Moreso than Zack Ryder, the real-life, wrestling-life and internet-life connect/disconnect that Matt Hardy created ultimately overshadowed his inherent in-ring charisma and solid wrestling talents. For as much as Jeff Hardy was an obvious "World Champion in development," Matt used his ability to weave a unique platform that blended his entire life into one force of digital and human nature that when he bet it all on a worked-shoot version of his shoot estrangement from his girlfriend Lita (and subsequent feud with Edge), tossing love and heartbreak into that volatile mix arguably caused his mainstream pro wrestling career to fall apart. When you're ramping up support for yourself and have a solid sense from the company that employs you that your fans supporting you will ultimately lead to success, what Matt Hardy did by embracing YouTube and social media made sense. However, when said rabid support was not turned into a long-term main event run and/or a period of time as the WWE Champion, Matt Hardy's dedicated work in desperately getting his fans to engage with his seemingly perpetual public relations machine likely felt empty. Of course, when a man who has drank water returns to a well that is dry, it means that he's either drank the well empty, or others have dug holes next to him and are happily drinking water that was once all his own to enjoy. Now no longer desperate, Hardy engaging his social media and Youtube machine at present for his run in Ring of Honor and re-development of his OMEGA promotion has had far more positive benefits because well, his fans likely don't feel like they're being used in a wild goose chase for a championship belt that will not be earned and a career that actually be less successful because of said loss. Everybody loves a winner. When a winner loses, though, that same love is quite difficult to find yet again.
Besides having been an independent professional wrestling manager for a decade, Marcus Dowling is a Washington, DC-based writer who has contributed to a plethora of online and print magazines and newspapers writing about music and popular culture over the past 15 years.
