Yeah the Hardy thing didn't connect with me either. Even though I can understand his plight the last 2 weeks, it still just felt like it came out of nowhere. Maybe it's us as fans just being used to retirement angles... though as Shadow said "Who cares, he's gone!"
I don't know what it is about Impact the last three weeks, but a lot of what happens feels really stale. There was a lot on the line with the well-told story of Gunner and Storm but felt like I had to force myself to care just for a lame ass DQ finish. They're doing a lot of the same things as usual but the shows don't have that aura of excitement that they used to. Maybe it's the crowd, is the Impact Zone crowd really THIS bad?