[Mr. Nerfect]

Originally Posted by The Critic Hot diggity damn. The problem is, though, that if he drops the title immediately... then that's what he just did. He picked up the belt for sake of picking it up. Now WWE's forced to make him run with it, and actually do something with the reign, lest it come off as a worthless way to add another rank on Randy's list of accomplishments. If they have him drop the belt, it's going to look like the writers are flailing--they don't know what they're doing, and the belt turns into a hot potato. Not that the writers' credibility is a good defense for the title reign--the overall storyline has to be considered. Again, if Randy drops the belt now, it'll have made the initial win totally pointless. They've already put the belt on him, it'd be a waste to have him lose it. They might as well milk what little they can out of the fact that Orton's now champion. I'm sure they can think of something relevant. Matt's jobbed like it's going out of style since the Mattitude era, though. Again, I feel like the Edge/Lita angle was where it went downhill--Matt came back hotter than curly fries, only to get totally stomped out by Edge's rise to the main event. From there, it was a long, painful ride down the Smackdown ladder. Yeah, he's made a recovery more recently, but it's hard to see him as anything greater than lower midcard after getting worked over so many times. He has some sort of... jobber taint on him. Every time I watch a Matt Hardy match, I expect him to lose any minute. Yeah, he makes a wonderful underdog that way, but I can't see him being champion without rehashing Rey Mysterio's reign. Jeff Hardy's had his down periods, but he's been a pretty consistent midcard/upper midcard guy. He's never gotten huge wins, but he has had some pretty close calls against main event guys. Is he less talented? Hell yes. He's never reached that rock bottom of jobberdom that Matt has, though. I'm fully expecting that if, by some bizarre crack writing, one of the Hardies actually gets the big belt... the other Hardy is going to feud with him. Whether Matt'll chase Jeff or Jeff'll chase Matt, it'll probably roll on until someone more credible comes back from injury and ruins the whole fucking angle (Batista winning the David vs Goliath setup that he had nothing to do with, for a recent example. Actually, I'd put money down that Batista would be the guy to fuck it up). Rarely do either of the Hardy boys get a solid push without some sort of crisis occuring, though. If enough top guys get injured, then yeah, I could see one of them becoming champion. You'd have to go through a pretty fat list of jacked up, talentless shitheads before they dropped the belt on a Hardy, though. I mean, look at the Cyber Sunday poll: Is there a Hardy on it because the WWE's got a thing for them, or because there's nobody the fuck else to run for it? You know the poll options would be Cena, HHH, and Shawn Michaels, if God weren't so easily amused by optimism.

It's a fair point that if Orton loses the belt now, it goes down as nothing, but basically it comes down to having a shitty car, and deciding whether or not to pay for it to become road worthy, or just writing it off before you throw too much money into it and it becomes a write-off. Personally, I'd go safe with Randy Orton, but I guess you'd feel more comfortable with sorry. I certainly wouldn't go with "Randy Orton goes over everyone to look like a dominant heel, though." The guy is far too unreliable for that treatment. Yeah, he's been around since 2002, but there is still a chance of Brock Lesnaring him. Give him too strong a push, and then he fucks you over, and then what?

Also, I actually disagree with you on the Matt being the jobber thing. I actually think Matt wins more than Jeff. I'm too lazy to actually check that up, but the guy gets some pretty consistent victories on SmackDown!. Jeff Hardy often finds himself squashed by giants to put them over (well, once against Mark Henry). Jeff Hardy still dresses like he used to, and comes out to the same music, and if I had to call one of them more jobber-like, I think it would be Jeff, just because he reminds me more of his tag team days.

I agree with you on The Hardys feuding. I think that is something Vince wants to do, we just haven't heard about it yet. A Jeff Hardy vs. jealous Matt Hardy feud could be pretty cool. Especially if Matt Hardy is allowed to show some personality.

KK also makes a great point about Jeff Hardy's reliability. The guy can go out there and put on a good show, but he can also stink up the place. Then there is his behaviour and wellness issues. Once again, it comes down to safe or sorry, with Matt Hardy being safe, and Jeff Hardy being the bigger risk of the two.