[1998-12-05-OMEGA] Matt & Jeff Hardy vs Serial Thrillaz (Mike Maverick & Shane Helms)

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

There are times when these guys show their inexperience, but overall, it's pretty awesome that these guys look so polished despite not really working on a big stage yet. The Hardys were somewhat traveled, but Shane Helms is much better than I would expect at this stage. The Hardys would retool their act in a way that worked better on a national stage. Jeff was better as the hot tag guy since he had so many over highspots. Matt was a better seller so he was a better face in peril. In this one, they hadn't figured that out yet, and the Thrillaz got the heat on Jeff. Still, Jeff was good in his role and Matt worked the apron well too. I don't think this was a great match, but it was very good, and it's their 1/99 match that gets the most praise anyway. The more important takeaway was that it showed that these guys had promise.

[soup23]

Agree that they crafted a good match mixing in high octane spots around a traditional southern formula. The crowd was bizarre and the announcing live forced me to turn the volume down. A couple of spots I really liked was the miss dive by Helms followed by the missed elbow drop and Jeff's senton to the outside was nasty. This wasn't great to me either but very good and very promising to the future for all four guys. (***1/2)

[tim]

Wow, I really liked this match. A lot more than I was expecting -- I know about the rep of this matchup from time time but somehow had it in my head that it wouldn't hold up. But I thought it was great. There are definitely some moments where their lack of polish/experience as performers comes through but they aren't enough to detract from what is a really awesome traditional style tag match. Really liked the face offense in the beginning, especially the monkey flip and drop toe hold spot. The FIP was good with Jeff taking some big bumps and mounting two good comeback tease spots. The transition to the hot tag was really just perfect, Helms got some crazy air on that dive. Speaking of dives, Jeff's flip off the top to the outside was a real holy shit spot for me. Looked like he was gonna come down right on his head. Simple but very effective with some great big spots thrown in and going the perfect length. Hell, for tag matches I think I enjoyed this more than that Hildebrand show tag. If their 99 match really is significantly better I sure can't wait to see it.

 

This match made me think how much a shame it is that the Hardys don't have more great, traditional style tag matches they do. Getting into the WWE when they did made them big stars and tons of money but you definitely feel the opportunity for a better body of tag work was lost there. They have these matches, the MNM match from 2007, the Briscos match from this year ... how much else? They should have dozens more classic tag matches than they do.

[PeteF3]

Not a great match, not the best indy match of the year, but much better than a lot of other indy matches on these sets. A good structure will do that for you, and the Hardyz and Helms already know how to lay out a southern tag match but punctuate it with more advanced '90s offense. Weirdly, since they make such a big deal about the Hardyz signing WWF contracts, it seems to heel them with the crowd to the point where you'd swear it was by design. But the match is worked with them as babyfaces all the way. Then some goof gets on the mic and rants a bunch and comes off as every stereotypical indy promoter desperate to be part of his show.