For years, Matt and Jeff Hardy were presented as inseparable brothers who were among the most popular tag teams in the division. But when they split, the crowd favored Jeff over Matt, and this showed in the difference between their singles careers. Jeff won both the WWE and World Heavyweight Championships and main-evented several PPVs, while Matt languished in the mid-card, never grasping the brass ring like his brother did. So in 2009, Matt turned on Jeff, costing him the World title, and proceeded to make the feud as personal as possible, including referencing a real-life incident in which Jeffs house burned to the ground. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q5hTSS7ukE The feud reached its pinnacle in discomfort when Matt brought in a charred dog collar recovered from what was once Jeffs house, indicating that Jeffs dog had died in the fire. It was uncomfortable to watch Matt demonize his own brothers real-life losses and mistakes, and the charred dog collar only made it worse. When fans tune in to watch a wrestling show, they want to see wrestling with storylines. What they dont want to see is tasteless manipulation of real-life loss for the purpose of making an already-personal rivalry more personaland uncomfortable.
Alexander Podgorski is a writer for WhatCulture that has been a fan of professional wrestling since he was 8 years old. He loves all kinds of wrestling, from WWE and sports entertainment, to puroresu in Japan.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Queen's University in Political Studies and French, and a Master's Degree in Public Administration. He speaks English, French, Polish, a bit of German, and knows some odd words and phrases in half a dozen other languages.
