50 Greatest WWE Raw Moments Ever
38. Jeff Hardy: Nearly Man (July 1st, 2002)
Jeff Hardy was substantially closer to the end of his first WWE run than the beginning when he gamely challenged for the company's top strap in the summer of 2002, but never had he felt closer to the actual peak when he grasped desperately at the belt itself during a spectacular ladder match with The Undertaker.
It was a contest both men needed without ever imagining it could remotely help their causes. 'The Deadman' was back on top of the mountain but he'd ascended via one complete stinker against Hulk Hogan at Judgment Day and was coming off yet another one against Triple H at King Of The Ring. He'd turned heel to freshen himself up the prior November, but the bad matches and moments had stacked up to such an extent that the run was increasingly feeling like yet another bust. Meanwhile, Hardy was wearing the scars of his prior years on his torn sleeve. Smaller in every way, Hardy was looking and feeling like a victim of his own insane early-career success, and would exit the company completely a year later. But for one night, he genuinely looked the man to lead it.
Set to an all-timer call from Jim Ross literally begging him to shimmy up the ladder and realise his dream before the Champion pulverised his back with steel chair shots, the crucial moment where Hardy's fingertips grazed the title saw time itself stop dead and the wrestling world take the free seconds to imagine the impossible. The match had been Hardy's experience with the gimmick against Undertaker's experience full stop, and though size and power trumped guile and heart as it typically would in WWE, the moment in particular was evidence of how well the story had been told, and how a fit-and-ready Jeff really could reach high enough to smash the glass ceiling if he ever wanted to again.