WWE Payback 2017: Assessing The Potential Quality Of All 8 Matches
6. The Hardy Boyz Vs. Sheamus & Cesaro - WWE RAW Tag Team Title Match
The wave of nostalgia surrounding the return of the Hardy Boyz shows no signs of receding - but Payback poses something of a challenge. Unless plans change, the Hardy Boyz Vs. Sheamus & Cesaro is a straight singles match. There will be no ladders, no crazed compound setting, no BROKEN brilliance - no shortcuts with which to conceal the age and decreased mobility of the Champions.
Without those shortcuts, the Hardyz - on the surface - stand little chance of matching the efforts of their peers in NXT.
But the Hardy Boyz have spent their career making fools of their detractors. Few predicted that their bodies could withstand the brutal buckle of the classic ladder matches at the turn of the millennium, but they wrestled two in the span of twenty four hours over WrestleMania weekend a decade and a half later. Ring of Honor fans loathed Matt Hardy in 2013. He was their hero three years later. Jeff Hardy was a living obituary in 2011. In 2017, he's clean and motivated.
On that basis, there's no reason why Matt and Jeff cannot - especially when paired with the supernaturally talented Cesaro - trounce these mitigated expectations and deliver something approaching the dynamic efforts of #DIY on Sunday.