4 times real-life incidents were used in storylines

#2: Jeff Hardy and his real life

CM Punk insults Hardy!

9 years ago, the WWE pitted the much-loved duo of Matt and Jeff Hardy against each other for the first time since they had reconnected for tag team success in 2007. From there Jeff Hardy found his way to the top of the mountain in the company, some would say his popularity even soared over John Cena at this time.

For Matt Hardy? He had been working on the much-maligned ECW brand as the champion and had just lost the title to Jack Swagger. Matt turned on Jeff at the Royal Rumble and of course, the feud relied on the two brothers’ differing career paths to stoke the fire. In one promo, Matt brought up the burning of Jeff’s house while he was suspended.

It didn’t stop there, though, as Matt even had the dog collar that belonged to Jeff’s dog that got killed in that fire. That’s a reality. Well, maybe it wasn’t the actual dog collar.

Even with the sub-par promo abilities between the two, the reality made the feud passionate to the viewer. Later that year, Jeff got embroiled in a heated feud with CM Punk.

If there was a machine to handcraft human beings and you wanted complete polar opposites, you’d make CM Punk and Jeff Hardy. One is straight edge almost to a fault, one has a career marred by substance abuse issues. One is known for his risk-taking in the ring, one is known for his technical abilities and smooth talking on the mic… and a lot of smooth talking CM Punk sure did on Jeff Hardy.

Always one to bring up how dissatisfied he was at the fact kids idolized Jeff despite his past and not him, Punk’s greatest dig at Jeff came after Jeff had left the company. The week after ousting Jeff from the company in a loser leaves WWE Cage match, Jeff’s theme music hit and as the crowd roared for his shocking appearance, out came CM Punk donning Hardy’s trademark face paint and mocking his unorthodox entrance.

The last time Punk noted Jeff was when WWE released his DVD and Punk proceeded to throw it in a trash can in the centre of the ring. The feud was riddled with hatred, but was it real? Who’s to really say? Truthfully, despite their difference in lifestyles, I think they have a mutual respect for each other. At the end of the day, it definitely wasn’t Punk’s last believable feud.