25 Best WWE Raw Matches Ever
23. Jeff Hardy Vs Umaga (January 7th, 2008)
It was a stroke of luck for WWE when Jeff Hardy got popped with a Wellness Violation in February 2008. Losing their Intercontinental Champion slap bang in the middle of WrestleMania season was embarrassing to say the least, but it didn't compare with the horrendous press they would have received had their chief headliner gone down at the very worst time of the year.
It retrospectively justified the company not having the 'Charismatic Enigma' go over dull WWE Champion Randy Orton at January's Royal Rumble, despite his transition to global megastar climaxing just weeks earlier in a dramatic steel cage contest against Umaga.
'The Samoan Bulldozer' had previously had the measure of Hardy in increasingly brutal battles, but a buoyant Jeff was scaling new heights as a singles performer and throwing himself off of familiar ones in their dramatic feud to prepare him for his topline battle. Generating spine-tingling sympathy from younger sections of the audience and refining his highspots to fit within the narrative of his matches, Hardy was finally all things to all fans, just weeks before his hidden demons unfortunately exposed themselves again.