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In each edition of Gimmick Some Lovin', we take a look at one iteration of a gimmick match available on the WWE Network. Some are iconic for their success, others for the extent to which they flopped, and some just... happened.
We defined a "gimmick match" as, in any way, adding a rule/stipulation to or removing a rule from a match, changing the physical environment of a match, changing the conditions which define a "win", or in any way moving past the simple requirement of two men/women/teams whose contest must end via a single pinfall, submission, count out, or disqualification.
Monday night, on RAW, WWE viewers were treated to the first official glimpse of Broken 'Woken' Matt Hardy, a rebirth of the character Hardy made famous (or infamous) during his final days in TNA. Fans had been clamouring for the character to debut since Hardy, alongside his brother, Jeff, made a surprise return at Wrestlemania 33 in April (and had been salivating over the occasional teases of the pair's absurd Broken catchphrases).
The promo wherein Hardy resurrected this persona to face Bray Wyatt in a battle of free-association promised a return to the utter insanity and theatre-of-the-absurd performances that defined the latter days of the brothers' TNA tenure, and is being heralded as one of the best moments of an above-average edition of the WWE's flagship show.
To honour this moment, we're looking back at another time a Hardy closed out RAW, a contest considered one of the best matches on "free television" pitting Jeff Hardy against WWE Undisputed Champion The Undertaker in a ladder match.
The Undisputed Championship
The last we checked in with Big Evil, he'd been demolishing "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair in a Wrestlemania X8 street fight featuring one of the most macabre (but also coolest) images of The Dead Man's career.
That same show, Triple H defeated first-ever Undisputed Champion Chris Jericho, taking home both the WWF and [former] WCW Championships in a Foregone Conclusion Match (HHH and Jericho in a high-profile match almost never turn out well for the Fozzy frontman).
The two championships would be consolidated into quite possibly the best-looking version of the WWF/E Championship of all time, which "The Game" would hold for roughly a month before losing it to Hulk Hogan after interference from The Undertaker at Backlash.
Hogan's reign would be as short-lived as Helmsley's, with The Undertaker claiming the strap via lightly pushing Hogan down by the throat chokeslam at Judgment Day in May. Taker won the opportunity to challenge for this title after defeating Steve Austin for a title shot at Backlash in a matchup featuring Flair as a special guest referee utterly incapable of seeing Austin's foot on the ropes during the deciding pinfall.
Big Evil's conquest of the recently-renamed WWE complete, he began a campaign of reminding every single competitor on both rosters just whose yard the ring really was (spoiler alert: it's his).
Bully Ray Callaway
Booger Red's yard maintenance mostly consisted of humiliating undercard performers in increasingly creative ways, then inflicting upon them massive amounts of pain in creatively brutal ways.
Forcing Tommy Dreamer (in a gross-guy-who'll-eat-anything-while-wearing-ugly-Jncos gimmick) to choke down a cup of tobacco spit and obliterating rookie Randy Orton and his apparent lack of respect exhibited Taker's mean streak perfectly and ignited a fire under tag team specialist Jeff Hardy.
The Hardyz were fresh off attempting to stop another monster ruthlessly terrorizing smaller superstars, the recently returned Paul Heyman and his blue-chip prospect Brock Lesnar. Jeff Hardy had established him as the ultimate David against WWE's gallery of Goliaths standing up for his brother Matt after a Lesnar assault on the steel entrance ramp before losing via TKO to The Next Big Thing in Lesnar's pay-per-view debut.
Lesnar and Heyman would then defeat the Hardyz again in a "tag team" contest at Judgment Day, featuring Heyman taking advantage of nonstop Lesnar brutality against the brothers from North Carolina to tag in and claim the glory (and the pinfall).
Still smarting from these beatings, Jeff Hardy would sling stones at another behemoth when he'd interrupt Undertaker's bullying with guerilla attacks saving colleagues like Dreamer from the Deadman's wrath.
Undertaker would guarantee Hardy the opportunity to get famous with a shot at his Undisputed Championship, which Hardy accepted under the condition that it be a ladder match; Undertaker agreed, and the match was set for the July 1, 2002, Raw main event.
The Rules
Jim Ross, who (spoiler alert) will prove himself to be one of the best parts of this match, adds some flair to explaining the stipulation, saying, "There are no pinfalls! There are no submissions! There is no countout, no disqualification!" Past that, it's a ladder match; the Undisputed Championship will hang above the ring, and the first man to climb a ladder and claim the strap walks away as the winner and the champion.
The Match
Logically, from the moment this match was made until the performers made their entrances, nothing about its result should have been in doubt. Undertaker's role in an upcoming triple threat match against Kurt Angle and The Rock was the hot ticket main event for the upcoming Vengeance PPV, and Hardy's modest singles success (a handful of tertiary title reigns with things like the European and Hardcore Championships) painted him as an entertaining performer but did not make him a legitimate contender to be "the guy".
The moment the match begins, however, it becomes the epitome of the willing suspension of disbelief; Hardy antagonizes The Dead Man by reclining on Taker's motorcycle, and when Big Evil takes the bait, Hardy opens the match by sending the ladder into his opponent with a sliding dropkick, following it with by putting Taker down with a plancha from the ring to the floor.
The introduction of a chair adds to Hardy's advantage before Undertaker responds by throwing his minuscule challenger at the ring, barricade, ladder, announce desk, and any other pain-creating object in the arena.
The opening minutes of the contest establish a great pattern the pair would follow until its finish: Undertaker punishes Hardy with stiff weapon shots and by tossing Hardy at anything he can, while Hardy manages to pop the crowd with improbable comebacks where he inflicts even more pain on himself, tossing his own body at the big bully to gain momentum.
Sentient rag doll that he is, Hardy flails his way around the ring to wild ovations, taking advantage of a Whisper in the Wind putting down the Dead Man to retrieve the oversized painter's ladder which has become the modern hallmark of this match variation. Each time Hardy hauls his tiny frame up the ladder, the arena noise grows exponentially in volume; that logical conclusion to this contest is all but forgotten by the story these two men tell.
These voices add an extra desperation to the voice that defines this contest: WWE play-by-play announcer Jim Ross. Ross begins the match pleading for Hardy to be saved from the brutality he faced, then slowly convinces himself of the possibility of a Hardy win, before screaming himself hoarse with excitement as Hardy begins what would be his final ascent.
By the time Ross urges Hardy, "make yourself famous," he sounds as if he'd just called an entire six-hour Wrestlemania card while gargling Tabasco sauce and smoking Marlboro reds: his trademark Oklahoma drawl is as ragged and beaten as Hardy's body, and takes the drama up to 11.
Just as Hardy is reaching for the title and Ross is at his most emphatic, Undertaker clatters Hardy across the back with a steel chair before ascending the ladder to chokeslam him off, easily retrieving his title and his yard as we'd all expected.
Hardy, however, refuses to quit, and makes it back to his feet to taunt The Undertaker as he returns to his bike for his exit; Taker responds by re-entering the ring to deliver a Last Ride, attempting to exit a second time. Hardy takes to the mic to let Undertaker know he still was not dead, and the Dead Man feigns another attack before congratulating Hardy for his toughness as Hardy's music to close out the show.
My Rating
Every aspect of WWE storytelling at the time telegraphed the ending of this one long before the opening bell. The Cleveland Browns had a better chance at a streak of Super Bowl wins than Hardy (even in kayfabe) had of walking out with the win.
Between Hardy's place on the card, the upcoming triple threat, and the presence of Old Guard championship contenders like HHH, Rock, Austin, Angle alongside the soon-to-be-coronated Lesnar, 2002 was not the time to make Hardy a world champion.
Again, logically, nobody at home or in the arena should have held any hope that Hardy would grab the belt on this night. Unfortunately, nobody told the crowd, Ross, or Hardy himself.
Even 15 years later, it's hard not to get swept up in the audience's and Ross's conviction that Hardy was on the cusp of greatness. It's an absolute Starmaker of a performance for someone who'd already had several of those on pay-per-view stages, but rarely got the chance to shine as a singles performer.
Hardy marks himself a plausible contender from that opening dropkick and turns fans and announcers alike into pre-adolescent marks each time he throws himself at his gargantuan foe. Ross allows himself to get caught up in the crowd's fervour, and his cries of "Make yourself famous!" earned a deserved spot in his career highlight reel.
2002 and 2003 are easily forgettable years in professional wrestling history; the Attitude Era had died, its heroes slowly moving away from the squared circle, and the new generation that would lead the company into the 2000s and 2010s were still months (or even years) away from becoming must-see characters.
Matches like this, our third foray into 2002's gimmicky goodness, show that 2002's highs were very high; however, that year is defined for many by a declining viewership and waning interest in a product that often tried to hard to ape the Attitude Era of just a year prior. This match deserves to be considered one of the best non-PPV matches in WWE history, as well as one of the best ladder matches the company has ever produced. 10/10
Meltzer Says
I couldn't find a Meltzer star rating for this contest; two other ladder contests on RAW in 2002 did receive four or more stars from Big Dave, the contest pitting Rob Van Dam against Eddie Guerrero from May of that year, and the TLC contest from the fall. This one would hopefully have received a similar rating.
