Matt Hardy: Work or Shoot?

It was a work, obviously. But a beautifully-executed one.

If you didn't see it already, Matt Hardy returned to the WWE on last night's Raw, attacking Edge and Lita backstage and then later in the ring after Edge's match with Kane. In the latter melee Hardy managed to grab a mic and cut a short shoot promo (with a plug for Ring of Honor, too) before he was grabbed by gang of security and road agents, handcuffed and 'ejected from the building'. It was breathtaking, the stuff of smarts' dreams. It was wrestling gone real.

And it was brilliantly planned. They had the wool pulled right over the eyes of the Internet Wrestling Community. You can ignore all the heads proclaiming they knew it all along - I guarantee you that no one saw this coming. As soon as they saw Matt Hardy run in from out of nowhere, the first thought on their minds was 'shoot'. And that's the beauty of it.

Of course, upon closer scrutiny the ruse begins to crumble. (I mean, if it was really a shoot then why did the camera stay on Hardy? And why did they drag him up the ramp to the back when throwing him out the front door would have been easier?) But the veil of kayfabe is always a thin one, dependent on the suspension of disbelief. And to the WWE's credit, my disbelief was very much suspended.

(It's a bonus that the rest of the show was above average, too: Roddy Piper got a big pop, and a kick in the face from the heel Shawn Michaels; Carlito had a great match with Shelton Benjamin that ended cheaply; while Tajiri showed just how valuable he is by carrying Chris Masters for their entire match before putting him over. So well done, WWE. It's almost enough to make me forgive you for the Mexicools. Only almost, though.)

But you know what else is perfect about this Matt Hardy angle? It works even for those who don't know what happened behind the scenes.

Think about it: the last time Hardy was on screen was when Lita 'married' Kane. In his time away Hardy was distraught, a feeling that changed to anger seeing how Lita turned on him and embraced Kane as her husband. His rage grew stronger as she turned her affections to Edge, who was supposed to be his friend. It was all too much for him, and he had to get his revenge... and I gleaned all of that just from the on-screen storylines.

See? It's perfect! But I hope the writers and the bookers can play it out without dropping the ball.