[2014-08-02-NEW-Wrestling Under The Stars III] Matt & Jeff Hardy vs Young Bucks

[Phil Schneider]

Really great stuff, an out of nowhere classic. I can't believe how good Jeff Hardy was in this, he is a guy who had his moments over his career, but I think the consensus was that he was completely shot by 2014, a casualty of drugs and bumps, but I cannot remember him ever looking this good, not only was he bumping like crazy but all of his offense looked really good. When has Jeff Hardy ever thrown good punches? He was cracking the Bucks here, spin kicks looked great, just a unbelievable performance. I really loved how the Hardy's incorporated all of the Bucks stuff into a traditional hot southern tag. Their taunts came off more like douchey heeling and less like meta wink wrestling. More John Tatum less Chuck Taylor. I was also really impressed how the Hardys were able to keep up with the Bucks fancy shit, there are some elaborate sequences in this match, and they looked great, the speed was still there, but they way it was slotted in, made it look less like a dance routine then if the Bucks ran them with Ohio is for Killers or the Addiction. Eric is going so nuts for this match so I feel like I have to throw a little water on the fire, I did think the Meltzer Driver should end a match full stop, I just don't buy Matt putting on a move 45 seconds after selling it, even if he did a nice job of selling. I also think that the Hardy's are a little short on offense, so they spammed the side effect and twist of fate a bit, I loved Matt's gutwrench suplexes, and I would have rather he used more of them or even just some bodyslams. Still those are very minor complaints on what is otherwise a remarkable match. No one could have predicted this

[tim]

This match ruled. One of the best tags of the decade for sure. Awesome mix of old school tag structure with high spots and a great home stretch. Lots of intricate exchanges that were pulled off really well and didn't feel contrived. Toward the end they just walked the line between a series of dramatic nearfalls and over-kill, but never went into overkill territory. Bucks were really good as heels here, so much better than their wink-wink smark schtick. Crowd was great too, nice to hear an authentic crowd reacting to a heel/face match how they "should". Jeff hits a crazy suicide dive here. Maybe my favorite spot in the match is an exchange on the outside built around a couple dive attempts, ending with one of the Bucks superkicking Jeff while he was going for an Asai moonsault. Phil is right about the Bucks using their superkicks as really effective signature moves at important points in the match rather than gimmick spamming them. Hell of a match. Wish the Bucks could work like this more and had the right foils to do so.

[Bierschwale]

Really excellent match. Steen's commentary is horrible but this is an awesome display.

[bradhindsight]

When I first started to watch this, my initial perception was that this would be a nice "name match" that is just an exhibition of greatest hits moves and shtick from both teams. Holy shit is that wrong. Instead this is 26 full minutes (entrances are cut - match is on YouTube from Matt Hardy's channel) that is laid out incredibly well. It builds great, and as Tim notes, they never went into overkill here. Everything made sense, and honestly all four guys were phenomenal.