It was great to see Hardy win finally. It is unlikely to be a long reign for sure, and as long as the belt doesn't go back to Triple H I will be happy. The Matt Hardy scenario is interesting. Far and away the best match of the night - Punk and Mysterio a distant second best.

Batista Orton bored me. I was disappointed to see Orton win, and it is hard to see how he cannot be No 1 contender. I enjoyed Jericho Cena, but felt it should have gone on longer, and Jericho's almost instant tapping out of the STFU had me baffled slightly. It would have made more sense to have him in the hold a little longer.

Hardy finally won! I hope it sticks though...

but more importantly than any of the title matches and... well anything...

Did I just see Michelle McCool use the Style's Clash on Jillian Hall? WTF?

So first Melina uses the Canadian Destroyer (modified slightly) a couple weeks ago and now McCool does the Clash...

Do you think it's just a coincidence?

Okay - now I'm psyched about the match tomorrow night in Baltimore - I'll get to see Hardy not Edge with the belt on --- that should be his first appearance after winning. It really surprised me that he won - but I'm thrilled he did --- now my hope is that when he loses it, it's to someone and he doesn't do something to get stripped of the title (and since it will be his 3rd violation) his career. That would be a shame --- he's got so much potential.... I really pray that doesn't happen.

The other one that really surprised me was the win of Batista over Randy Orton. But I'm glad Batista won, and Orton's cronies were ejected.

I'm still not sure what this HBK/JBL angle is - but hopefully I'll understand it better soon.

Hey Kevin, the PPV was better then advertised. I thought all the matches were good, not great,but one of the better PPV's this yr. By the way the angle of hardy vs hardy I think should be great but I hope Koslov gets a couple shots at the tile. The HBK/JBL story line is old already, who cares. The belfast braw match was good (Im a true finlay fan), but what was tony atlas doing out there he did absolutly nothing for henry, is this going to be the brakup of atlas/henry. Overall I give the match a rating of 7. (not great/but better then most this yr). THnaks

JEff winning finally is a nice Christmas present from WWE to the fans! He has done a lot over the years to keep WWE interesting and has never gotten the full kudos he deserves. I wish him the best!

Also nice for Punk to beat Mysterio. Punk deserves it and Rey is one of the best at helping put others over while maintaining credibility.

Will Matt turn on Jeff? Probably but I hope not. There on-screen support for one another as brothers portrays a positive image amidst all the negativity that pro wrestling runs on normally. I'd rather maintain that special message rather than cheapen it into another story line. There are plenty of other guys that these two can work with to good effect so I do not feel a real need for a Hardy/Hardy feud. I'd rather it turn out to be a tease and the two of them continue to look out for each other as champs!

Hardy's win followed a very similar pattern as Benoit's win at WM20, while still being a very good match in its own right. Still, I don't see this reign being long, as I agree with you that all signs are pointing towards Matt being the attacker (unfortunately, leaving ECW without a top face), setting up a Matt vs Jeff Mania match.

I'm convinced McCool is learning wrestling moves by watching TNA.

It was a good show, there wasn't a clunker of a match on the card, although Batista-Orton should have and could have been better. Superman retained, which was no shock, but I see the crowds are starting to turn on him again.

Perhaps I'm too smart, but no amount of great HBK promos (and he gave one last night) could convince me that he went broke when the market went down (it didn't crash). Even if he lost everything, he's still making 7 figures every year from wrestling and merchandise sales. Perhaps the payoff will be HBK playing a ruse to get close enough to hurt JBL financially. I don't see any other logical progression.

Jeff hardy was really good at Armagedon because he won the wwe championship belt.

I wish Hardy had won his world title at a PPV people actually watch like Royal Rumble or Wrestle Mania.

Since I didn't see Armageddon, I'm looking at the show from a booking perspective.

Maybe it's just that I'm still bitter about the Raven's loss to the Steelers, but I just don't care that Jeff "finally won the big one". It seems kind of anti-climactic because Vince & Co. waited so long to do it. Really, this guy should have been champion six or seven years ago. To wait this long is kind of an insult to Hardy and his fans alike, because at this point it just seems like it's out of desperation due to a lack of fresh stars and people getting bored of the titles switching between Cena/ Orton/ Triple H/ Batista/ Edge ad infinitum.

Other than Hardy’s victory, it sounds like Armageddon was a rather uninspired event. A lot of the matches sound like they were more suitable for a Raw or Smackdown, instead of a PPV that they’re asking people to pay nearly fifty bucks for in a time of economic uncertainty. Oh well. 2008 wasn’t that great. Maybe they’ll do fine in 2009.

I'd been thinking that same thing about Jeff not being able to pin Triple H, but finally winning the title from Edge.

If you really want Matt Hardy to be the attacker, I'd suggest not talking about it. Remember over the summer when Kane had his mask in the burlap sack and after everybody guessed what was in it, WWE switched things up and put Rey Mysterio's mask in there.

I could see them not wanting to be scooped by some "Internet writer" and changing things just to make you and the other bloggers I've read wrong.

Call it my old age , but my initial reaction to Hardy's win was that I was not too thrilled . Hardy's "bumps in the road , " ie: drug infractions didn't sit well with me as far as him being the new face of the company . ( I can't say I'm that much of a WWE fan anyway ).
However there is no denying his talent and what he's put his body through in the ring . Hopefully he can stay on the right track and not do anything to dishonor the belt .

its funny that you mentioned jeff pinning edge and not hhh.......when edge won the title at survivor series...i knew jeff was gonna win the wwe title.......i bet you a million bucks that triple h asked vince not to lose the wwe title to hardy in a clean match......

I thought Hardy winning the Title was a little anti-climatic. First, as you pointed out, he pinned Edge not Triple H. I guess this could be a set-up for a future feud between the two, but as you also pointed out they have been feuding for months now, since before either was on Smackdown. Add in the fact that Edge's reign now serves no purpose except to keep Triple H from losing cleanly to Hardy, and it just seems to me that someone didn't want to do a job to a certain someone, which I think really diminishes the victory.

Second, it didn't really seem like they were building Hardy for a Title win. He seemed to be going through a period where he was just coming up short, but then without any explanation he gets the win. Maybe another swerve wouldn't have been the best thing, but they could have built up his momentum a bit more. The way things were going on Smackdown, I was sure Triple H and Edge were going to go at it through the Rumble and Jeff was either going to fight his way back into a Title match at the Rumble or win the Rumble Match himself. I'm not so sure that wouldn't have been the better decision.

Also, I don't think Matt is going to cost Jeff the Title right away. I had my doubts about if they were going to go that way, but I think the Title win cemented it. I think before Jeff loses the Title he's going to be in a Champion vs. Champion feud, and after he comes out on top Matt is going to cost him his next Title match out of jealousy.

Chris Slater raises a good point: I hereby predict MVP will be Jeff Hardy's assailant.

It will cease his losing streak, thrust him into a main event position, and completely defy logic in the process.

Seriously though, I missed the HBK/JBL segment last night, but it sounds as though if any wrestler were in need of a bailout, then it would be MVP. I wonder why this program isn't being used with him instead? At least it would further the losing streak into an angle.

Out of curiosity (because I didn't watch Armageddon), did you never truly believe Jericho was going to beat Cena because of storyline reasons or performance reasons? Did you just not believe the WWE would put the belt back on Jericho so soon, or was the match booked to make Jericho look weak? If it was performance reasons, who was to blame - Cena or Jericho? Because I'm such a huge Jerichaholic (some might even say obsessed), I'm just curious.

RESPONSE FROM KEVIN ECK: Story line reasons.

"If you really want Matt Hardy to be the attacker, I'd suggest not talking about it. Remember over the summer when Kane had his mask in the burlap sack and after everybody guessed what was in it, WWE switched things up and put Rey Mysterio's mask in there."

I was just thinking the same thing.

RESPONSE FROM KEVIN ECK: I think you guys are being a little paranoid. I don't believe this blog or any Internet site could lead to WWE changing the angle. It's one thing to delay someone winning the title for a month to swerve the IWC or even tweaking a mid-card angle such as Kane/Mysterio. But Hardy vs. Hardy is potentially a money angle, and as Vince McMahon always says, "It's all about the money." Plus, how could we not talk about? Trying to guess where story lines are headed is part of what makes following wrestling fun. And remember, there are a lot of casual fans who don't read wrestling blogs/sites.

Although it would've been more meaningful if it happened at a bigger PPV or in a one-one-one match, I am ecstatic to see Hardy finally become a world champion. I was surprised that Matt didn't come out to join the celebration considering he came out earlier to take out Kozlov. This seems to lend credence to the idea of Matt as the attacker.
I was disappointed in the finish of the Orton/ Batista match. Once Manu and Rhodes were banned from ringside, I thought we might see DiBiase come down at the end. To have a clean finish with Batista winning removes clear motivation for this feud to continue. Kinda reminiscent of the Cena/Batista match a few PPVs ago: poor build-up to the match, snadwich the match into a lesser PPV, and have a clean finish that kills off a need to continue the feud. I don't know why the WWE keeps burning off these first time matchups between their biggest stars like this.
I think overall this was a much better PPV than I expected, with only the Belfast Brawl and diva matches really not PPV worthy.

Finally..... all is right with the JH world!! Wish I had seen it. Thanks for the update Kevin!!!

I don't think I've felt this happy about someone winning the title since Benoit at WM20.

Albeit a good story line, I agree the Hardy vs Hardy fued is not needed. A couple of Hardy team ups will do the fans just fine.

I also agree that the MVP losing streak will end now that Hardy is champ. Now we can return to those MVP - Hardy fued matches.

The HBK storyline is ok. Actually it is a good way to inject HBK in the title picture without having him go total heel. Maybe we will see the storyline in which the JBL hires HBK to chase the title for him...just a thought.

Raw is really showing signs of the Attitude Era. It is nice to see some many stars remain elevated and have a place on the card at the same time.

"when edge won the title at survivor series...i knew jeff was gonna win the wwe title.......i bet you a million bucks that triple h asked vince not to lose the wwe title to hardy in a clean match......"

"Add in the fact that Edge's reign now serves no purpose except to keep Triple H from losing cleanly to Hardy, and it just seems to me that someone didn't want to do a job to a certain someone, which I think really diminishes the victory."

Don't forget it was a triple threat match. If Hardy had not been "laid out" in the stairwell, he could have pinned Kozlov; thereby, winning the title without beating HHH. It's looking like the "beating" Hardy took last month is leading to a story line of some sort.

Once again Eck speaks and WWE listens. Did you notice that Lawler pointed out that the DX shopping segments were taped weeks earlier before Sean Michaels' "financial troubles" became known?

GO JEFF
U LEGEND

to :White Rabit
she was not using the styles clash
it called a landing pin
the wwe does not need to copy tna anyway....