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Match #57
Sting (c) vs. Jeff Hardy
for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship
TNA Victory Road - March 13, 2011
Sting (c) vs. Jeff Hardy
for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship
TNA Victory Road - March 13, 2011
Look, you know how this match goes. You know exactly how this happens, how Jeff Hardy comes out to the ring clearly out of his mind and everyone around him has to scramble so he doesn't cripple anyone else or himself. You also know I hate the match and it's not going above my bottom three. So, this time, I want to put a positive spin on the match. I want to take a look at how everyone involved managed to avoid an even greater disaster.
But first I want to point out how the tale of the tape says there will be "no excuses" for Jeff Hardy. Oddly prescient.
Another Me hits, and I timed it myself: it takes 45 full seconds for Hardy to stagger out. Somehow nobody in the back stopped him. He lip-syncs his theme out of time to the camera, and then tries to take a fan's Australian flag. Sting has probably seen what's happened early, and he tries to distract from what's in the ring by appealing to the crowd. Though, in some shots, you can notice he has a face like an absolute slapped arse. When he enters the ring, we get a really brief shot in the background of the ref throwing up the X, to confirm what Sting already knows, that Hardy can't compete. In a wide shot, we also get the same referee relaying this fact to SoCal Val (good to see she's recovered from the Bully Ray assault) who will soon go to the back and tell them to improvise.
JB really stalls the special in-ring introductions (well, only partly in-ring, because Hardy's wandered off). Hardy flips off the crowd, which they edit for Impact Plus, rather than doing the sensible thing of editing out the whole match. Also, Brian Hebner looks silly holding the Immortal "crayon in ass" belt.
Sting's thrown a bit off guard by Eric Bischoff coming out (to his solo music, rather than the Immortal music, so you know this is unplanned). He delivers a promo that, while clearly coming right off the top of his head, actually explains a valid reason for what he's about to do. The Network interfered by bringing in a mystery opponent in Sting recently, so Immortal's going to interfere now by doing something Hardy will expect but Sting won't: make the match a No DQ. (Of course, this is done to give Sting more avenues to finish the match early.) All the while, he communicates to both Hardy and Sting the new finish (which he does to Sting while looking like a smiling fucking mug showing respect. Who said Bischoff can't act?). Now all that's left is for Sting to deck Bischoff so the match can begin.
And begin it doesn't, since Hardy spends a minute teasing throwing a shirt into the crowd. At least he isn't doing anything else. Sting HATES this. He corners Hardy, at which point the "Enigma" just decides to drop his shirt on the ground. They lock up, and you can see on some later shots that Hardy actually cut Sting with his nails. Not wanting to get an infection from whatever dirt and drugs are on there, Sting goes for some really stiff shots, and drags him into the middle of the ring for a Scorpion Death Drop. Despite Hardy trying to pathetically kick out, it ends in a three count.
The crowd chants "bullshit" as they've had a non-finish followed by a 90-second match. Sting agrees as the production crew scrambles to replay LITERALLY EVERYTHING on the show to fill in PPV time.
Not much to say, is there. When Hardy came out, it was a matter of damage control, and everyone tried their hardest to control damage.