[2001-08-19-WWF-Summerslam] Jeff Hardy vs Rob Van Dam

[GOTNW]

A strange turn of events has made me want to watch Jeff Hardy and here we are. One could question the decision to start a ladder match out with chain wrestling but they presented it as a face vs. face match and it worked for the crowd. This was always going to have big bumps and the ladder spots. I liked how they sold inbetween them but I didn't like the obvious set-ups some of them had. There were two or three spots that were just incredible-completely unique and organic use of the ladder like I'd never seen, like RVD was trying to pick up the ladder that was outside the ring and Jeff jumped from somewhere and the momentum carried over and the ladder hit RVD in the face, it was really great. But for every cool spot like that you'll get at least one very questonable looking move. I liked how Jeff just threw his body around, in that sense his lack of fluidity probably helps his character. I also liked some of the transitions like Jeff countering RVD's Dropkick with his Legdrop on the crotch and him jumping over RVD's kick and blasting him with a DDT but this went a little too long and they ran out of ideas. I also feel a personal disconnect in a way which RVD portrays violence, it just looks stupid to see a guy grab a ladder and go "hey you know what would hurt? if I did forward rolls and then jumped onto it". Yeah. It's hurt yourself. And since his character also includes doing kung-fu spots it doesn't really make sense for him to do that. Why not just beat the other guy with the kung-fu? Or hit him in the head with the damn ladder while it's there. **3/4