INSIDER: SlamJamz Extra Commentary

I submitted the following SlamJamz Extra to PWInsider this morning, and I don't know if Scherer will print it or not. But it's something that had to be said....

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SLAMJAMZ EXTRA: A KNIFE THROUGH THE HEART

By TC Kirkham

Trust is something that is not given lightly by most people. It is a sacred pact between people who care about one another. It is something that once taken away is not likely given back ever again.

Last night, the trust, not to mention the respect, and even the love, that Matt Hardy has worked hard to generate among his loyal fans, was betrayed.

Worse yet, word is that it was most likely a PLANNED betrayal. On Saturday, Matt Hardy filmed a six-minute video , a tribute to his fans, his friends, and his family. He put it on line for the world to see. For a week before that, Matt began daily postings on his website, counting down to his "Independence Day", July 11. That was the date that his 90 day no-compete with WWE ended. He badmouthed everyone in WWE, from Adam and Amy to John Laurenits to Vince McMahon himself.

Did Matt know at the time that he was going back to WWE? More than likely, YES.

For some reason that I still don't understand, wrestlers and promoters take pride in hurting those fans who make the internet their home base. Most of them fully understand that without the internet, wrestling wouldn't get even half the audience it does. Groups like Ring of Honor and TNA depend on the internet fans for their survival. Yet most of them mock the internet fan. They think that the internet fan is the lowest form of scum on the earth. Many of them unjustly and unfairly think the internet ruined pro wrestling. Yet, without the internet, wrestling would have never had the boom of the late 90s, and without the internet, ECW would have never become the cult success it was.

We should have seen it coming. On more than one occasion over the past few years, Matt has made derogatory remarks about the internet and the fans that reside there.

But since the mess happened with Edge and Amy, Matt has made the internet his home. It was his internet fans that sprung to his defense. They embraced him as one of their own. They engaged him in one-sided conversation on his message board, filled him with words of love and encouragement, and let him know that they respected him. They TRUSTED him.

There's that word again.

How does it feel, people? How does it feel that you've now been worked by one of the best? You let your feelings out there, and he took it all in, and thanked you for it. How does it feel to know that for at least the past week, and possibly longer, Matt and his friends have been sitting around, reading your comments, and LAUGHING AT YOU? HOW DOES THAT MAKE YOU FEEL?

It makes me ANGRY. I've been a huge fan of Matt's for years, and for the first time in nine long years, I'm finding it extremly hard to separate the wrestling journalist from the fan.in me.

It's time for TC the journalist to step inside, and for TC the fan to step up to the mike.

Last night, Matt betrayed the trust that I, and millions of other fans, had put in him. And that trust will NOT be given back to him easily. If EVER.

Matt, I don't know if you'll read this. Chances are probably good that someone is going to copy it and post it on your message board. So much the better. Anyone who wishes to do so has my full permission.

THIS is how you repay your millions of fans for their loyalty to you? By SLAPPING THEM IN THE FACE?

HOW LONG have you been working us? Playing us for the suckers you obviously think we are? Are you going to come clean and tell us just WHEN you re-signed with WWE, so you can point to us and laugh and say "What a bunch of MARKS?"

Do you REALLY think that support you've had is going to stay around, now that we know that you LIED to our FACES?

Do you have ANY IDEA that you have quite possibly just DESTROYED your own career?

And you expected us to PAY you for your friggin' internet show? Before, I would have considered it. Now,I wouldn't pay you a dime. Nor will I lay one single dime down on any indie show that has hired you to appear. If I were them, I'd drop your lying ass like a hot potato.

You send a nice big F**K YOU to the fans, I think every last one of those indie promoters, and ESPECIALLY GABE, should turn around and say to your face, "F**K YOU, man! You LIED TO US!"

Vince McMahon worked YOU, man. You're right back under his evil thumb, and because of the way you did it, not a whole hell of a lot of people - including me - are going to have any sympathy for you two or three months from now when your "MONEY CARD" is played out, he's jobbed you to Edge in the biggest PPV match either of you have ever had, and you end up wallowing in "Job City" for however long this new contract runs.

TNA offered you the WORLD, man! You probably could have had a WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP. Do you REALLY think Vince McMahon will EVER give you that? To quote Vince's own theme music, "NO CHANCE IN HELL!"

In a day or two, as you begin to realize that those fans you gained by becoming the "Angelic Diablo" online and blasting McMahon and company IN CHARACTER on your site have deserted you, maybe you'll realize what you've done.

And what about personal loyality? I know they're probably standing by you, because they're your real-life posse, but what about Jeff? A Hardy Boyz reunion in TNA would have been GLORIOUS, even if it was for only one match. What about your close friend Shannon Moore, who lost his job with WWE just one week ago, probably in part so Vince would have enough money to help pay for your return? The very same Shannon Moore who you said might show up with you at your indie gigs? Did you get him his job with WWE back? NO? Some friend you are. I'm sure that being someone in the business, however, Shannon probably understands, probably thinks it's funny that I feel that way. Fine, whatever.

I can't wait for Saturday night. You got back in bed with Vince McMahon, and I cannot wait to see what happens when you show up. If you thought what happened to Jeff when he appeared for Ring of Honor was bad, just wait...Ring of Honor fans are going to EAT YOU ALIVE. By going back to WWE, you have made it clear to them that as long as the money's there, you'll do it. Some nerve calling AMY a whore last night. And when Saturday night comes and you get the reaction I know you'll get from their LOYAL fans, I'm going to sit back and LAUGH.

To quote an old movie, "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!"

Why bother trying to tell you that it took everything I had last night not to burst out in tears because I was watching one of the most promising careers pro wrestling had seen in years virtually self-destructing?

If by some miracle this little ruse of yours works, and it probably will with the non-internet fans, I wish you the best of luck. I hope you have fun out there getting your little modicum of revenge on Adam and Amy for screwing you...IF in fact THAT ever really happened. I'm not so sure now that it hasn't ALL been one great big WORK.

Some of your fans, Matt Hardy, will not desert you. But they should. Because you lied to them, you betrayed them, you stabbed them through the heart with a knife. You repaid their loyalty by spitting on them.

As a journalist, I pick and choose what and who I write about. Don't be shocked if your name shows up again and again in my columns over the years to remind people what a lying, money grubbing, low-life creep you really are. Someone willing to take their own personal pain and turn it into a supposedly money making angle, and destroy their own fans' trust in them in the process.

Does it make you feel GOOD that you've hurt so many people in just one 10 minute segment? Do you feel their pain? Do you know what they would have done to make you succeed anywhere else but WWE? DO YOU EVEN CARE? Apparently not.

You disgust me, Matt Hardy. You have become what you've professed for months to hate. I hope you can live with yourself once the full realization of what you've done sets in.

I only have one last question for you, using one of your own favorite words.....

So, Mr. "Angelic Diablo", who's the "feces" now?

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Reprise the theme song and roll the credits.....