Simultaneously energized and poisoned by championship glory, the uneasy alliance between MVP and Matt Hardy in 2007 -- regarded by many as WWE's most successful dysfunctional tag team -- blazes its way to No. 6 among WWE.com's Heated Pursuits in WWE History.

The intense circumstance by which MVP and Matt Hardy came to co-exist served as their undoing from the start. The Franchise Playa and then-United States Champion had used a successful title defense over Hardy at The Great American Bash 2007 to assert his claim that he was better than his adversary at …well, everything. Hardy obviously disputed the claim, so the two competitive grapplers began challenging each other to a series of unorthodox contests, including basketball, arm-wrestling, boxing and even chess.

Though entertaining, these match-ups did not resolve the question of which Superstar more deserved to wear the United States Championship. Worse, with every week that MVP hung onto the prestigious title, he grew exponentially cockier. He soon claimed to SmackDown General Manager Theodore Long that he was so talented, he could win the WWE Tag Team Championships with any Superstar as his partner. Imagine MVP's surprise, then, when Long held him to that statement, and paired him with his singles rival for a championship opportunity.

Strained as things were between MVP and Hardy, their collective competitive nature took over, motivating the oil-and-vinegar duo to triumph over reigning WWE Tag Team Champions Deuce & Domino. However, rather than quell any tension between the two reluctant partners, winning the illustrious titles only served to further fuel the already explosive fires between them. Hardy continued to push for a United States Title Match, while the crafty MVP used their shared championship -- and any other excuse he could think of -- to string him along. Hardy played nice for the good of the prestigious tandem gold, even sharing a toast with his unlikely partner on his "VIP Longue." Yet with every passing week, Matt became more agitated, especially once MVP started referring to himself as the "captain" of their team.

It was only a matter of time before the duo's passive-aggressive partnership turned purely aggressive. That moment came in November 2007, when MVP & Hardy finally lost the World Tag Team Titles to John Morrison & The Miz on SmackDown. Realizing that his No. 1 excuse for preventing a singles title match with Hardy was in immediate danger, The Ballin' Superstar suddenly attacked the leg of his would-be ally, taking him out of action for months and bringing an end to their tumultuous relationship as swiftly as it began.

Matt Hardy would ultimately get his retribution, returning to WWE to ruin MVP's Money in the Bank bid at WrestleMania XXIV, then taking his rival's United States Title a month later at Backlash. Nevertheless, nothing that happened between the two Superstars sounded as loudly when they were foes as the fireworks that dominated their unlikely union.