Twist of Fate
By Jonathan Brown
“It is better to have loved and lost then to never have loved before.” This line has been attributed to many men over the course of history, yet its origin is completely irrelevant. Try this line on one of your friends that has loved and lost. If you manage to stay conscious after the thrashing they have unleashed on you, pay attention to the look on their face. Sullen, anguished, desperate and hopeless are just a few words that only begin to describe their emotional content. But to an athlete it is not the love of a person that twists and mangles their soul. Oh no, it is the loss of their ability to participate in the sport that they have dedicated their life to.
Enter Matt Hardy. Matt is not the greatest in ring performer in the world. We understand that but there is no other wrestler in the world that has done so much with so little. His passion for his sport is evident in every single one of his matches. When the roster split separated him from his brother, he worked very hard at perfecting the Version 1 character. Was this character ingenious? No. But was this character a dedicated performer’s display of love? Yes.
Often times love is a reciprocal relationship between two bodies. Matt’s love for the business was reciprocated with a severe knee injury. Years ago the tearing of the ACL was the end of many athletes and their relationships with their sports. Even today, the mighty do not easily return from this injury. How long has Version 1 been gone? It feels like four score and ten years ago since we have last seen him in the squared circle. Purgatory must be nothing like the hell that Hardy has endured on his comeback trail. ACL injuries require hours upon hours of rehab that only the most dedicated can complete. As if being tested in a competition between wrestling’s god and devil, Matt was faced with yet another challenge.
The much publicized love triangle between Amy Dumas, Adam Copeland and Matt Hardy seems too complicated and real to be a work drawn up by the hacks of the writing staff of WWE. You know friends and family of Matt wish it was a work. If you were to place yourself in Matt’s shoes you may soon find yourself on a gurney diagnosed with heart failure.
I know what Mr. Hardy is thinking; “Why me?” He probably ponders how his former flame finds herself on TV weekly with her injury and he is relegated to our collective memories. He probably contemplates how his Brutus gets to be a huge part of Wrestlemania while he gets another grueling day of rehab. “What did I do to deserve this?” This thought probably is his last one each night before his head hits the pillow.
It is not unfeasible for one to expect Matt to pack it in and hang up the boots he has adorned proudly in the ring. Knee injuries are bad, heart break may be worse. If you have ever been in love to find that your girlfriend has slept with your good friend, let us just say that the dive off of a bridge looks like a good career move. (For the group of 25 that have taken to e-mailing me with your hate, just skip it this time.)
For those believers in karma you know that things always balance themselves out.
When one is challenged to their threshold their friends are often called upon to carry our burdens. In the case of V1 his guardian angle came in the form of Shannon Moore. According to published reports, Shannon and Matt were driving on the same stretch of highway in a mini-caravan of sorts. Shortly after they exchanged places with Moore’s Hummer taking the lead of Hardy’s Corvette, an allegedly drunken servicemen smashed into Moore, head on.
Today, Shannon Moore is injured. Matt Hardy knows how he feels. But in this strange twist of fate, Hardy may have gained an outlook that he probably thought impossible just hours before. The appreciation for life that many of us lack is often uncomfortably brought into the forefront of our lives when a life altering event happens. Let us hope that the chance exchange Moore and Hardy took on the highway that day allow us to enjoy a whole and complete Matt Hardy that we may not have gotten back.. And in this strange twist of fate, let us all share a unified appreciation for a phenomenal talent. Matt Hardy will never be the same. His fortunes, while at the expense of a friend, are much better than they were. So while Adam and Amy enjoy each other’s lustful companionship, their lack of consideration for one man may give us a Superstar driven by a second chance at life.
To Shannon Moore, Godspeed.
