It’s barely been two months since TNA had their Final Deletion – where “Broken” Matt Hardy beat Jeff Hardy to turn Brother Nero into an Obsolete Mule. So it may have been a little early for a sequel…
Focusing solely on the “final fight”, as opposed to the segments throughout the show, we’re back on the Hardy Estate, as this week’s Impact featured a showdown between the Hardy clan and the Decay – the trio of Abyss, Crazzy Steve and Rosemary. It was shot in pretty much the same style as the Final Deletion, but with considerably lower buzz around it.
We start with Decay sneaking up on Señor Benjamin, who was digging their graves, as the camera pulls back to show him with a shovel with “DELETE” written on it. Decay wander through what looked like a forest, ending up looking through the windows as Reby Hardy was soothing Baby Maxel. Somehow, Broken Matt is behind them, and there’s catchphrase number one as we head to a break: “Decay, I knew you’d come…”
Decay make a beeline for Matt, and the next thing we see is Matt, Brother Nero and Reby with a trio of pyro cannons and a lighter… and we go straight into the fireworks. Decay make a run for it, with Rosemary thinking that a ladder was the best thing to hide behind. They continue to be chased, and once the pyro cannons run out, Reby is ordered back to the house to look after Maxel.
Somehow the Hardys have more cannons, which they aim at Skarsgard – the dilapidated boat – as Decay hide behind it. Steve and Rosemary make a run for it as Abyss gets dropkicked into the pond after Nero hits the boat.
We cut to Broken Matt hunting down Rosemary, whilst Señor Benjamin pulls Skarsgard back to dry land, only for Joseph Parks (remember him?) to make an appearance. He asks Señor if he’s seen his brother Chris, but instead he gets Tazer’d and carried away on a digger. Okay then…
Crazzy Steve emerges and tries to shove Brother Nero’s head into a fire, but instead he takes a suplex into a swimming pool/water feature. Broken Matt’s still looking for Rosemary, whilst Señor Benjamin continues to cart Joseph Parks away. Brother Nero rises from the pond victorious, after choking Crazzy Steve to death it seems… well, not quite, because Steve emerges and drags him back down.
Señor Benjamin buries Joseph Parks, but instead Abyss rises from the grave and chokes him, whilst Rosemary and Broken Matt come face to face. Abyss tries to attack Matt from behind, and he’s got Janice in hand. Abyss swings at Matt, but instead Brother Nero shoves him aside and takes the shot to the midsection.
Abyss and Steve continue to stalk Broken Matt, before Vanguard 1 appears with rockets strapped to it. Those drones can carry a lot of weight, it seems, as more pyro gets shot at Decay, which in turn burns a fire in the shape of Jeff Hardy’s old symbol. Decay get trapped within it… and we fade out.
Inside the Hardy house, we see Rosemary kidnapping Maxell, having apparently laid out Reby, but she’s stopped by Vanguard 1… which she then breaks by spitting green mist into. Maxel’s run off, and as Rosemary looks for him, she’s encountered by Broken Matt, who takes some mist, and inhales it himself. He returns the mist to Rosemary, who runs off in pain.
Maxel toddles back towards Broken Matt as Reby has made her way outside, as the segment ends with Crazzy Steve kidnapping Señor Benjamin as what’s left of Decay rides into the distance with him in tow. So, no clear winner, unlike the original, since Matt and Reby stood safe (whilst Brother Nero’s probably leaking blood after taking the shot from Janice)… but remember, Señor Benjamin did end up being kidnapped…
As a segment, it bore all the hallmarks of the original Final Deletion, but it certainly was way too soon to go back to the proverbial well. It told a good story – the Hardys fighting their corner against the invading Decay (almost like a modern-day artistic version of the Brian Pillman house invasion 20 years ago…) The return of Joseph Parks out of nowhere was a good spot, as was the unique way that Matt “blocked” Rosemary’s mist, but all of this just serves as a distraction to the real question: was this good?
To me, the answer has to be no. The Final Deletion was aided by the fact that there was a strong story behind it, which this didn’t have behind it. It was definitely better than WWE’s rip-off of the Final Deletion, but that’s not saying much.
They reused a lot of the tropes and the high spots from the original video, but to me, it was just too soon to be doing a sequel. The story wasn’t strong enough, and by the way this ended, you get the feeling that this isn’t the blow-off. Sincerely, though, for how good this was artistically, I hope that they give it a lot more than two months before we get another visit to the Hardy Compound.