Seeing Jeff Hardy leave WWE in 2009, barely 2 months after winning the title, and on a random episode of SmackDown, broke my heart as a kid. Nevertheless, it could be said that the twilight of his run was one of the most interesting things in wrestling at the time.
Same, he’ll always be a great to me just off how big of a star he became in that year stretch and how much him becoming a main eventer elevated his status and took over the company.
That’s true but also an example of just how good he is. He’s been around as long as he has and reached the levels he did despite messing up so many times because he is that good. If he hadn’t been so good like he was he’d never have gotten to accomplish those things. Back in 2008 he was booked to win the MITB match and likely go on to win the title but he failed a drug test like a month prior to WM. He did get to win the world title a number of times because he was so absurdly popular but the unreliability factor is why he’d always lose the thing right away in the WWE. But the fact he even got to still win the thing despite failing two teste, especially one so close to WM and knowing what was ahead of him, only ever happened because he was so good and so popular. Anybody with less would’ve never even sniffed it
Me too ! I stopped watching in 09 after Jeff left ! (Favorite wrestler of all time) i misssd the entire 2010 year and I returned back watching in 2011 the night triple h and undertaker returned that night when they started their first fued for their second match mania (the night they looked at the mania sign, real fans remember that) but yeah that’s when I returned…
Bro… you couldn’t have put it into better words…barely entering 8th grade that summer and stopped watching it all together. My heart was broken, I hoped it was kayfabe the next day to cope until I read reports on NoDQ I knew it was real…
Jeff Hardy was everything to me and my family back then. We LOVED him over everyone else at the time. He had everything, passion, determination, all of it, and his win at Armageddon 2008, still remains one of our favorite memories. But when he left WWE in 2009, we were shocked. I became depressed for a bit, and it truly was a low time. Like I knew of TNA and that at the time, but as a kid, I stayed loyal to WWE, and never got to see Jeff’s new ideas at the time. Nowadays, I’m happy he’s back in AEW, I just hope he doesn’t do anything reckless and remains sober, healthy, and happy, all alongside his brother. God bless Jeff Hardy.🙏❤️
@@thetruej7872 man I remember hoping against hope I’d see him on TNA. I didn’t have internet at that time and when they moved to Monday nights I was switching back and forth thinking “if Jeff showed up that’d be cool” and I missed it in my switching back and forth and didn’t know he’d been back for months 🥴
Jeff Hardy was a integral part of my childhood. Seeing him lose the match and leave like this shattered me completely. And then the fact that CM Punk dressed up as him and trolled everyone with his entrance just rubbed salt in the wound.
I remember that bs like it was yesterday. Even after all of that, Cm punk still Insisted on slandering Jeff Hardy's name for WEEKS, long after he was gone. That slowly drove me away from watching Friday night smackdown. I wanted Matt to shut his mouth but punk was whooping his ass left and right also. By that point Cm Punk earned his spot as one of the most cancerous heels In the WWE. that was my last straw after that. I can appreciate how the WWE used cm punks trolling to squeeze In some Marketing for Jeff's 2010 Documentary.
I legit stopped watching wrestling when Jeff left. I tuned into Smackdown the next week to see CM Punk mocking his entrance and never watched again till 2016
It was a sad day for me as a kid to see Jeff Hardy leave WWE. His championship run was meant so much to me. so many emotions and sadness were there when he left WWE that night.
This video definitely helped me realize part of the reason for why I hated 2009, not just with the pointless celebrity cameos and the whole PG era thing. I understand the situation, but man the things Jeff had to go through to try and retain his title...
@@23baydonny36 when you actually go back in his career it lowkey sucks lol he lost every feud just about til 2019 W Sami Zayn randy , and sheamus Funny thing I just remembered Sami won randy won and sheamus lost but got a push 😂 Jeff’s dumbest decision was leaving wwe after beating kross he was supposed to face Roman 😂
This to me was the true end of the Ruthless Aggression Era cuz after that Shawn Michaels left at Mania 26 Batista left 2 months after that Matt Hardy left shortly after Triple H went to a Part Time Role The Undertaker went to Part Time Edge retired in 2011 John Cena became more Super Cena CM Punk became The Best in the World Randy Orton became "The Viper" Chris Jericho went Part Time Rey Mysterio disappeared 😂 But this to me Had a ripple effect on the whole company and was like The End of Ruthless Aggression and the slow turn to the PG Era
@@willg1088 he jumped off the top of some high places and got pulled over driving drunk in the middle of the day. I would not say he's doing "great" in AEW
@@willg1088 sometimes you gotta understand Vince wouldn't put a title on someone dealing with drugs. It's sad but true Tho Vince buries wrestler like mysterio
I was a fan of both Jeff Hardy and CM Punk, so from the start of this feud to the end of it had me filled with such inner conflict. After hearing what happened to Jeff afterwards made me depressed.
I remember this like it was yesterday. I was so sad when Jeff Hardy lost his career in WWE. That made me hate CM Punk even more as a kid. We didn't see Jeff in WWE until 2017 at Wrestlemania 33.
@@HeelJay you can say that too but they didn’t compare to years prior. Ratings also took a nosedive through those years and fan frustration was at an all time high.
I was 11 years old and I remember crying when he was “forced” to leave. Then January 4th 2010 happened and he redebuted on TNA Impact. I remembered only wanting to watch Impact because he was one of my favorite wrestlers. I didn’t care about WWE with the exception of big shows like Mania. Without Jeff WWE wasn’t the same.
Jeff was always a favorite from the beginning, I always felt like he was capable of being a superstar. Unfortunately his career was plagued by his personal struggles and I think that really kept him from being a true legend status hall of famer as an extreme wrestler. His transparency with his struggles and how genuine he is as a human being always made him a favorite.
Man 9 year old me was definitely in tears this night. I legit thought I would never see him wrestle again lol. But luckily I was also watching TNA around this time back when I was still into wrestling and he just randomly showed up there a few months later and I went crazy lmao.
This is my goat. Defined a generation. One of the very few guys that broke the mold with the typical wrestler that Vince likes. His aura, look, moveset, his connection with the fans you couldn’t hate this man. I’m glad he’s doing better now and hopefully he ends his career on a high note. My fucking guy Jeff Hardy!
This was one of the worst moments of my childhood at that point in life I remember the entire speech he gave after the match against punk like it was yesterday I was obsessed with him coming back til he and Matt finally returned at mania it was amazing
Thanks for this video Pav. Jeff has been my all time favorite wrestler since I was a kid and that steel cage match on smackdown broke my heart back in 09. I still don’t think I’ve fully recovered lol. I had the privilege to meet Jeff and talk and talk to him about his WWE championship run and even brought up how much that steel cage match scarred me as a child lol
He’s still hands down my fav wwe superstar, but I’m still sad about that night since I was a teen. And major upset that he’s not in 2k23 😢😢😞 But long live the Hardys
I was watching SmackDown at my grandmother's house for her birthday and seeing Punk win that cage match, I had to rub my eyes for a moment because that's how loyal to the company Jeff seemed to be and thus how much of a gut punch it was to lose him.
I started watching wrestling in 2013, so I live watching these videos. You do a really good job at capturing the feeling of the era. I often find myself referring to edge as "slimy" despite never seeing him as a heel. (aside from Judgement Day but that didn't last long)
@@NxFxKW I had a rough idea of what he was like from watching DVDs as a kid, but until I started watching this channel, I didn't understand how it felt in the moment.
A cool fact during Jeff's main event push is that from May to August, Jeff Hardy was in the main event of 4 ppvs over the likes of Cena, Orton, and Triple H. At the end when Punk falls to the ground and wins the cage match, you can legit hear the crowd become dead silent realizing what it meant. Moments before, when Punk pokes Jeff in the eye then slams his face on the cage for him to fall down in the ring made me scream "get up Jeff, get up Jeff". That thumbnail of Jeff sitting in the ring with his head down is so sad.
One of the things that made this feel so real and less WWE was CM Punk's mic work. Even 2 years before the pipe bomb and how Punks career changed after that night, his mic work was truly awesome and sounded different to anyone else in WWE because of how articulate he was and how his mic work sounded off the cuff as opposed to the usual great but highly WWE sounding promos from a Chris Jericho or John Cena or even Ric Flair. I was such a huge Jeff hardy fan back in 2008 when he moved to smackdown and became WWE champ. Actually thanks to Eddie, Rey, Batista and The Undertaker and then later HHH I was such a huge Smackdown fan since 2004. I know CM Punk is no longer in AEW but I really hope we get to see him win the AEW championship one more time just for Jeff Hardy to show up and squash him for it and have a long AEW title reign. I'll probably always be a CM punk fan for what he did for ECW in 2006 and the WWE/wrestling as a whole in 2011 but I need Hardy to beat this man. And I need Matt Hardy to beat Edge badly for what went down with Lita back in the day. I'm an Edge fan too, more so than Matt Hardy...but still.
@@punkzx2608 ...ALWAYS!! Yeah when he returned a few weeks ago in my mind I was like "Could AEW make this shit happen". I know it could be amazing...I hope they can work together
Man, as a kid I still remember this vividly. I got sad everytime Jeff lose a match and it made me sadder when jeff lost and left wwe. I don't care about any other wrestlers at the time because just seeing Jeff on my TV it made me want to tune every smackdown episode he's in.
I had only been watching the WWE religiously for about a month when this happened, and even though I didn't shed any tears, I knew this was a huge and sad moment for us fans. So you could imagine my shock when Jeff showed up on the first ever Monday Night Impact in January 2010. My jaw dropped and I popped.
my favorite WWE youtuber making a video on my favorite wrestler. doesnt get better than this. i was 10 years old when this happened and i cried like a baby this night because i thought i would never see jeff wrestle again. And i still hold a grudge against CM punk all these years later for this idc if it was kayfabe.
The day Jeff hardy left on that random smack down in 2009 really changed my child hood. I was 8 years old and remember crying when he lost, his goodbye promo they showed the next week is something that I never forgot, I tried watching wrestling for another year but it was never the same and has never been the same since.
What made this even worst is when CM Punk came out the next week cosplaying as jeff hardy just straight up playing with our emotions. CM Punk at that point was top tier heel
Man 2009 will forever be a crazy year for me. All of that mainly because of Jeff. After he left, i didn't watch much of wwe until that same year or 2010 when i came back to atching TNA over at my cousin's house and i saw him and i didn't watch wwe much since
I was only 5 years old at the time but I remember watching that match with my dad and we were both in shocked and I was crying so bad lol and the fact punk came back dress as Jeff the next show burned me to the core. I had a huge crush on Jeff at the time and he was the main reason I got into wrestling. When him and Matt came back at WrestleMania 33, again watching with my dad we were both shocked. I think I was 14 when they came back and man my world felt complete. It was like 5 year old me finally got what she wanted, to see Jeff in WWE again. Still will always wonder what would've happened if he stayed in 2009.
I was in the crowd that night in phoenix as a 9 year old Jeff hardy fan, I remember crying my eyes out while my dad and other ppl in the crowd try to cheer me up. Till this day it’s still my saddest wrestling/sports memory.
Thank you for the video. You said everything I had felt. After this for few years, would tune in every week for smackdown and raw hoping that Jeff might show up.
I watched that steel cage match live as a 10 y/o kid & still remember everything from this rivalry. Even though I wasn’t aware of kayfabe at the time, I genuinely thought Jeff was coming back & it was a work or something. 😂 But it made me a lifetime CM Punk fan, that heel work was amazing.
I was there too! I remember even telling another kid there that there’s no way Jeff loses and was so hyped when he came out and ended up crying when he lost it was honestly such a great memory of when I was a kid.
I remember that cage match. That SmackDown was the day before my 16th birthday and id only gotten into wrestling a couple years before in 2007. This was my absolute favorite feud to that point and I liked Jeff but Punk was my guy at the time. Now I really dont care for either one but ill never forget being a teenager watching this match like it was my Rock vs Austin
In July of 2009 Punk and Hardy had a dark match, steel cage match in the Richmond Coliseum (punk won) with the same finish but was a way better match…. Won’t ever forget being there live…..Then when Jeff showed back up in TNA on top of the asylum in January 2010..….. what a time to be alive
I always thought it was a shame that they didn’t give Jeff that moment with everyone. Punk attacking him on the ramp gave me hope he was gonna come back. He definitely deserved a more complete send off.
After Jeff left the WWE in 2009, in drake's words, nothing was the same. He's a extreme icon, a daredevil, always fun to watch when we grown up, when Jeff won the WWE Title at Armageddon 2008, it lives up the hype, it sends the WWE Universe home happy, but on August 28th, 2009, everything changes and nothing was the same with one of the saddest moments in WWE history IMO.
I remember seeing this. I was 9 years old and at my cousin's house at that time. He was hating on Jeff for awhile for whatever reason and he always said to me, that he sucked only to piss me off. And then this match happened.. And of course Punk won. And I remember sitting there completeley heart-broken by what happened and my stupid cousin just sat next to me and said 'That's it.. Jeff Hardy isn't a wrestler anymore..'
wow i never expect that this topic will be told here. i'm the one who's crying alone while watching jeff hardy exiting the arena. he said this is not a good bye but just see you later and i hold on to that. then when he came back after 9 years it blew my mind and being emotional.
When I was 7 years old, in order, in 2006, I was painting my face as much as possible the way he was doing, putting some paper in my left back pocket and going out around the building with my friends. I was a big fan of Jeff. Man, sawing this at that Smackdown, I didn't even wanted to believe.
I live in North Carolina and went to a school in the same county the Hardy's live in. I remember vividly the night he lost and then seeing in the newspaper that he had been arrested. I was beyond heartbroken. I've met him a few times since. One of the nicest people I've ever met.
I'll be brutally honest, I've basically lost all respect for Jeff. But this trip down memory lane, when times were so much simpler, has me praying I'll find it somewhere to love him again. I wish 08-09 went differently for him, but it truly was a wild year.
Man the love for Jeff hardy is palpable through this video… the way u felt about him was the way I felt about the rock… I stopped watching wrestling shortly after the invasion. I only saw Jeff as part of a tag team but man I felt like I missed out on his singles career. no man other than mick Foley could take a bump like this guy. love your videos
WWE sucks now these were my favorite times was the mid to late 2000s to early 2010s seeing John Cena destroy people and legends like Jeff hardy, Cm punk, randy orton, edge, undertaker, triple h, Shawn Michaels WWE will never be as good or the same again 😑👎
there’s only a few youtubers i get on to watch and wrestlingifs is one, his commentary is amazing and videos are so fun to watch and he’s funny. thanks for these vids pav
Nah I’ll never forget this night. The program got interrupted and I had to record to replay but I had to sleep cause being 10 lol and the next day i was hanging out with my friends and one said Jeff lost and had to leave wwe and I DENIED it and watched it and I was so heart broken
Jeff was always my favorite wrestler as a kid, really sucks he couldn’t stay clean for long enough to stay out of his own way. Hope he’s doing better now, recovery isn’t easy
When Jeff left I cried so much he was my favorite next to undertaker as a kid but I am happy he is doing well in Aew hopefully he can put his demons in the shadow realm for good and stay healthy happy and sober
Honestly To this day this was the biggest shock in my years of being a fan and honestly one of the saddest moments of my childhood. I swear it was just so random. This guy was the biggest dude in the company during his absolute prime and he just Left like that. Crazy.
i was there at extreme rules 2009 and i thought it couldn’t get worse than this. jeff hardy is one of the biggest missed opportunities of all time. the 🐐.
pav man watching this channel has been the most amazing and inspiring journey in times where the wrestling business seemed to be lost you were there I wish I could afford to donate on patreon still and hope we talk again sometime -manny
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Hey big fan
1st comment
w
You sold out!
You sold out!
You sold out!
Pav make a video of your favorite songs 😢
Seeing Jeff Hardy leave WWE in 2009, barely 2 months after winning the title, and on a random episode of SmackDown, broke my heart as a kid. Nevertheless, it could be said that the twilight of his run was one of the most interesting things in wrestling at the time.
No one in wrestling was more over then Jeff in 08-09
@@nic8577 that one meme that says “Jeff Hardy was bigger than Obama in 08”
@@DiLL-PiCKLe02 it’s true bro!😂😂😂
i remember this too
@@noumansaroya2898w000465445554
2008-09 Jeff Hardy will always have a special place in my heart❤
Same, he’ll always be a great to me just off how big of a star he became in that year stretch and how much him becoming a main eventer elevated his status and took over the company.
Jeff Hardy left 5 days after my 5th birthday weird.
On everything I love 😫
It was like a punishment for me when I was 5.
When he beat undertaker, in a ladder match I believe was so fucking bad ass
Jeff Hardy was always his only obstacle…I’m surprised he’s made it as far as he has after some of his situations. Will always be one of my favorites!
That’s true but also an example of just how good he is. He’s been around as long as he has and reached the levels he did despite messing up so many times because he is that good. If he hadn’t been so good like he was he’d never have gotten to accomplish those things. Back in 2008 he was booked to win the MITB match and likely go on to win the title but he failed a drug test like a month prior to WM. He did get to win the world title a number of times because he was so absurdly popular but the unreliability factor is why he’d always lose the thing right away in the WWE. But the fact he even got to still win the thing despite failing two teste, especially one so close to WM and knowing what was ahead of him, only ever happened because he was so good and so popular. Anybody with less would’ve never even sniffed it
This was pretty much the moment where most of my friends just stopped watching wrestling. Felt like a chapter of my childhood had just ended.
Me too ! I stopped watching in 09 after Jeff left ! (Favorite wrestler of all time) i misssd the entire 2010 year and I returned back watching in 2011 the night triple h and undertaker returned that night when they started their first fued for their second match mania (the night they looked at the mania sign, real fans remember that) but yeah that’s when I returned…
Bro… you couldn’t have put it into better words…barely entering 8th grade that summer and stopped watching it all together. My heart was broken, I hoped it was kayfabe the next day to cope until I read reports on NoDQ I knew it was real…
I stop watching wwe in 2010 when ecw was gone
I'm also one of those ppl.. that was my last wwe match I watched live
Jesus Christ Loves You All Repent Before Its To Late And Draw Near To Him ✝️😊🙏🙌❤❤❤
Jeff Hardy was everything to me and my family back then. We LOVED him over everyone else at the time. He had everything, passion, determination, all of it, and his win at Armageddon 2008, still remains one of our favorite memories. But when he left WWE in 2009, we were shocked. I became depressed for a bit, and it truly was a low time. Like I knew of TNA and that at the time, but as a kid, I stayed loyal to WWE, and never got to see Jeff’s new ideas at the time. Nowadays, I’m happy he’s back in AEW, I just hope he doesn’t do anything reckless and remains sober, healthy, and happy, all alongside his brother. God bless Jeff Hardy.🙏❤️
I feel you man. I did watch Jeff Hardy in TNA and it was cool, but Jeff Hardy in WWE just goat tier. Glad to see him in AEW. Hope he stays clean.
@@thetruej7872
Same here. Truly hope he and Matt can get that one last tag team championship run before they retire.🤞🙏
@@alec2000 heel Jeff hardy is goated tho
@@thetruej7872 man I remember hoping against hope I’d see him on TNA. I didn’t have internet at that time and when they moved to Monday nights I was switching back and forth thinking “if Jeff showed up that’d be cool” and I missed it in my switching back and forth and didn’t know he’d been back for months 🥴
Mark
Jeff Hardy was a integral part of my childhood. Seeing him lose the match and leave like this shattered me completely. And then the fact that CM Punk dressed up as him and trolled everyone with his entrance just rubbed salt in the wound.
I remember that bs like it was yesterday. Even after all of that, Cm punk still Insisted on slandering Jeff Hardy's name for WEEKS, long after he was gone. That slowly drove me away from watching Friday night smackdown. I wanted Matt to shut his mouth but punk was whooping his ass left and right also. By that point Cm Punk earned his spot as one of the most cancerous heels In the WWE. that was my last straw after that. I can appreciate how the WWE used cm punks trolling to squeeze In some Marketing for Jeff's 2010 Documentary.
I legit stopped watching wrestling when Jeff left. I tuned into Smackdown the next week to see CM Punk mocking his entrance and never watched again till 2016
@@novcane4216 Jesus Christ, talk about being worked.
@@pinealdreams3005 Can you blame me lol. I was like 12
This legit made me cry back then cuz I just saw him at SummerSlam and to see him go at the peak of his career was crushing as a child
It was a sad day for me as a kid to see Jeff Hardy leave WWE. His championship run was meant so much to me. so many emotions and sadness were there when he left WWE that night.
This video definitely helped me realize part of the reason for why I hated 2009, not just with the pointless celebrity cameos and the whole PG era thing. I understand the situation, but man the things Jeff had to go through to try and retain his title...
so manny people stoped watching the wwe after
the celebrity cameos was cool fir the most part
Huh you know Jeff didn’t even successfully defend one time he was transitional champ 😂
@@rishyrish Yeah... Why did they have to do it to my boy like that, he didn't even get to win a Wrestlemania on his own! 😭
@@23baydonny36 when you actually go back in his career it lowkey sucks lol he lost every feud just about til 2019
W Sami Zayn randy , and sheamus
Funny thing I just remembered Sami won randy won and sheamus lost but got a push 😂 Jeff’s dumbest decision was leaving wwe after beating kross he was supposed to face Roman 😂
This to me was the true end of the Ruthless Aggression Era cuz after that
Shawn Michaels left at Mania 26
Batista left 2 months after that
Matt Hardy left shortly after
Triple H went to a Part Time Role
The Undertaker went to Part Time
Edge retired in 2011
John Cena became more Super Cena
CM Punk became The Best in the World
Randy Orton became "The Viper"
Chris Jericho went Part Time
Rey Mysterio disappeared 😂
But this to me Had a ripple effect on the whole company and was like The End of Ruthless Aggression and the slow turn to the PG Era
I agree I think this was the last perfect feud
I mean it was already PG but I see what you saying. That ruthless aggression feel died in 09.
Punk had everything to gain out of this
I remember watching it at 10 years old and my heart was BROKEN 😭😭
It’s crazy to me he still wrestles, addiction and his style should’ve led to retirement years ago. Glad he still wrestles though, I love Jeff Hardy ❤
Aew is gonna get him killed
@@willg1088 I hope not
@@AzureReborn he was doing great in aew
And like it or not . Vince truly loves jeff hardy
@@willg1088 he jumped off the top of some high places and got pulled over driving drunk in the middle of the day. I would not say he's doing "great" in AEW
@@willg1088 sometimes you gotta understand
Vince wouldn't put a title on someone dealing with drugs.
It's sad but true
Tho Vince buries wrestler like mysterio
I was a fan of both Jeff Hardy and CM Punk, so from the start of this feud to the end of it had me filled with such inner conflict. After hearing what happened to Jeff afterwards made me depressed.
I remember this like it was yesterday. I was so sad when Jeff Hardy lost his career in WWE. That made me hate CM Punk even more as a kid. We didn't see Jeff in WWE until 2017 at Wrestlemania 33.
true
CM Punk was insanely over as a heel after eliminating Jeff Hardy from the WWE
I can only imagine how his run would’ve been in WWE had he stayed. Especially from 2011 - 2017. That would’ve been 🔥.
God whatta time to be a fan. To me, wwe will never give me the same vibes 2007-2009 did. Wish I could go back and experience it all over again 🤞
People give post attitude era WWE crap but I was still mostly good up until 2016
@@karlitosway7474 2016-2019 were good years for WWE tho
@@HeelJay you can say that too but they didn’t compare to years prior. Ratings also took a nosedive through those years and fan frustration was at an all time high.
@@HeelJay 2018 was bad though
@@HeelJay2018 was horrible though
It was one of the saddest moment watching this back then, The man was so over during this time.
I miss these days 😔😔😔
I was 11 years old and I remember crying when he was “forced” to leave. Then January 4th 2010 happened and he redebuted on TNA Impact. I remembered only wanting to watch Impact because he was one of my favorite wrestlers. I didn’t care about WWE with the exception of big shows like Mania. Without Jeff WWE wasn’t the same.
Jeff was always a favorite from the beginning, I always felt like he was capable of being a superstar. Unfortunately his career was plagued by his personal struggles and I think that really kept him from being a true legend status hall of famer as an extreme wrestler. His transparency with his struggles and how genuine he is as a human being always made him a favorite.
Part of my childhood died on that day :(
I feel you man.
I’ll same my childhood was crushed when Jeff hardy lost but my whole childhood ended when John Cena became part time
I was literally crying when he left
This is the one time I felt actual anger towards a wrestler. Crazy how special Jeff Hardy is as a performer.
Man 9 year old me was definitely in tears this night. I legit thought I would never see him wrestle again lol. But luckily I was also watching TNA around this time back when I was still into wrestling and he just randomly showed up there a few months later and I went crazy lmao.
This is my goat. Defined a generation. One of the very few guys that broke the mold with the typical wrestler that Vince likes. His aura, look, moveset, his connection with the fans you couldn’t hate this man. I’m glad he’s doing better now and hopefully he ends his career on a high note. My fucking guy Jeff Hardy!
This was one of the worst moments of my childhood at that point in life I remember the entire speech he gave after the match against punk like it was yesterday I was obsessed with him coming back til he and Matt finally returned at mania it was amazing
Thanks for this video Pav. Jeff has been my all time favorite wrestler since I was a kid and that steel cage match on smackdown broke my heart back in 09. I still don’t think I’ve fully recovered lol. I had the privilege to meet Jeff and talk and talk to him about his WWE championship run and even brought up how much that steel cage match scarred me as a child lol
He’s still hands down my fav wwe superstar, but I’m still sad about that night since I was a teen. And major upset that he’s not in 2k23 😢😢😞 But long live the Hardys
I was watching SmackDown at my grandmother's house for her birthday and seeing Punk win that cage match, I had to rub my eyes for a moment because that's how loyal to the company Jeff seemed to be and thus how much of a gut punch it was to lose him.
I started watching wrestling in 2013, so I live watching these videos. You do a really good job at capturing the feeling of the era. I often find myself referring to edge as "slimy" despite never seeing him as a heel. (aside from Judgement Day but that didn't last long)
Lol Edge was menace especially when he first hooked up with Lita
@@NxFxKW I had a rough idea of what he was like from watching DVDs as a kid, but until I started watching this channel, I didn't understand how it felt in the moment.
A cool fact during Jeff's main event push is that from May to August, Jeff Hardy was in the main event of 4 ppvs over the likes of Cena, Orton, and Triple H. At the end when Punk falls to the ground and wins the cage match, you can legit hear the crowd become dead silent realizing what it meant. Moments before, when Punk pokes Jeff in the eye then slams his face on the cage for him to fall down in the ring made me scream "get up Jeff, get up Jeff".
That thumbnail of Jeff sitting in the ring with his head down is so sad.
i cried that night i remember playing svr 2009 on the psp i kept lighting the tables on fire and doing jeffs finisher all night on cm punk
😂😂
One of the things that made this feel so real and less WWE was CM Punk's mic work. Even 2 years before the pipe bomb and how Punks career changed after that night, his mic work was truly awesome and sounded different to anyone else in WWE because of how articulate he was and how his mic work sounded off the cuff as opposed to the usual great but highly WWE sounding promos from a Chris Jericho or John Cena or even Ric Flair. I was such a huge Jeff hardy fan back in 2008 when he moved to smackdown and became WWE champ. Actually thanks to Eddie, Rey, Batista and The Undertaker and then later HHH I was such a huge Smackdown fan since 2004.
I know CM Punk is no longer in AEW but I really hope we get to see him win the AEW championship one more time just for Jeff Hardy to show up and squash him for it and have a long AEW title reign.
I'll probably always be a CM punk fan for what he did for ECW in 2006 and the WWE/wrestling as a whole in 2011 but I need Hardy to beat this man. And I need Matt Hardy to beat Edge badly for what went down with Lita back in the day. I'm an Edge fan too, more so than Matt Hardy...but still.
Punk's back
This fire still burns
@@punkzx2608 ...ALWAYS!! Yeah when he returned a few weeks ago in my mind I was like "Could AEW make this shit happen". I know it could be amazing...I hope they can work together
Man, as a kid I still remember this vividly. I got sad everytime Jeff lose a match and it made me sadder when jeff lost and left wwe. I don't care about any other wrestlers at the time because just seeing Jeff on my TV it made me want to tune every smackdown episode he's in.
I had only been watching the WWE religiously for about a month when this happened, and even though I didn't shed any tears, I knew this was a huge and sad moment for us fans. So you could imagine my shock when Jeff showed up on the first ever Monday Night Impact in January 2010. My jaw dropped and I popped.
Yea bro I remember goin bananas when he showed up in TNA that night. I thought I’d never see him again after that punk match lol
my favorite WWE youtuber making a video on my favorite wrestler. doesnt get better than this. i was 10 years old when this happened and i cried like a baby this night because i thought i would never see jeff wrestle again. And i still hold a grudge against CM punk all these years later for this idc if it was kayfabe.
on another note @WrestlinGifs. thank you for making these videos i dont think you know how much they mean to us Gen Z wrestling fans.
The day Jeff hardy left on that random smack down in 2009 really changed my child hood. I was 8 years old and remember crying when he lost, his goodbye promo they showed the next week is something that I never forgot, I tried watching wrestling for another year but it was never the same and has never been the same since.
The words I will always remember he said “this is not goodbye forever ,this is only goodbye for now.”
Jeff Hardy Was The Coolest Guy For Us Back In The Day 🐐
Nah cm punk was the cool one
@@pleaseshutup7053 cap
@@pleaseshutup7053Cm Punk got nothing on Jeff Hardy.
@@Ali_Raza808 straight edge and that makes him better than you
@@pleaseshutup7053 I'm also straight edge.
What made this even worst is when CM Punk came out the next week cosplaying as jeff hardy just straight up playing with our emotions. CM Punk at that point was top tier heel
Hated cm punk 🤦🏽♂️
Long hair CM Punk was a fucking menace dawg 💀
Long hair CM Punk was a fucking menace dawg 💀
I watched WWE because of Jeff Hardy. I was always locked in when he would come out. The Swanton Bomb was so majestic 🔥🔥🔥
this video gave me goosebumps AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA ty miss u jeff still my goat till today
Thank you for this. It somewhat helped me make peace with an age-old childhood trauma. Without Jeff, I'd be a different person.
Reliving this through your video gave me goosebumps. I think the night the steel cage match happened was the first time my heart broke.
Man 2009 will forever be a crazy year for me. All of that mainly because of Jeff. After he left, i didn't watch much of wwe until that same year or 2010 when i came back to atching TNA over at my cousin's house and i saw him and i didn't watch wwe much since
Dude, you described this era so perfectly. Amazing video and commentary
I was only 5 years old at the time but I remember watching that match with my dad and we were both in shocked and I was crying so bad lol and the fact punk came back dress as Jeff the next show burned me to the core. I had a huge crush on Jeff at the time and he was the main reason I got into wrestling. When him and Matt came back at WrestleMania 33, again watching with my dad we were both shocked. I think I was 14 when they came back and man my world felt complete. It was like 5 year old me finally got what she wanted, to see Jeff in WWE again. Still will always wonder what would've happened if he stayed in 2009.
I was in the crowd that night in phoenix as a 9 year old Jeff hardy fan, I remember crying my eyes out while my dad and other ppl in the crowd try to cheer me up. Till this day it’s still my saddest wrestling/sports memory.
FINALLY A NEW VIDEO..... Man I'm hooked to your content.... Especially when you talk about TBT wrestling
Thank you for the video. You said everything I had felt. After this for few years, would tune in every week for smackdown and raw hoping that Jeff might show up.
I remember crying my eyes out when this happened, I was 6 back then
I remember feeling so lost after this episode. Jeff leaving in 2009 felt like you were unknowingly seeing your homie for the last time
i cried that night. very heartbreaking and i needed jeff to be champion😢
I watched that steel cage match live as a 10 y/o kid & still remember everything from this rivalry. Even though I wasn’t aware of kayfabe at the time, I genuinely thought Jeff was coming back & it was a work or something. 😂 But it made me a lifetime CM Punk fan, that heel work was amazing.
I was always a Punk fan and I loved this feud
I was there too! I remember even telling another kid there that there’s no way Jeff loses and was so hyped when he came out and ended up crying when he lost it was honestly such a great memory of when I was a kid.
I remember that cage match. That SmackDown was the day before my 16th birthday and id only gotten into wrestling a couple years before in 2007. This was my absolute favorite feud to that point and I liked Jeff but Punk was my guy at the time. Now I really dont care for either one but ill never forget being a teenager watching this match like it was my Rock vs Austin
you’re videos are always over a unique time period that perfectly encapsulates a random memory from my past. Awesome content!
I’ll never forget this night, little 4 year old me was heartbroken. This happened right after my birthday😭
In July of 2009 Punk and Hardy had a dark match, steel cage match in the Richmond Coliseum (punk won) with the same finish but was a way better match…. Won’t ever forget being there live…..Then when Jeff showed back up in TNA on top of the asylum in January 2010..….. what a time to be alive
I always thought it was a shame that they didn’t give Jeff that moment with everyone. Punk attacking him on the ramp gave me hope he was gonna come back. He definitely deserved a more complete send off.
After Jeff left the WWE in 2009, in drake's words, nothing was the same. He's a extreme icon, a daredevil, always fun to watch when we grown up, when Jeff won the WWE Title at Armageddon 2008, it lives up the hype, it sends the WWE Universe home happy, but on August 28th, 2009, everything changes and nothing was the same with one of the saddest moments in WWE history IMO.
I was in the crowd the night Jeff won the WWE championship in my hometown Buffalo. I remember it like yesterday
I remember seeing this. I was 9 years old and at my cousin's house at that time. He was hating on Jeff for awhile for whatever reason and he always said to me, that he sucked only to piss me off. And then this match happened.. And of course Punk won. And I remember sitting there completeley heart-broken by what happened and my stupid cousin just sat next to me and said 'That's it.. Jeff Hardy isn't a wrestler anymore..'
& it was heartbroken. I was depressed & the worst thing is that they gave us Smackdown back the following year without Jeff Hardy
I’ll never forget this night!!! Jeff Hardy was always everything to me as a kid and I quit watching wrestling after this pretty much.
wow i never expect that this topic will be told here. i'm the one who's crying alone while watching jeff hardy exiting the arena. he said this is not a good bye but just see you later and i hold on to that. then when he came back after 9 years it blew my mind and being emotional.
When I was 7 years old, in order, in 2006, I was painting my face as much as possible the way he was doing, putting some paper in my left back pocket and going out around the building with my friends. I was a big fan of Jeff. Man, sawing this at that Smackdown, I didn't even wanted to believe.
He was my favourite wrestler and that time and I remember bawling my eyes out when he left.
I live in North Carolina and went to a school in the same county the Hardy's live in. I remember vividly the night he lost and then seeing in the newspaper that he had been arrested. I was beyond heartbroken. I've met him a few times since. One of the nicest people I've ever met.
Jeff Hardy's run between 2008-2009 was one of the most entertaining in wrestling history.
Bro this video bought back so many memories. I still remember I was so heartbroken when he left the company😢😢
I'll be brutally honest, I've basically lost all respect for Jeff. But this trip down memory lane, when times were so much simpler, has me praying I'll find it somewhere to love him again. I wish 08-09 went differently for him, but it truly was a wild year.
I cried all night when this happened
This is put together so beautifully
Man the love for Jeff hardy is palpable through this video… the way u felt about him was the way I felt about the rock… I stopped watching wrestling shortly after the invasion. I only saw Jeff as part of a tag team but man I felt like I missed out on his singles career. no man other than mick Foley could take a bump like this guy. love your videos
I started watching wrestling when Jeff was in Tna back in 2010-11 definitely i missed the good era.
That was his second TNA run I believe
“Thanks to his stupid ass brother” 😂 I LOL’d
WWE sucks now these were my favorite times was the mid to late 2000s to early 2010s seeing John Cena destroy people and legends like Jeff hardy, Cm punk, randy orton, edge, undertaker, triple h, Shawn Michaels WWE will never be as good or the same again 😑👎
This!! Is one of the many reasons I always said my childhood was dead by 2009
Bro I remember this night so vividly I was like 8 and cried for days because my favorite wrestler was gone
This was the last time I watched WWE
How time flies
This is the most relatable video i have ever came across, i felt exactly the same as a kid as you did .
I remember watching this when I was young and it broke me 😢
I was 19 when that happened and i was sad as hell. Then next year i saw him return to impact
there’s only a few youtubers i get on to watch and wrestlingifs is one, his commentary is amazing and videos are so fun to watch and he’s funny. thanks for these vids pav
Was recovering from surgery around the time this fued ended was sad to see him go around this time but made for one of the best storylines In 2009
Thanks for mantainig Kayfabe real WrestlinGifs; thats what makes this sport so emotional.
Cried for like 3 days straight after that smack down it wasn’t fair for us thank you pav for talking about this feud
Nah I’ll never forget this night. The program got interrupted and I had to record to replay but I had to sleep cause being 10 lol and the next day i was hanging out with my friends and one said Jeff lost and had to leave wwe and I DENIED it and watched it and I was so heart broken
I remember that time, I wasn’t Jeff hardy fan but I wanted him to be champ , it was sad to see him leave
I was 11 when this happened and I was in disbelief. Probably one of the saddest moments of my childhood.
Jeff was always my favorite wrestler as a kid, really sucks he couldn’t stay clean for long enough to stay out of his own way. Hope he’s doing better now, recovery isn’t easy
I remember I only played as him in svr I was so bad and I just loved his whole attire, gimmick and Theme
I watched this on my couch & cried my eyes out at 10 years old
This was the WORST night for me and my brother we legit didn’t watch WWE for months after this
When Jeff left I cried so much he was my favorite next to undertaker as a kid but I am happy he is doing well in Aew hopefully he can put his demons in the shadow realm for good and stay healthy happy and sober
Honestly To this day this was the biggest shock in my years of being a fan and honestly one of the saddest moments of my childhood. I swear it was just so random. This guy was the biggest dude in the company during his absolute prime and he just Left like that. Crazy.
i was there at extreme rules 2009 and i thought it couldn’t get worse than this. jeff hardy is one of the biggest missed opportunities of all time. the 🐐.
the video finally uploaded
I remember this, it broke my heart😢
pav man watching this channel has been the most amazing and inspiring journey in times where the wrestling business seemed to be lost you were there I wish I could afford to donate on patreon still and hope we talk again sometime -manny
Also punk attacking Jeff from behind on stage was salt on the wounds.