, so does a triple threat match have no rules? I always thought they had some but I guess I am wrong. And does anyone think that maybe this was not the match that needed saving? Yea I read reports of the match being boring and all but I think having cena win the title was a bigger mistake than having HHH or Hardy win the title. I mean HHH has been a champ 12 times b4 and can carry a ppv or smackdown. Im not saying cena can't but come on he hasn't even been on raw in 3 months and he gets a title? I honestly can't remember a angle cena was involved in that I cared for. And since he dropped the rapper gimmick he is just the same typical wrestler. But I digress im just some fan who knows nothing

At first, I thought it did go too far. I thought that only because I was completely fooled. Th eexpression on Tazz's face at the start of the PPV sold me 100% that the story was legit. Add to the fact that JR mentioned that CNN ABC etc carried the story (which I was unaware) that solidified the story.
But looking back, it was a good way to add some interest to an otherwise lack-luster PPV. I wasn't impressed with Cena's return. We all knew he was coming back. We knew he was going to win in his hometown. The only surprise was the new AWA-style t shirt he wore. Otherwise, Cena is stale stale stale.

Please bring back the Dr. of Thug-O-Nomics...please!

It's not going to happen, is it? Damn kids and women!

I don't think that the WWE went overboard with Hardy. I just think it was the wrong approach for that particular performer. When I first heard the news, I thought Hardy was another wrestler whose body finally gave in to the numerous years of drug abuse. I would not have worried had it been Triple H, or another wrestler who doesn't have any wellness violations. The way to go with Hardy would have definitely been to say he was attacked. However, what's done is done and it was obviously a work. Edge winning the World Title is about 6 months overdue. I didn't like the way Triple H trashed him when he first moved over to Smackdown. Also, there's a problem if Great Khali is in the main event, as was the case during HHH title reign. With Edge, we finally get that heel champ to make the World title chase way more interesting. Cena, whatever. Jericho should have kept that title for a bit longer.

Eh, I saw the words "as reported by WWE.com" and knew it was a work. If it had been reported by a new organization that didn't solely cite WWE.com I may have bought it. But if the only source is the joke that is WWE.com then it shouldn't be taken seriously at all. Anybody who thought they took it too seriously takes wrestling too seriously. You know, like Seth and any angle involving death.

El Duke, WWE usually gets the news first. If you remember, we first learned about Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit's death through the WWE. THEN AP and Reuters, etc picked it up. The news was just misleading considering who was involved.

I didn't learn until a few minutes about this angle. I think it was an alright idea but the way they went about it was wrong. Knowing Jeff and what all has happened in his past, makes you think the worst.

And also to Cisco II: About the Doctor Of Thug-O-Nomics- I hate the fact that they stopped doing that because of children. I mean, they have women out there wearing hardly nothing when they know they have children watching the show. If I had a kid, I would rather than think of Cena as a rolemodel than most of the women they call wrestlers. And I don't get where you're coming from on the whole women part. I don't think the fact that women watched influenced their decision in any way. It's not like they had people comlaining about it anyways.

Good god, I'm glad this article defended them, because after seeing the headline I was seriously about to go off on one.

It was absolutely awesome. Everything went as planned. Before Jeff's rise this past month, I thought TNA were really gaining on the WWE, especially with the MEM going on. However WWE just pulled so far away yesterday that it wasn't even funny.

After a great year, and after the ending of the major storyline involving HBK and Jericho, the WWE had lacked a bit of buzz. Especially on Raw, and while Kozlov had been doing a good job, Smackdown had lacked it too. However they went right back into awesome mode with this past month.

The story yesterday took that buzz to a whole new level. They managed to fool major news outlets, and it played out perfectly. The fans wanted Hardy during the match, Vickie's part was hilarious, simply because you knew the fans were going to get played, and how great and huge was the pop when Edge's music started? Absolutely fantastic.

This can now set up Edge vs Jeff at Mania. They kill time by giving HHH the obligotory rematches, while they throw everything at Jeff and tell him that because he keeps screwing up, he's never getting another shot again. Jeff goes even more crazy, so Vickie gives him one more chance. If he can beat the Big Show, he can enter the Royal Rumble. Jeff overcomes those odds, then Vickie comes out and says he has to enter at number 1. It comes down to Jeff and HHH, with the student finally overcomming the master, and earning the spot at Mania, before defeating Edge and becomming the companies' biggest star on their biggest show ever, and FINALLY reaching the top of the mountain.

One thing though - I also think they were absolutely correct to leave some ambiguity in the story. It generated more buzz, and made fans believe something could be real than if they said he had been attacked by a blunt object right off the bat. If people have a problem with it, they need to get a new past time. If you were fooled, learn to love it. Let it remind you of what it was like when you watched wrestling as a youngster. There aren't many times when we as adults can watch wrestling and still be genuinely surprised, genuinely shocked or genuinely believe something is real, so when it does happen it should be savoured.

Apparently me and wweisright are watching a different show because the Hardy angle really killed any buzz the PPV had for me. When I read te whole thing was a swerve for Edge I pretty much predicted exactly what happened last night. It was a nice bait an switch, don't get me wrong, but last night was insanely predictable. I knew Orton would go over, I knew Edge was going over as soon as I knew he was involved, and I knew Cena was going over the second Jericho won the title back from Batista.

And @ Yemi
Just because wwe.com presents legit news on occasion doesn't mean I bought it right away. I waited until I saw a legitimate news organization reported it with independent confirmation from the police. I pretty much treat wwe.com like a bad blog. I don't believe a word on it until I see non-WWE sources. It's unfortunate, but it's how they've conditioned me to view that site over the years.

You have to have a cynical eye with everything they present to you because there's a 99% chance it is a work. If some people fell for it, good for them. I like to lose myself in the work sometimes too. But my absolute disdain for Jeff Hardy also contributed to my indifference to the stor on wwe.com too.

This is a great debate. Lets see wweisright on this one, I watch wrestling every week. Raw, impact and smackdown and haven't been surprised since the ultimate warrior showed up in the sid/hogan match at wrestlemania 8 or nine. I mean its gotten so predictable even my fiance who only watches because I do predicts what will happen.

But as far as the whole I can't trust wwe.com anymore lets be realistic here. if something truly went wrong with jeff and he violated the wellness policy I don't think wwe would have went about it in this way. Isn't hardy on his last strike? If it had been a drug od im sure wwe would have known by 2pm when the story was reported. Hospitals do have rather quick ways to do drug tests. And if he did unfortunately die wouldn't they have said that instead oif oh he was found unconscious at 3am? I mean lets be real, jeff has had a problem in the past but would anybody care about the angle if it were anybody else without a history of drug abuse? Would you be all up in arms if it were say undertaker? Its wrestling. Same thing happened with vince when he "died" a few years ago. People were so quick to believe that dumb angle it actually got legs with people who didn't even watch wrestling. All in all it was done good, and obviously wwe got what they wanted because everyone is talking about this now.

And what's this about women and children and dr thug-o-nomics? I didn't watch wrestling for a little a few years back but was that the reason for the gimmick being dropped?

If you as a parent have a problem with what is on tv you do have options besides criticisim.

1. Try being a parent first and foremost. A television should not be raising your child.

2. Watch that particular program with your child and see if it is acceptable for a 9 year old.

3. Block channels on cable that are to mature for the younger children.

4. Put your kids to bed at a decent hour. If your children are up until 11 on a school night look at yourself and not wwe.

5. Don't blame the women for what they wear. Men are wearing the same types of outfits. A man's nipples are always exposed in wrestling, but never a womans unless its an accident. Men's asses hang out too when they wrestle. Hell I've seen vince in a thong.

And last if its really a big deal what vince and wwe do don't freakin watch. MNF is on at the same time. So is Heroes. Hell cartoon network plays cartoons all day except on like saturday mornings. Some parents need to stop blaming everyone besides themselves when it comes to parenting. If we did a better job being role models and not dependent on fantasy figures to do the job maybe the world would be a better place

I think people were just upset about the Hardy angle because they got fooled. Let's not forget - WWE's goal is to make us believe that what we see is real.

Smarks like to pretend that they're above WWE and band together in message boards about how smarter and better they are than WWE creative.

Creative fooled the smarks. They did their job. Get over it.

Please don't use that argument of "if this happened to one of McMahon's kids..." because has the 10 years taught you nothing about the McMahons? Vince would do anything to exploit his family if he thought it would produce ratings. Didn't he use Stephanie's pregnancy as the backround for jokes by DX a few years back? I could swear that McMahon who admittedly cheated on his wife multiple times made out with Trish right in front of Linda. Please tell me where anyone got the impression that "Vince knows better than to..."

gateway: I'm not necessarily blaming the women for what they wear. It's just the reason why the WWE have them wear the stuff they wear- eye candy for the men. Sure the men's nipples are exposed but heck, you can see that on a beach anyday. I don't think there are many females who watch wrestling just so they can see hot guys. I, for one, don't; I watch it for the actual wrestling. I also feel that when they dress women the way they do, that they think that's all women are good for; cooking, cleaning, taking care of the kids, looking trashy, etc. I don't like see the men wear thongs either. That's just completely disgusting and morally wrong. I hate having to worry about one of the 'Diva's' having a wardrobe malfunction and when you have to worry about a guy falling out of his trunks, there is obviously something wrong.

I think think the angle was a bit inappropriate. To put this in perspective i thought this site was overreacting to Vikki Guerro standing next to a casket, but too many wrestlers have been found dead in hotel rooms before shows recently.

It's a shame that WWE has to rely on cheap and arguably tasteless stunts moments before a ppv to try and sell it when they have weeks to do so. Too bad they can't seem to put together any compelling long term story lines that fans seem to care about.

How about this. Let Regal come back mad at Punk for eliminating him so quickly at survivor series. Give him some mic time and a 5 minute squash against a local jobber. Let punk respond and have and solidly defeat a JTTS. do this for the next couple weeks. Follow up with a pull apart show before the PPV. Two guys who can work the mic, and get the crowd into their match, and the promise of a good match at the PPV if given 10-15 minutes or so. I would buy that. Certainly seems to make more sense to get me hooked for weeks beforehand than to try and make me buy a ppv minutes before hand to see if a wrestler was dead (by the way, i didnt). Is it really that hard?

to "s" - first of all, "Is it really that hard?" That's what she said.

The storyline was that they found Jeff Hardy unconscious in the stairwell of the hotel. That's a classic wrestling angle, just replacing "backstage" with "hotel."

If anybody thought drugs were involved, then that's their own fault.

This is in the same vein as Vickie and the casket. Since Eddie died, she shouldn't be in a casket. Well, nobody said the same thing when Chavo was put in a casket. Using that same logic, Chavo shouldn't be put in a casket either.

In my estimation, there was nothing wrong with the setup for Survivor Series. I thought the last-minute touch of the "hotel incident" was perfect since the final outcome was Edge winning the title. Hardy is protected, so he actually came out of Survivor Series in better condition than he came in.

This storyline worked, since Hardy didn't get pinned and has legitimate claim to the WWE title. Despite it's alleged "poor taste," it accomplished what it needed to do - set up Hardy for either a title reign or a strong series of matches against Edge.

to chris slater

Nice thats what she said

I think people are overreacting about vickie and chavo in a casket. It is the undertakers gimmick and really not a direct use of eddie's death unless you look to make it one. Orton destroying the lowrider and saying eddie's in hell on the other hand...

I agree with everything you said about the end result of the angle: edge got the title, jeff didnt get pinned, jeff has legitimate claim to a title shot. Sounds very similar to what they did what, two months ago with CM Punk, look how well thats turned out for him. As you said it is the classic wrestling angle, just replace backstage with hotel, again, see the Punk angle 2 months ago. So why then did WWF not do it backstage? The only reason i can think of is to snag a few extra PPV buys from people looking to found out if Jeff was dead and to see the tribute if he was. It just reaks of desperation and stunt booking rather than addressing the flaws in their overall product.

If the article said "Jeff Hardy attacked in stairwell", we wouldn't be having this discussion. The angle itself was fine, and I liked it, but the wording of the article was tasteless. It was worded in the same tone as the Eddie and Benoit deaths, and without the "What will this mean for his Survivor Series match tonight?" sentence at the end, I would have thought it was real.

Wade Keller summed it up pretty well I thought:

http://pwtorch.com/artman2/publish/font_color_770000_KELLER_S_TAKE_font_11/article_28117.shtml

WWE set up the angle perfectly for Hardy, just like they set up the angle perfectly for CM Punk. They just didn't follow through with Punk, and he's now a tag team champ in the running for an IC title shot.

Hopefully they'll follow through and at least give Hardy a short reign. If he only has one strike left, give him the belt and at least get something out it. If he gets his third strike tomorrow, then WWE lost all the revenue they could have drawn from giving him the belt two months ago.

In a perfect world, this will lead to Hardy winning the Rumble and winning the title at WrestleMania. I would even accept Hardy winning the MITB match at Mania and getting a short reign sometime in 2009.

They turned Cena to a babyface when Cena started to appeal to kids & women simultaneously. That sells tshirts, hats, armbands, spinner belts, etc. It's pretty tough to have a heel when all the kids & women scream in a high pitch.

Off subject, but did anyone notice the "racial divide" during the interview with Randy Orton's team? I assume that the producer figured Randy Orton needed to be up front because he was the team leader, and Cody Rhodes needed to be up front because he was talking to Orton, and then William Regal was placed up front because he was going to be the first eliminated.

But it kinda looked like they just came in said, "Ok, we need the black guys to stand in the background! Don't say anything, we're just going to feed you to Batista during the match, but you're part of this team, so we need you in the shot. Just, please, we cannot stress this enough, please stay in the background!"

I was hoping WWE would have another interview with Team Batista where Kofi Kingston and R-Truth stood behind Batista, CM Punk, and Matt Hardy (but instead, they just had Kofi and R- eliminated from the team first).

WWE should've worded it in such a way that it was clear he was attacked (maybe some references to his room being a mess, while randy orton's was surprisingly clean), so fans didnt jump to the conclusion that jeff OD'd on something and it was a serious matter.

WWE's job is to make us suspend our disbelief, not make us think its real. The difference might be small, but in cases like this, its significant. They can EASILY accomplish this without playing on our fears that Jeff Hardy might die.

Eliminate R Truth from the WWE...please.

JEFF HARDY !!

what a performer.!
He is the best wrestler to watch on TV by far !
The way he looks is epic.
chicks dig him.

He does stunts that no one else in the entire wwe
even thinks about doing..
You feel the pain he goes through when does them
outrageous falls.

he puts his body on the line for his die harted fans every
time he walks down the ramp which no other wrestler of
today does.

He does crazy hardcore extreame stuff for his fans and not for the money
and thats why
he has the most loyal fans ever..

without the unpredictable legend of Jeff hardy the wwe is going down hill
espicially with crowed booing HHH vs Kaslov matches and being unempressed with
cena's return.

wwe are needing more hardcore personels like mik folley and old school shawn micheals.
to keep public intrested and not just kids.