Gimmick Some (Wrestlemania) Lovin': Spring BROKEN Edition

The more Matt evolves through the years, the more Jeff stays the same.

The Build

Like another famous Matt Hardy blood feud, the rivalry between the brothers Hardy took real-life tensions and made them kayfabe to aid the in-ring intensity. Recent entries into Bruce Prichard's Something to Wrestle podcast (a highly recommended program for anyone watching WWE between 1987 and 2010) have highlighted the fact that Matt was always far more driven to succeed in the business, but fans and executives alike always gravitated toward Jeff.

Matt would have to work twice as hard to achieve half as much as his younger and, by many people's definition, more charismatic kin; Matt developed a unique and technical in-ring style, while Jeff ragdolled himself all over arenas across the country, and off of anything taller than a ringpost. When the duo went the singles route, Jeff found himself showered with multiple singles championship runs up and down the card, while Matt often struggled to make the best of being handed scraps.

WWE Creative mixed all of that real-life tension into its on-camera action at the 2009 Royal Rumble, where Matt lost his ECW Championship to Jack Swagger; appearing later on, chair in hand, during Jeff's WWE Championship defense against Edge, Matt Hardy cost his brother the match and the championship, explaining that he had gotten sick of sharing the spotlight with his addict brother, who received more second chances than anyone not named Orton and who was coasting off charisma and circus stunts.

Like in

the Magnum T.A.-Tully Blanchard contest

, it's easy to forget sometimes in this feud that these two are acting.

Offscreen and on, Jeff Hardy had been suffering a string of bad luck losses, such as a kayfabe car crash and pyrotechnics malfunction, as well as a real-life house fire which cost Jeff his home and his beloved pet dog. Matt, in disowning his flesh and blood and declaring his independence from Jeff's shadow, took credit for all of these things, hoping to make The Daredevil suffer as much as Matt felt he had suffered being the Marty to Jeff's Shawn all those years.

Jeff attempted for weeks to maintain his cool, showing the serenity to accept the things he cannot change, until summoning the courage to attempt to change the things he can by fighting back against his brother. A Wrestlemania clash was booked and, owing to the intense hatred between the two, the match was made an Extreme Rules contest.