Twist Of Fate: The Matt and Jeff Hardy Story is a two-disc set released in 2008 (e.g. while both brothers were still in the company) that looks at the brothers as individuals, rather than strictly as a tag team.

 

It's a unique approach, and it gives the viewer something different than their previous DVD Leap Of Faith , which was produced some seven years earlier.

 

Disc One is The Matt Hardy Story, which takes us, documentary-style, from Matt's life as a teenager, when he was watching WrestleMania IV with his brother, all the way up to just before his U.S. title won over MVP this year.

 

Weaving together backyard wrestling videos, clips from his OMEGA promotion and almost a decade of WWE footage, Matt's career is explained almost as well as it is in the (highly recommended) Ultimate Insiders DVD released a few years back. The difference this time, though, is not only do you have a wealth of wrestling clips to rely in, but outside voices including childhood friends Gregory Helms, Shannon Moore, noted rival Edge, Michael Hayes, and of course, Jeff Hardy.

 

Interesting stories told about Matt's days as WWE "enhancement talent" (read: jobber duty), where he and Jeff became noticed because of their flashy tights (which Matt sewed himself) and ability to make other superstars look good by taking crazy bumps.

 

Eventually, they were given contracts by Jim Ross and slowly morphed into the wrestlers we know today.

 

(As an aside, I was present for one of Matt and Jeff's earliest televised wins -- a tag team match in Hamilton, Ontario when they upset Kaientai on a taping of Sunday Night Heat.)

 

The documentary also looks at Matt's love triangle with Edge and Lita, and includes the fact that Matt was canned after talking about the situation a little too publicly online. Although Lita's comments on the situation are limited to archived "Byte This" appearances and the like, Edge gives what appear to be "shoot" comments about the way everything was handled.

 

The match selection on this disc is okay, but nothing to write home about. You have a handful of semi-recent matches, with Matt in singles competition against Kane, Joey Mercury, Mr. Kennedy and Edge, yet none of his much-heralded feud with MVP (or, for that matter, the series of matches against Gregory Helms). There is one tag team match from his OMEGA days, with a rare look at both Hardy brothers working heel against The Serial Thrillaz (Helms and Some Other Guy) in a decent little match, including commentary from Helms, Moore, Matt and Jeff.

 

Disc Two is The Captain Lou Albano Stor... no, just kidding; it's The Jeff Hardy Story. There's a bit of overlap in the early going (and how could there NOT be, given how much their early careers tied into each other?), but it's mostly focused on Jeff's career path.

 

In addition to the crew that commented on Matt's DVD, you also have people such as Shawn Michaels giving "The Rainbow Haired Warrior" his just due.

 

One thing I should mention for both discs is that, towards the end of the 1990s and early 2000s, Team Xtreme (Matt, Jeff and Lita) were INSANELY over with the fans. As someone points out on the DVD, you tend to think of The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mick Foley and Triple H as definining the Attitude Era, but Matt and Jeff should be right up there as well.

 

Jeff, unlike his brother, is most definitely an artist, so there's ample footage of him at his trailer-park home (assuming this was filmed BEFORE the fire that destroyed said home), creating art, gigantic aluminium statues and composing music. My take on the music is that it sounds okay, but Jeff's voice is, quite frankly, awful.

 

As with Matt's DVD, Jeff is fairly open when discussing his departure from WWE (over refusing to take a drug test), and admits that he was definitely into some banned substances at the time. In a shocker, he even mentions "TNA" by name to explain his departure from WWE for several years.

 

Matches on this disc include bouts against Triple H, Johnny Nitro, Umaga and Shelton Benjamin, as well as tag bouts against Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch and The Dudley Boyz.

 

Overall, I'd highly recommend this DVD set. The documentaries are, as always, top notch and well-produced. They could have done better on the overall match selection, but I do understand why they didn't want to turn this into a look at their best tag team matches.