Over the last few weeks, the Harts have become less and less relevant characters on WWE television. Their 2 on 1 cage match against Jericho was designed to purely give the company a way to get Jericho back into the main event. As the PPV in question was 'Night of Champions' you may wonder why the tag team champions not only had not been announced on the card but were used as jobbers with a man advantage against a man who was leaving a couple of weeks later.
The efforts to redeem the tag titles last year by using Jericho, Big Show, DX and the Miz was a worthy one, however time as proven that the tag team titles were only becoming important because they were being held by wrestlers who the fans saw as geniuine WWE stars. As soon as the talent moved on to new feuds, the tag titles became pointless. Held by wrestlers that the fans didn't care about, worse still the champions were faced by challengers that the fans also didn't care about.
When the Hart Dynasty made the debuts on Smackdown they were immediately hindered by the fact that they blatantly lacked charisma. With Natalya acting at valet/manager things could have been worse but not majorly so. Bret Hart's return last January gave them a bit of a rub with the fans warming to them and without anybody hardly noticing they turned babyface.
A cameo in the diabolically bad Bret vs Vince match at Wrestlemania at least got them a PPV appearance but not a lot more. However opportunity was about to knock, the WWE made to call to take the titles off ShowMiz and give the belts to the Harts. This was done in an angle where Teddy Long forced the champs to face four challengers in a gauntlet match when Miz wouldn't shut up. The final challengers were the Harts who quickly pinned the tired champions in a title switch which did the new champions absolutely no favours.
The Hart Dynasty would have benefitted from having a long feud with opponents who could have helped them to get over with the fans. Outside of the odd appearance on Raw by Bret the fans were still fairly cool about the tag team champions. On Raw they teased Jericho & Miz challenging for the titles so could win the belts and go to Smackdown to get their revenge on the Big Show who had knocked both men out in previous angles. That feud would have been a major step forward for the Harts who would have got plenty of TV time and PPV time where they would have been able to use their wrestling ability to get over more strongly with the fans. Sadly Chris Jericho moved away from the picture immediately and Miz lost the US title to Bret in a silly and pointless angle and then spent several weeks battling with R-Truth over the title when Bret immediately vacated it. The Hart Dynasty were left as the men standing in the cold.
The Uso's were brought in to challenge the Harts however this failed as nobody had the ability to connect with the fans. Neither team were able to conduct strong interviews, what we had with a string of sneak attacks which saw thousands in attendance checking out the merchandise stand. Within weeks the Uso's were but on the back burner but the WWE had largely forgotten about new challengers for the tag team champions and the Harts rarely got to appear on PPV events.
The booking of the Harts at the NOC PPV was a clear sign that the WWE have given up on them in their current format. I do not see any point in David Hart Smith turning on Tyson Kidd, as the heel Davey would need to be strong on interview which is something that like his dad he is horrendous at. The WWE seem keen to keep Natalya as a face as she is the current contender for LayCool's Women's Title. Maybe they could hook Davey with a manager who could talk for him as there is nothing wrong with his in-ring ability. Maybe he could convince Vicky to leave Dolph for him.
The Harts would have fared far better if they have been given a programme with Jericho & Miz especially if they had been booked as the eventual winners and they had wrestled a couple of times on PPV in 15 minute plus matches. The only other option that the WWE could have opted for would have been to turn the Harts against Bret, an attack on 'Uncle Bret' followed by a passionate promo stating that they are better than any of the earlier Hart wrestlers. That they resented Bret interfering on their time in the WWE, that they agreed with Vince over Montreal etc would have got the Hart Dynasty over as dastardly heels and with the tag titles they would have stood a decent chance to get the fans to react to them. In the end the WWE did neither and as a result the tag team titles lost all importance when ShowMiz dropped them and the Hart Dynasty have also failed to make the impact that a lot of people would have liked to have seen.
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