Matt Hardy: Will We See "Version 1" or the "Will Not Die" Hardy?

In what I thought was pretty freakin' cool, Matt Hardy came out last night on SmackDown to help his brother, Jeff Hardy.

When I saw John Morrison come out to help first, I thought he would be the savior and clean house.

But that didn't happen, he was beaten down by the Hart Dynasty while CM Punk attacked Jeff. It seemed to be over, and like last week Punk was going to try and take out the World Heavyweight Champion.

Just when he was going to get the final hard shot on Jeff, the one that could put him out for good, Matt Hardy came in and attacked Punk. I personally thought he was only attacking Punk because he had an issue with him; it had nothing to do with Jeff.

Then he helped Jeff up, which was a HUGE surprise. The guy who once cost his brother the WWE Championship, the guy who tried to kill Jeff on three separate occasions?

I don't know how the WWE is going to make this work out, but I personally liked seeing this happen. It also seemed as of the WWE Universe liked it too, as the crowd went nuts to see Matt seemingly turn face.

Many think he is a tweener, and I personally think that is a great thing for a wrestler. The word "tweener" seems to be tainted from sports. A tweener in football is not good because you don't know what position works best.

You can put them at Wide-Out, but they can't catch. They can run fast, so you move them to running back, yet they can't hold onto the ball. Then you try them out on defense because of the speed, but they can't cover anyone. They end up never making it despite how athletic they are.

These people are classically referred to as ATHs or Athletes, because there is no certain position for them.

That is an example of how the word "tweener" is used in football, but in wrestling it is totally different.

A tweener in wrestling means you can play a face and a heel believably, but you are liked so much that it doesn't matter what you do as a heel, you will still be loved by the fans. Here are some memorable tweeners.

1. Randy Orton

2. Stone Cold Steve Austin

3. The Rock

All of these men are liked by WWE fans, we don't know what it is about them, but we just can't help but like them and what they do. Orton is considered one of the best, if not THE best heel in the WWE right now.

Yet when he made his return last year, the fans went nuts to see him come out and just talk. When he went back in the ring, they still cheered madly for him when he came out.

Whenever you hear the Orton entrance music, cheers still fill the building, but of course it is mixed with boos.

The Rock and Stone Cold have been face and heel in their careers with the WWE. It didn't matter what their character was, the fans loved everything they did and said.

Matt Hardy won't be much different.

The reason why he was booed so much before, was because he betrayed his brother. That brother just happened to be the probably the most over man in WWE history in Jeff Hardy.

If he would have turned heel somehow on a guy like Christian, people wouldn't care as much as they did when he turned heel on Jeff. He would be a likable heel like Orton and Edge have been.

People may boo them because of their character, but it is plain to see that everyone likes them. Otherwise they wouldn't buy their merchandise and go to their autograph signings.

Matt is a great wrestler and not bad on the mic. He is definitely better on the mic than his brother. He may not be as exciting in the ring as Jeff, but he is not above doing high-risk moves himself, and he can also do a lot more "classic wrestling" than Jeff can too.

If you have to pick a guy who is most worthy of the World Title, this would be the man. He has proven that he can carry a brand when he was ECW Champion. He has held numerous European, Hardcore, and Tag Titles. Not only that, but he was a Cruiserweight and US Champion too.

I think he will finally get that World Title this year or the beginning of next year.

I figured having Matt on SmackDown as another heel would be dumb. I mean they already have Chris Jericho, Dolph Ziggler, and CM Punk. All by the way are definite main event heels.

Then you have the faces on the show in Jeff Hardy and Rey Mysterio who are in the main event. Right now, Hardy is the only one main eventing while Rey is looking like a mid-carder more and more.

John Morrison is good too, and is worthy of the main event. But will the WWE give him the chance? I'm not to sure he will be getting a World Title run any time soon, despite how worthy he is.

The Undertaker is supposed to be back soon, and that will add a lot to the face side.

But it looks like Jeff is leaving, whether it be under WWE contract or not. He is supposed to be taking time off after Summerslam when his contract expires, yet there is a rumor the creative team and writers have been told to write him in storylines for September.

I think it would be a nice send off to have him go out in a TLC match, which is the match in which people started to fall in love with him.

If Jeff leaves, there will be a huge need for another face on the brand, and that is where Matt comes into play.

Matt as a face can possibly take over for Jeff when he takes time off. But, will he be the face character that can be a World Champion?

Going back a few years, we saw a storyline angle that was basically a love triangle.

It was actually based on a real-life event. Some think that when Lita broke up with Matt that Edge was not the actual person she left him for. The man she left Matt for was not a wrestler, but they put Edge in the storyline because he was a close friend of Matt's.

Lita and Matt were no longer together, of course, but the storyline was said to be based on their relationship. The WWE saw that it was getting a lot of attention online and the creative team started up a storyline centered around it.

Edge was a huge star on RAW and Matt was just getting back from injury.

They felt that the idea of putting them together would be good, and then adding Lita into the mix made the storyline based on real life complete.

At this time we saw another Matt Hardy, one that made him a massive star. Before, he was a big star in the tag division with his brother Jeff. He held a few singles titles and was not a bad singles wrestler, but he had yet to get over the mid-card hump.

This storyline with Edge put him over huge. And they had some memorable matches together during this storyline, one that had Matt lose and leave the RAW Brand.

This Matt Hardy was the man who "Will Not Die," this Matt was World Championship material, but was never taken advantage of. If he were to bring it to SmackDown, imagine the possibilities.

Also, if Jeff were to get injured and have to leave the WWE (like he was going to do anyway) there could be a revenge storyline. Matt was out for revenge before when he took on Edge over him taking Lita away from him.

If he brings that same mentality to a similar storyline, he could be a World Heavyweight Champion very soon.

Revenge storylines always make the face look great, so this is a chance to see a Main Event Level Matt Hardy who can carry the Smackdown Brand, which is something a lot of people have wanted to see for some time now.

His image right now makes him a guy people don't want to mess with, so if a revenge storyline comes up it will be believable. Forget Version 1, I want to see the Matt Hardy that Will...Not...Die!