Incensed over his controversial United States Title defeat to Shinsuke Nakamura this past Sunday at WWE Extreme Rules, Jeff Hardy kicked off SmackDown LIVE. Jeff admitted that he possibly wasn’t thinking clearly when he chose to start the match two days ago after Nakamura went low. The Charismatic Enigma promised he would be focused on two things tonight: Making The King of Strong Style feel as much pain as possible and taking back his United States Championship.
Coming in as focused as he promised, Jeff Hardy took the fight to Shinsuke Nakamura as he attempted to regain the United States Title in this WWE Extreme Rules rematch. With the playing field leveled (unlike Sunday), the Superstars exchanged stiff strikes at a dizzying pace to stake their claim to the title.
In the pivotal moments, Jeff seemed to have Nakamura down for the count after hitting him with a picture-perfect Swanton Bomb. However, outta nowhere, Randy Orton arrived, broke up Jeff’s pin attempt and started savagely assaulting him to give The Charismatic Enigma the disqualification win.
A wounded Hardy attempted to fight back, but The Apex Predator overwhelmed the former United States Champion, stomping his skull into the steel steps. Then, in a very disturbing scene, The Viper attempted to rip the piercing out of Hardy’s ear, extensively stretching his earlobe. The Viper then threw Hardy over the announcer’s table and continued the assault. WWE personnel ran down to try to stop Orton’s attack, but Randy concluded the beating by DDT’ing Hardy off the table, as Nakamura just watched on from a distance.
Credit: WWE.com
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As jubilant as The B-Team were after their title win, it was an even more shocking loss for Hardy & Wyatt, who were undefeated as a team after joining up to form The Deleters of Worlds. Given that The B-Team had scored individual wins over Hardy heading into the pay-per-view, they unsurprisingly built their game plan around isolating The Woken One from Bray Wyatt, and for good reason. Dallas & Axel struggled to find an answer for the former WWE Champion in the opening moments of the match, and The Reaper of Souls’ re-entry into the contest seemed to swing it in the champions’ favor within a matter of seconds.
The B-Team, however, had clearly progressed more than the champions had given them credit for, and they turned their attention back to Hardy when he tagged back in to set up the Kiss of Deletion to Bo Dallas. Axel climbed on the apron to break up the maneuver, and Dallas quickly followed up, shoving Hardy into Wyatt and dropping The Woken One with a hanging rolling cutter off the ropes — earning a victory that seemingly solidified their belief that the “B” in B-Team stands for “best.” Now, Dallas & Axel’s Cinderella story extends to chapter two, while Hardy & Wyatt face a task even more daunting than deletion: A reset.
The opening bell hadn’t even rung before The King of Strong Style made his move on Hardy, flooring the champion with his signature move — the low blow — behind the ref’s back. Hardy struggled to his feet and insisted on starting the match, only to suffer an instant Kinshasa that snapped his reign and landed Nakamura the first championship of his WWE tenure.
Nakamura’s celebration was cut short by the arrival of recent U.S. Champion Randy Orton, but while The Apex Predator appeared to be sizing up Nakamura, he surprised the Pittsburgh faithful by turning his attention to Hardy and administering a punishing stomp to the nether regions before making his exit. Jeff Hardy was a proud, confident champion, but life didn’t just come at him fast at WWE Extreme Rules. It came out of nowhere.
Credit: WWE.com
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Jeff Hardy recently spoke with the Canton Rep while promoting this weekend’s WWE live event in Canton, Ohio:
Recently Jeff talked candidly about his career as well as his music (he fronts the hard rock band PeroxWhy?gen) ahead of his Canton appearance.
Q. When you got your start in WWE, you were enhancement talent for a few years. Talk about that early experience of breaking into the business.
A. “It was our opportunity, and we did that for three or four years before we signed a developmental deal. It was our chance to show them what we could do, and I miss that today. You don’t see that much anymore — the superstar vs. the enhancement guy. We always knew if we went out there and did something to make them remember us or say, ‘Hey, these guys have a little bit of that “it” factor that we need,’ we can make it happen. During that course of time, I remember thinking, ‘I’m gonna go out and do whatever I can to impress somebody,’ whether that’s take a big crash and burn to the floor or something, I want to make them remember me, and it all paid off.”
Q. When did it go from enhancement talent to stepping into your own, and was (legendary manager/promoter) Jim Cornette the guy who recognized there was something special in you?
A. “Yeah, through Jim Cornette I remember going to Smoky Mountain Wrestling years ago, and it was our first opportunity to be on TV somewhere at the time. We thought it was great. He was a big help. Later, Jim Ross was a mentor, and finally Michael Hayes became our biggest influence. He taught us so well as far as understanding the business more. We needed to at that time. So many people helped us along the way, and we’re really grateful.”
Q. What did you learn from veterans of the business? Are there intangibles they passed along?
A. “For sure. Psychology, No. 1. Now that I’ve come into my own personality and my own individual in pro wrestling, I think there are so many different forms of psychology as far as telling stories. They helped us along the way, and they had different opinions, and we could take those and then modify our own. I think that’s what made me and Matt such a good tag team over the years. We are so opposite in a way, and we think very differently, but that made us good as a team.”
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