7 things WWE subtly told us on SmackDown: 6-time World Champion has big character change, Tag Team star getting huge singles push after 6 years? (July 24th, 2020)
Welcome to this week's edition of things WWE subtly told us on SmackDown! We felt that the show was a massive improvement from last week and the build to SummerSlam looks to have started off in a big way for the Blue brand.
How SummerSlam is going to shape up on the SmackDown side, we're not yet sure. However, there were quite a few interesting things to note from this episode of SmackDown that concluded with a Bar Fight between Sheamus and Jeff Hardy.
Since there was a lot to unpack from that alone, that's where we're going to begin. Here's what WWE subtly told us on SmackDown!
#7 Jeff Hardy's contract status and direction going forward on SmackDown
The main event of SmackDown wasn't exactly a 'cinematic style' match-up, but it was somewhere in between a regular match and a cinematic match. Either way, it's fun to watch matches that don't always take place inside the ring.
Sheamus invited Jeff Hardy to have a Bar Fight and poured him a drink, continually provoking him for his past alcoholism. Jeff Hardy said that sobriety had changed him and started to utter a dialogue that in all honesty, didn't make much sense.
Either way, that wasn't the point. The point of the match was to have Jeff Hardy face his demons head-on, and this involved having his face "cleansed" in a urinal. As disgusting as that might sound, it played in well to the match and the theme of the storyline.
There were two major things we interpreted from this match - firstly, Jeff Hardy finally signed a new WWE contract. There were reports of how Jeff Hardy refused to sign a new contract, which is why Sheamus got a win over him previously.
This was a clear indicator that Hardy is here to stay. Another indicator? Our second point - his change in character. We're seeing the "willow" version of Jeff Hardy that emerged unexpectedly to win the match. It's going to be interesting to see how he'll be utilized going forward, but we're just happy that WWE made the right call and gave Jeff Hardy the win.
It's never good to have a heel continually berate a babyface and then have no payoff to end it. Whether it's the end of the feud or not, we can't be sure. But Jeff Hardy is going to have a big role on SmackDown going forward.