10 Things That Made Us Embarrassed To Be Wrestling Fans In 2016
9. The New Day-letion
Broken Matt Hardy’s Deletion saga provided one of the biggest stories in wrestling last year. The act didn’t quite turn TNA’s ailing fortunes around, but it did create an insane amount of buzz around two wrestlers (Matt & Jeff) who looked washed-up at the beginning of the year. Their viral popularity surged, and as the Hardys completed one of the most remarkable career turnarounds in recent history, they finished 2017 as two of the sport’s hottest acts.
It’s only natural, then, that WWE would try to tip it off.
Encouraged by The Final Deletion’s initial success, WWE decided it’d be a good idea to try and recreate the angle with The Wyatt Family & New Day. With Xavier Woods growing increasingly fearful and paranoid towards the Family, Bray Wyatt himself invited the WWE Tag Team Champions to his compound for a brawl, and on a random episode of Raw, WWE repurposed The Final Deletion.
Predictably, WWE’s version lacked all the weird, absurdist charm that makes the Hardys’ broken brilliance so compelling. It was lame, shallow, watered down, and worst of all, reeked of a cheap imitation. Stealing other companies’ ideas is nothing new for WWE, but rarely do they do it so blatantly in the New Era. Fortunately, WWE were one and done with the concept, and they haven’t stolen anything from Matt Hardy since.