The Complete History of the WWE Championship - Part 14

Jeff Hardy (December 14, 2008 - January 25, 2009)

Jeff Hardy: Finally

realised

his dream at Armageddon 2008

Jeff Hardy debuted in WWE as an "enhancement talent" way back in 1994, when he was just 16 years old (he allegedly had told the company he was 18 in order to secure a tryout).

His first WWE bout took place on May 23, 1994 in a contest with Razor Ramon that was, predictably, a losing effort.

By 1998, however, Hardy and his brother Matt had become part of the main roster as The Hardy Boyz.

They won their first Tag Team Championship together in the summer of 1999 and became the innovators of the TLC Match with long-time rival teams Edge and Christian and The Dudley Boyz.

Hardy began wrestling in singles in 2001 and had collected a large array of singles titles prior to 2008.

He began the year with huge momentum. He had defeated Triple H in a Number One Contenders bout at Armageddon in December 2007 and unsuccessfully challenged Randy Orton for the title in a spirited showing at the 2008 Royal Rumble.

Hardy was the last man standing in the Elimination Chamber Number One Contenders Match at No Way Out in February and came within a whisker of winning the gold at Unforgiven 2008 in September and No Mercy and Cyber Sunday in October.

When December rolled around, Hardy finally broke through the glass ceiling and won the WWE Championship by pinning Edge in a triple threat encounter also featuring Triple H.

It was a long road to the title for Hardy and, unfortunately, his reign was to be extremely brief.