Retrospective: The Kane-Lita-Matt Hardy-Edge Saga

By @BMDontCheat

2002-2007 was without a doubt a weird era in wrestling if we talking strictly WWE. While Smackdown had its bit of strange moments.....

Raw without a doubt takes the cake for the most bizarre storylines/moments between the two brands. From the dreaded Katie Vick angle to Scott Steiner matches to Badd Blood 2003, Raw was pretty disturbing.

Despite the inconsistent dreadful booking, you can't pin the ENTIRE blame on the writers because sometimes the fans may play a part in the role of where the direction of the storyline goes. A good example of this is the controversial raunchy Matt/Lita/Kane/Edge storyline.

Shortly after a feud with Victoria for the Womens title, Lita, who was in a relationship with Hardy, began to be stalked by Kane. As if WWE didn't learn their lessons in stalker angles prior....

Lita was harassed and seduced by Kane every week. You know, Kane, the guy who "didn't" kill nor rape Katie Vick.... Great way to represent him WWE. Seriously I feel bad for dude cause I feel he gets stuck with the crappiest contradicting storylines. Anyways, it reached a boiling point where Lita became "pregnant" and it turned out the father wasn't her boyfriend Matt, but rather Kane himself. I guess at this point it's safe to assume that Kane forced a sexual relation on Lita.... Does WWE ever learn their lessons?

So Kane gets into a match with Matt Hardy that is labeled Til Death Do Us Part, where if Kane wins he gets to marry Lita..... judging by the title of the match alone you already know this feud was trash. So you think with WWE already crossing the line and Hardy being well over as a face you think WWE wouldn't dare allow the storyline to continue further and allow Hardy to rightfully win thus end the feud there right?

Nope!

Kane shockingly wins! So Lita and Kane get married on Raw, which ends in a catfight with Trish and Hardy getting tombstoned and put out of commission. Kane and Lita would then spend a month in a series of uncomfortable segments and after a random feud with HBK, things got..... worse.

Kane would face newcomer Gene Snitsky and would try to injure Snitsky except Lita gets in the way and well.....Snitsky pushes Kane into the pregnant Lita and she suffers a miscarriage. Oh boy....

During a feud with Snitsky, who became heel despite clearly not really being at fault, in which he would get the annoying entrance of him reiterating that it "WASNT MY FAULT", Kane became babyface and seemingly gained the admiration of his victim... err I mean "wife". Well....

So skipping the rest of the Kane and Snitsky feud, Kane would get involved in Lita's feud with Trish and they became a happy couple.... or so it seems. During the Gold Rush tournament to decide the number 1 contender for the WHC, Kane gets double crossed by Lita in the second round against Edge. Lita then revealed she was seeing Edge behind Kane's back and sought retribution against Kane for the rape and torture she was put through.

Now while this was a great perfectly justifiable reasoning, here's the problem.... Remember when I said sometimes the fans may influence the direction of a poor booking decision? Well as it turns out, Lita becomes the heel perpetrating slut while Kane becomes the sympathetic babyface! It makes sense to some maybe, but then to me it's like WTF!

I always thought ill of this since the first time I watched it. This brings out my inner feminism, like why is Lita going through such a defamation of a heel character of being a slut for getting revenge on the guy that accosted her and raped her. I mean I know this isn't real, but seeing the audience jeer Lita and praise the real BAD guy Kane was sickening and disturbing. Also why is WWE allowing this to happen, what did Lita do to deserve this?! You can see in her promos how uncomfortable she was having to act out her heel dialogue calling herself a slut as an attempt to create heat.

Kane would then feud with Edge, stalking him and Lita, ruining their marriage, tombstone a priest thus leading to a match at Vengeance between the two. Now you would think Edge, receiving a lot of heat as an heel and winning the tournament while being Mr. Money in the Bank would go over right?

Not a chance.

Kane goes over Edge for no logical reason and the feud ends there. Kane disappears from TV (likely to film to See No Evil) and stops bothering them. What a shitty storyline!

But it does not end there, as there is one more feud..... Matt Hardy returns! Hardy attacks Edge several times before revealing that the storyline with Edge and Lita is actually a real life affair! Wait.... wait.... WWE, this is real? This does some harm on Lita's reputation as she mentions that she began to receive threats and hurtful comments in reality due to this dirty laundry (Editor's Note: She deserves all the slander for cheating on her injured boyfriend with one of his best friends....).

Edge would feud with Hardy and face him at Summerslam with him beating the shit out of Hardy to the point of the match being stopped which pretty made Hardy look weak. I love Matt Hardy and even though Hardy would get even by beating Edge in a cage match at Unforgiven, outside of that match Hardy still looked pretty weak in this feud as he would lose cleanly on Raw to jobbers including Rob Conway.... Seriously though WWE? He would then receive a Twist of Fate from Lita as well....so much for "Matt Hardy Wont Die", because he looked like a bitch.

This clash would end in a ladder match at Raw Homecoming in a Loser Leaves Raw match. Of course, Hardy lost the match and lost his girl and job to Edge. Ouch.

Overall this feud was pretty tasteless and selfish on WWE's part for displaying a real life exploitation between the relationship between Edge, Hardy and Lita. Strangely enough that was the high point of the storyline as Edge and Hardy delivered two good matches, and though Hardy looked sort of weak, the right man went over as Edge would capitalize and became a successful heel and main eventer.

The low point was the Kane fiasco, I thought that was downright ridiculous! It didn't benefit anyone and made everyone look bad, especially Lita as she became hurt the most (Editor's Note: Once again, rightfully so). The only positive aspect was that it jumpstarted the Rated R superstar gimmick of Edge as he would go on to win several world titles and have several great matches. Lita would carry herself as a great heel as well, and she would earn herself another title reign before retiring.

Kane was involved in another shitty storyline after the other, which is the norm. Hardy went to Smackdown and became a midcarder.

Was this storyline really that bad? It was one big connecting piece that got worse with each moment. So yes. It was.

-Alex