Jeff Hardy vs. Rob Van Dam

[8.0] "Amazing, great match that describes what Hardcore is, with a legend of ECW like Rob Van Dam making his WWF Debut but also taking a title that fits him like the Hardcore title, WWF 4-4 WCW/ECW. 8/10 [****1/2]"

[3.0] "This didn't add anything new to the table as far as hardcore matches goes. It's not about the action it's about what this match really brought? In terms of genuine creativity, absolutely nothing, also really messy and cheesy as I expected this to be. I don't really dislike both but they just don't want to bring something that really felt "worth it", it's also was a bit funny from here and there, it's not my wrestling at all. *3/4"

"The greatest match ever. RVD and Jeff Hardy are the greatest in-ring professional wrestlers of all time."

[7.0] "Certainly the best match up until this point. I'm glad they gave this time it deserved and it's pretty good in terms of hardcore matches at the time. Good first PPV in WWE for RVD, and they both looked good here. ***.75"

[9.0] "What a great match! I'm not usually a fan of garbage wrestling, but this was more than that. Hardy and Van Dam seemed like old dance partners, out there to tear each other up for fun like they've been doing it for years. Great hardcore match."

[10.0] "These two guys are not always my favorite but damn, this was a crazy banger, I was loving it all the way down the line. Some crazy stuff."

[8.0] "Banger, Jeff & Rvd put on a non stop, high flying clinic of Professional Wrestling, they both took some brutal bumps and hit some crazy moves. Whole Fucking Show."

[7.0] "RVD's first WWF PPV match, and it is an excellent one. Him and Hardy compliment each other so well with both their speed, flexibility, and daredevil natures. This match is something of a showcase match for RVD. To show what he does best to a potentially new crowd. Many fans there already loved him and his work, and by the end of the night, those that didn't know him came to appreciate him. A bit of an unorthodox Hardcore title match because they kept weapon usage to a minimum, but they had such a great mix of wrestling, brawling, and hardcore stuff that it didn't matter. I think the spot off the stage should have been the finish, but maybe they wanted to establish Van Dam's real finish for the new crowd. Not quite legendary material, but an excellent contest regardless."

[8.0] "easily best match of the night so far, Hardy and Van Dam kill it in this hardcore title match that sees WCW/ECW take a wwe championship, RVD is well over as well which shocked me as with how much wwf fans hated the invaders, really great match that hardy ladder spot was nuts"

[9.0] "Best match of the pay per view, and I liked that both wrestlers used their movesets to show what they could do without an over reliance on weapons. One of the more memorable matches from 2001 for sure!"

[10.0] "I agree with another commenter here that I wish this wasn't a hardcore rules match, as these two didn't need a belt to make this match feel important. They should put the belt on someone trash from WCW in order to make one of the talentless guys seem important .But I'm not gonna knock off any points for the booking decision. Also, there wasn't much hardcore about this as the weapons were just a chair and a ladder. The match delivered. RVD looking like he's been performing in front of crowds this size for his entire life, and I'm not sure he's ever seen this kind of crowd before. He was working the crowd after hitting a few great spots, and selling the fuck out of everything he got hit with. I was not expecting a great match here since I just wasn't expecting these guys to have any chemistry together, but fuck man they hit so many spots, cleanly, one after another. Two professionals really. Jeff Hardy was bleeding and I don't think he bladed, so that was fun to see. Add in all the CRAZY shit they did in the crowd, really something we haven't seen in forever in WWF, and it ends up being a super enjoyable match."

[9.0] "I remember loving this match as a kid and it 100% delivered on the re-watch. This may have been the first match that really turned me on to Jeff being a singles guy too. And RVD was just red-hot at this point. Even the most ardent WWF supporter couldn't boo him."

[8.0] "The only match on the card that was actually a dream match and it delivered. Hardy and RVD always worked really well together."

[8.0] "Great fast paced match. RVD and Jeff both get some great offense in. Jeff actually looks really good when he's opposite of someone like RVD. ****1/4."

[9.0] "Red hot match that doesn't slow down for a second. Both men take insane bumps and look genuinely shattered by the end. Some of the ladder stuff and the absurd spot sending Hardy into the hole between the stage walkways is absolutely incredible."

[9.0] "Just below a 10 for lack of story other than the overarching story of the invasion. For a lot of fans including myself, this was the first look at RVD, and he played the hits. His unique offense, character, selling, all top notch. He and Jeff Hardy have amazing chemistry! Highlights include the opening sequence (before it was overdone in the indies, following others like Ospreay/Ricochet perfecting it), the timing of the Van Daminator, and the genius of using the compactor leg drop from Jeff and the flexibility of Rob to do a pinfall."

[7.0] "For a short hardcore match that had no story behind it (besides it being part of the ECW/WCW invasion) this is as good as it gets. That's what you call making the most out of your minutes."

[9.0] "An extremely good match that seems to get overlooked a lot for whatever reasons. Rob and Jeff had fantastic chemistry together and put on the best match of the Invasion card with ease. For a hardcore title match, they kept it tame which I actually prefer. Yes we had some really fun spots like the ladder bump but the normal action was so fast paced and entertaining that I will probably have to watch all their other matches against each other. Wish this was talked about more. And shoutout to Rob for that absolutely amazing attire."

[5.0] "It would have been a phenomenal introduction of RVD, but they had to add the dumb hardcore stipulation to this. They didn't overdo it with the garbage spots like most other matches for this title tend to, but I had a bad taste in my mouth knowing that they could have had an impressive normal match in the ring instead of this bollocks. Rob was over, he showed a lot of good stuff, but furniture ruined this for me."

[9.0] "Fantastic match always loved watching them work together. 2 of my all time favorites and 2 of the most creative wrestlers of all time. So of course this match was very entertaining and had some great spots. The fall jeff took to the floor from that tall ass ladder and the van damnator in particular were awesome. These two never failed to deliver 4.25/5"

[10.0] "Yeah this the best match on the card without a doubt. This Invasion show would've been like regarded as one of the worst PPVs of all time if they didn't have this match in it. This is the match that made Rob Van Dam super over in WWF, and Jeff Hardy was the perfect dance partner for him. Jeff takes some disgusting bumps for RVD, ragdolling from high spots that he was known for. RVD is the coolest wrestler of all time, he can rarely do any wrong, and here it was perfect storm of awesome. Also I love the "WWF Hardcore" style, I just think their always super fun and the perfect showcase for non-wrestling fans."

[8.0] "The only truly good match on this card, with Van Dam getting a chance to show what he could do before a large audience, and Hardy showing off as usual. Most matches on this card were short, with this being the longest apart from the main event brawl at 12 minutes, but they managed to work fast and fit enough stuff in. The only undercard match that didn't feel rushed."

[8.0] "This was different from most hardcore style type matches. First half of the match weapons aren't really used, they use that portion of the match so both men can show off their quickness and athletic ability. 2nd half they brought in some weapons but didn't overkill and kept the action quick paced. Great debut match for RVD in WWF.****"

[7.0] "Still surprises me sometimes that the WWF or WCW were never able to get RVD away from ECW. This is Rob Van Dam's big WWF PPV debut and it's one of the most popular of his matches. They go through a kungfu/matrix wrestling counter sequence and RVD plays to the fans and gets drop kicked for not paying attention. Dropkick gets 2. He gets a modified rollup for 2. RVD gets a standing moonsault for 2. Rolling thunder for 2. Rob goes up and gets thrown off onto the barricade by Jeff. Jeff baseball slides him, but Rob counters the rail runner. Jeff counters RVD and dose a sunset flip over and power bombs RVD off the apron and it's hideous when he smacks the floor. Jeff grabs the 500 foot ladder and climbs up but RVD pushes it over when he gets to the top. RVD fetches a chair and Jeff jabs him with the ladder. Jeff stalks him with the chair and RVD pulls out the vandaminator and kicks the chair back in Jeff's face and he goes flying off the entrance podium. Back to the ring where RVD does the vanterminator with a chair , but the moonsault hits knees. Hardy DDTs for 2, and a tough German suplex gets 2. Jawbreaker and Jeff goes up, but the swanton misses and RVD pops up and hits the 5 star frog splash and gets the pin at 12:32. This one felt more like a no disqualification match than a hardcore match. It's the best match so far, that's for sure!"

[6.0] "Pretty good as far as hardcore spotfests go. They'd have a rematch that year at Summerslam which I thought was about just as good, with just as many memorable spots. It was cool that both men at least dedicated the first half of this match to more traditional agile and high-flying spots, and then in the second half they brought out the hardcore spots with the various weapons. Thankfully, they managed to keep those hardcore spots still as interesting as their earlier spots because they still included both of their agile and high-flying stylings. RVD played well as the cocky outsider heel, while Jeff was likewise good as the home-promotion babyface. Their styles naturally mixed very well together, but I think if they just committed to either a normal work-rate spotfest or to a totally carnage-filled weapon spotfest then they would have produced something even better. I also think that this should have been given at least 5 minutes longer, which definitely would have allowed them to produce a better match if they just continued to fill that time as they were already doing, but I guess the booking didn't dictate that they should have a match that went too long, which was a shame. ***1/4"

[8.0] "A very fun and fast paced hardcore match with memorable spots and a great finish. I loved the Van Daminator on the ramp and the Five Star Frog splash with the title. I felt like the short length worked for this match and Both guys were great here. ****"

[8.0] "Great hardcore match, this was everything it needed to be. A bloody, hard fought war with many memorable spots, about what you would expect from RVD vs Jeff in their prime. I enjoyed every minute of this, and RVD finishing Jeff with the 5 star frog splash on the title was awesome. ****"

[8.0] "I think the WON star rating is fair actually, as this was a near perfect WWF pay per view debut for Rob Van Dam, where he got to hit a bunch of his big trademark spots and got himself over in essentially one night. Jeff Hardy makes an excellent foil for him due to his unselfishness and willingness to take big bumps. It's certainly the best match of the pay per view and the main reason I ever tend to go back to it"

[5.0] "This was a pretty decent stuntfest, although there wasn't anything overly outrageous or crazy done. The real highlight was the Van Daminator being executed in a manner where the person taking it didn't look like an idiot for casually holding a chair in front of their face and waiting for Van Dam to kick it."

[8.0] "Great match that involves a ladder and some nice spots. RVD is a heel but the crowd supports him anyway. The bumps are impressive and the match is entertaining. ****"

[8.0] "This match was very good and was the first time RVD got to really show the WWF fans what he could do there were so many great spots by both men. The two competitors took some bumps that you wouldn't see today, although this was a spotfest, it was a very good one."

[10.0] "Great match, nothing negative to say. One of the best 1v1 matches of each men's careers. They have great chemistry and everything connected well and flowed well. Some great moments and constant entertainment. My only wish is it would be an extra 5 minutes. My rating is ****1/2"