[Mr. Nerfect]

Originally Posted by Dave Youell I’ve said all this before, but here goes. Jeff isn’t going to win on Sunday. The feud alone has elevated him, he doesn’t need a win, because it will hurt Orton, more than it will help Jeff. This feud has proven to fans that even without a match, he’s a potential main eventer and that is what this feud is all about. They have played to Hardy’s strengths and Orton has been putting him over like a god. But when push comes to shove, Orton needs to keep momentum, he hasn’t really had a clean win yet, and realistically he’s going to Mania as champ, so he needs to have clean wins from now until March to stay strong. Hardy’s fan connection is immense, he does have the everyman thing going for him, like Dusty, because he’s not like everyone else on the roster, he’s a skinnier guy, who’s not afraid to go against the grain and any fan could easily be him. That’s what the Dusty connection was, know he was a man of the people for the people, yes it’s corny, but that’s why I’ve always liked Jeff. Don’t get me wrong, as a mark, I would totally love Jeff to win the belt, but thinking about the direction of the business, it makes better sense to keep with Orton, Jeff is already elevated to an upper mid-carder now, keep him in high level programmes till the summer and then re-visit the title scene, he will still be as strong, a feud with him and HBK would be great, or he could go to smackdown, where he would realistically have a better shot at winning the title.

Personally, I think Randy Orton winning would hurt Jeff Hardy more than it would help Randy Orton. As a fan looking to order the Royal Rumble, there are two really big selling points to me: The Royal Rumble Match, and Jeff Hardy riding that momentum to a WWE Title win. If they have Orton retain, they better do it a way that makes Jeff Hardy look very good. He will lose a lot of fan support otherwise.

The reason people have been buying into Jeff Hardy, including his former critics, such as myself, have been the sheer mark-out moments of him keeping his word. Randy Orton should have made victory impossible for Jeff Hardy in the Steel Cage Match, but Jeff instead hit that massive Whisper in the Wind, and completely obliterating Umaga.

Then Randy Orton devised a devious plan to get Jeff Hardy into position where he could kick him in the balls and then switch the momentum, but Hardy back body dropped Orton off the stage, avoiding a knock-out kick, and then hit that amazing Swanton Bomb.

The story here is that Orton's heel tactics aren't washing with Jeff. The second they do, this feud is pretty much over, in my opinion, as would be Jeff Hardy's immense amount of good will.

I can understand why you'd want to keep Randy Orton strong, but I think from a direction of the business standpoint, you need to look at who is going to make you money. Jeff Hardy is a bigger draw than Randy Orton, so it makes sense to have Hardy head into WrestleMania. The guy has been better recently, but Orton is not going to sell any tickets.

What the WWE have done with this feud, is tease so heavily that Orton is going to lose the WWE Title to this kid who has been on a roll, that if that event does not happen, people are going to be pissed. What you have to decide, I guess, is whether or not it's good to get them pissed heading into WrestleMania. Are you going to build up another face to take the belt off Orton, or are you going to play it safe, and give the fans what they are paying to see.