I have completed our collection of Sunday Night Heat screen captures from 1998. Enjoy!
Gallery Links:
Screen Captures > WWE Programs > Sunday Night Heat > 1998 > October 4th
Screen Captures > WWE Programs > Sunday Night Heat > 1998 > November 1st
Screen Captures > WWE Programs > Sunday Night Heat > 1998 > November 22nd
Screen Captures > WWE Programs > Sunday Night Heat > 1998 > December 13th
Matt Hardy
Matt Hardy often wonders how they did WWE.com lists without him.
At the dawn of the original brand split in 2002, Matt and Jeff Hardy went their separate ways — Jeff to Raw and Matt to SmackDown — leaving the WWE Universe to wonder who would be the bigger breakout Superstar. Many pundits placed their bets on Jeff, wowed by his unique energy and daredevil tendencies. Hearing this, Matt realized that he needed to go back to square one … Version 1, that is.
Completely retooling his attitude (or, Mattitude as it would come to be known) and demeanor, Hardy endorsed this relatively new thing called the internet and created Version 1 — a brand that was all about embracing two things: Everything cutting-edge and telling the world how stinking great Matt Hardy was.
Matt would develop “Matt Facts” (little nuggets about him that appeared on the screen during his dialup-inspired entrance), gain Mattitude Followers (shout-outs to Shannon Moore and his Moore-Ons), and become one of the most dominant Cruiserweight Champions in SmackDown history, even main-eventing an episode with a title defense against Rey Mysterio.
Version 1 catapulted Matt up the blue-brand ranks and saw him take the internet by storm long before it was really even possible to do so … it would be far from the last time The Sensei of Mattitude pulled that off, though. — RYAN PAPPOLLA
Credit: WWE.com
That Jeff Hardy and Randy Orton’s Hell in a Cell Match ended the way it did is less than surprising: Hardy’s rivalry with Orton had become far too stomach-churning to conclude with something as quaint as an RKO and a pinfall, and The Charismatic Enigma has been in search of a blaze of glory inside Hell in a Cell for some time now. He found one.
For Hardy, competing inside Hell in a Cell was one of the last few milestones he’d yearned to achieve in WWE, though he fought like a Superstar stepping into his eighth dance in the cage rather than his first. With the psychological advantage he usually possesses rendered obsolete, Orton had no choice but to battle Jeff with pure brutality: After wearing Hardy down with lashes from his own belt, The Viper produced a toolbox from under the ring, pulled out a screwdriver and threaded it through Hardy’s earlobe, twisting the tool around and around in a sickening display until The Charismatic Enigma finally beat him away with a low blow.
Revitalized by Orton’s savagery, Hardy saw red. The Charismatic Enigma propped a chair on Orton’s chest and executed a pinpoint Swanton — aggravating The Viper’s already-wounded back — before erecting a sinister setup involving two ladders (a short one and a tall one) and a table. After propping Orton up on the table, Hardy scaled the smaller ladder, seemingly planning a leapfrog. Then, he audibled onto the taller one, seemingly planning a Swanton. Then, Hardy left the ladders entirely, suspending himself from the Cell roof like monkey bars, dropping for what appeared to be some kind of splash on The Apex Predator.
Only Orton moved. And Hardy crashed and burned, shattering the table in his attempt to put Orton away. Much to the referee’s horror, Orton made the cover and insisted on defeating his opponent with a 1-2-3, and the official counted the pinfall, if only to get The Apex Predator out of the ring so EMTs could strap Hardy to a stretcher and wheel him away. It was the result Orton wanted for sure, and, perhaps, the one Jeff Hardy wanted as well. After all, he said would take Randy Orton to hell with him. He didn’t say anything about coming out.
Credit: WWE.com
Gallery Links:
WWE Photos > Weekly & Pay-Per-View Digitals > 2018 > Pay-Per-Views > Hell in a Cell
Screen Captures > WWE & TNA Pay-Per-Views > WWE Pay-Per-Views > 2018 > Hell in a Cell
