During Monday night's episode of RAW, Jeff Hardy defeated Cedric Alexander in a match that was given a massive stipulation just minutes before it began. The Charismatic Enigma vowed that if he couldn't defeat the former Cruiserweight Champion, he would retire; needless to say, he picked up the win!
It all felt a little random and pointless, though, but it seems like this sort of thing could become the norm on WWE television moving forward.
According to Ringside News, Vince McMahon has issued a new order that means there will be no more "cold matches." It's said that the WWE Chairman has been "beating up the writers and producers" over suggestions for bouts that have no storyline behind them and that, from now on, he doesn't want them to happen just for the sake of it.
On the one hand, this sounds great. However, when you look back at previous rules like matches not taking place during commercial breaks (which led to an endless series of two out of three falls stipulations) that only lasted for a number of weeks, it's hard to have much faith in this.
Making sure matches matter is important, but having Jeff Hardy put his career on the line for a throwaway bout on RAW...well, isn't that even worse than them just fighting for the hell of it?
We'll see how this plays out over the weeks to come...