The only thing that was broken on Sunday night was Jeff Hardy and one of his incisors.
Jeff teamed with his brother Matt Hardy to defend the RAW Tag Team Championships against the team of Sheamus and Cesaro. The legendary team was making its first pay-per-view defense since the duo made their memorable return at WrestleMania 33 to enter fatal four-way ladder match for the titles.
Ironically, it wasn’t a ladder that caused harm to the Hardys, but instead the brute force of Sheamus’ right foot. The Celtic Warrior and former WWE champion kicked Hardy, who was down on the mat recovery, straight in the face as the tooth soared out of his mouth.
And… @WWESheamus just kicked a tooth out of @JEFFHARDYBRAND ‘s mouth! #wwepayback pic.twitter.com/IKO6I4jI9Z
— Son of Rob (@JesseRobson) May 1, 2017
Hardy continued the rest of the match with one less tooth in his mouth. However, he and his brother still managed to successfully retain their titles and Jeff got a measure of revenge on Sheamus. The elder Hardy hit Sheamus with his signature Swanton Bomb to win the bout.
The celebration was short-lived, however, as a frustrated team of Sheamus and Cesaro assaulted the WWE legends. After weeks of teasing frustration with the Hardys, Sheamus and Cesaro officially snapped and will likely continue their pursuit of the gold.
After the match, Jeff Hardy received medical attention for his missing tooth.
As for the younger Hardy, Matt took to Twitter and continued to tease the return of his Broken character in a spat with Sheamus. Hardy made several mannerisms and mentions to the gimmick during Sunday’s title defense, a gimmick that enabled the veteran to enjoy a career renaissance across several promotions.
The Hardys returned to WWE on April 2, just one night after losing their Ring of Honor Tag Team Championships to the Young Bucks at Ring of Honor Supercard of Honor XI. It was revealed by Matt Jackson, the elder of The Young Bucks, during an appearance on Edge and Christian’s Pod of Awesomeness this week that Matt Hardy came up to the tag team and informed them of a message from WWE chairman Vince McMahon, via Still Real to Us.
Great show of respect by @WWECesaro and @WWESheamus as @JEFFHARDYBRAND and @MATTHARDYBRAND hold onto the #Raw #TagTeamTitles ! #WWEPayback pic.twitter.com/gAIxRcqcS3
— WWE Universe (@WWEUniverse) May 1, 2017
“[Matt Hardy] comes up to the ring and he’s like, ‘Vince McMahon called me this morning and said, ‘hey I know these Young Buck kids are good, but could you please tell them to take care of you guys? We actually felt a lot of responsibility there too. We knew what they were doing the next night. We were two of the few guys in the world that actually knew about it. Nobody else in Ring Of Honor that night knew about it except us. So we were like, ‘we can’t hurt these guys.’ What would that look like on us? […] That was definitely weighing on our hearts. We were like ‘we gotta take care of these guys.’ They’ve got a big night tomorrow.”
They certainly had a big night the following day, surprising the WWE Universe with an unexpected return and Youtube video that has since generated nearly 15 million views.
HIGH-OCTANE offense from @JEFFHARDYBRAND has @WWESheamus in big trouble right now… #WWEPayback #TagTeamTitles pic.twitter.com/RcAOOZ1Ch4
— WWE Universe (@WWEUniverse) May 1, 2017
Sheamus — who is known to work stiff in matches — wasn’t as careful on Sunday and it cost Jeff Hardy a tooth. But if The Hardy Boyz utilize their “Broken Brilliance” in their feud against Cesaro and Sheamus, it should yield delightfully wonderful results.
[Featured Image by WWE]