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Matt Hardy

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Matt Hardy
File:Matt hardy.jpg
BornSeptember 23, 1974
Cameron, North Carolina
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)Matt Hardy
High Voltage
Surge
The Angelic Diablo
Matt Hardy, Version 1.0
Billed height6 ft 1 in (185 cm)
Billed weight225 lb (102 kg)
Trained byDory Funk, Jr.
Debut1992

Matthew (Matt) Moore Hardy (born September 23, 1974) is an American professional wrestler, currently working for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). He is most noted for being a member of the Hardy Boyz tag team as part of Team Xtreme with Lita between 1998 and 2002.

Career

Before his WWF debut with his brother Jeff, Matt was trained by former wrestler Dory Funk, Jr. Before signing with the WWF, Matt and Jeff ran their own wrestling promotion, OMEGA Wrestling, in which Matt competed under the name High Voltage. However, he had to change his name to Surge after a WCW tag team began to use that name. This happened shortly after Matt Hardy sent in a tape for the WCW Amateur Challenge with himself as High Voltage. A few years later, it was revealed to him by Chris Kanyon that the tape had been kept in the WCW Power Plant, watched multiple times and had the name High Voltage stolen from it [citation needed].

World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment

Matt and Jeff started working for the WWF in 1993 and were initially used in singles matches and in tag matches as jobbers. It wasn't until 1998 that the brothers were given a full-time WWF contract. The Hardy Boyz used a cruiserweight, fast-paced high flying style in their matches, often leaping from great heights to do damage to their opponents (and themselves in the process). Although Jeff was better known for his extreme moves, Matt was a prodigious high-flier himself. Their feuds with Edge and Christian and the Dudley Boyz, particularly their Tables, Ladders, and Chairs matches made them extremely popular and propelled them to five reigns as tag team champions.

In 2001, after Jeff Hardy's Intercontinental Championship run, Matt Hardy was given a singles championship push. Matt Hardy was given the European championship on Smackdown two weeks before Backlash. Throughout the year, the Hardyz would continue as a tag team, winning the WWF Tag Titles once again and the WCW Tag Titles throughout the Invasion angle. By the end of the year, the Hardy Boyz were having trouble getting along (kayfabe).

At the beginning of 2002, it seemed Team Xtreme had patched things up. On the August 12, 2002 episode of RAW, Matt turned against Jeff, pitting him in a match against Rob Van Dam. A short time later Matt joined the SmackDown! roster. On the October 3, 2002 edition of the show, Matt used outside interference from Brock Lesnar to defeat The Undertaker.

Now dubbed Matt Hardy - Version 1.0, and with his MF'er (Mattitude Follower) Shannon Moore in his corner, Matt defeated Billy Kidman at the 2003 No Way Out in Montreal, Quebec to claim the WWE Cruiserweight Championship. At WrestleMania XIX in Seattle, he successfully defended it against Rey Mysterio. The Mattitude stable also included Crash Holly as Shannon Moore's "Moore-on." Crash was later released and Matt later disbanded the stable and returned to RAW in order to be able to travel and work with then girlfriend, Lita. He would later turn face once more by engaging in a rivalry with then heel, Kane.

Hardy and Lita were an off-screen couple for six years, and used to share a home in North Carolina. Their romance came to an end in late February 2005 (according to Matt's official website) due to Lita's affair with fellow WWE superstar Edge.

Release from WWE

Along with his friend Rhyno, Matt Hardy was released by WWE on April 11, 2005. Matt's release was due to his public handling of the Lita/Edge incident (posting disparaging remarks towards Edge on his website). His release was confirmed publicly by WWE. However, it was further speculated that Hardy was released because management, mainly WWE VP of Talent Relations John Laurinaitis did not like him, and an excuse to fire him had been presented. Triple H allegedly said of Hardy's release, "he never drew money anyway." Hardy countered this statement in an online interview stating that he and his brother Jeff, as the Hardy Boyz, had been top sellers of merchandise.

Because of the affair and being released from WWE, Matt's status, especially in the Internet wrestling community, became elevated to a cult-like status. Also, Edge and Lita received jeers from the crowds at WWE events, sometimes resulting in chants, "You screwed Matt," and, "We want Matt." Paul Heyman, in a shoot promo, mocked Edge for his actions at One Night Stand 2005. Lita, for the first time in over five years, turned heel as a result of the affair becoming public knowledge. Sources indicate, however, that this "shoot promo" was a WWE strategy used to measure the crowd's response to Hardy, and to gauge whether it would be a good move to rehire him.

Matt Hardy released two character promotional vignettes, that he was planning to use before he was offered a new contract by WWE. Hardy called himself The Angelic Diablo with the tagline "the scar will become a symbol" in reference to the way in which he has been treated by Lita and WWE. WWE attempted to have Matt Hardy's then website, www.thematthardy.com, along with The Matt Hardy Show both shut down as a condition of his rehiring. When Hardy refused these conditions and informed WWE management that TNA wasn't requiring this of him, WWE allowed The Matt Hardy Show to continue, but not Matt's website.

The Hardy Show

During this time, Matt created an online reality show called "The Matt Hardy Show" which featured Matt, Jeff, Shannon Moore and friend Andrew Wright living their lives. In 2005, a DVD featuring Season 1 of The Matt Hardy Show was released. The show still continues today although the name was later changed to "The Hardy Show" due to Jeff's major involvement in the show.

Return to WWE

On the June 20, 2005 edition of RAW, during the storyline wedding of Edge and Lita, Matt Hardy's entrance music and video were played when the priest asked if anyone had a reason why Edge and Lita should not be wed. On the July 11, 2005 episode of RAW, Matt Hardy made his return, attacking Edge as he made his way to the ring. On the July 13, 2005 edition of WWE's webcast Byte This!, which featured Lita as its guest, one of the callers was Matt himself. The two engaged in a huge argument which led to Lita walking off the set.

Matt appeared at a scheduled Ring of Honor (ROH) event on July 16, 2005 in Woodbridge, Connecticut where he defeated Christopher Daniels via submission. Hardy also cut a brief promo where he continued in full 'worked shoot' mode, attacking WWE and John Laurinaitis. Following his official return to WWE, Hardy was met with a backlash which involved him getting booed out of the arena at another ROH event following a match with Homicide, which Hardy won. His final ROH appearance happened the day after this event, where he lost to Roderick Strong. Contrary to previous reports, he ended up not making an appearance in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA).

On July 11, 2005 (which was also the day that his no compete clause expired), Hardy posted on thematthardy.com that he was finally "free" (as in his clause expired) and stated to the fans that they have not seen the last of Matt and that he's got a surprise for his fans who supported him. That surprise happened on that night's edition of RAW, where Hardy attacked Edge during one of Edge's matches and repeated the feat the next two weeks.

On August 1, 2005, Vince McMahon came out on RAW and officially acknowledged Hardy's return to WWE, adding that Hardy would face Edge at SummerSlam. On August 8, 2005, Hardy made his in-ring return, defeating Snitsky on RAW. Seconds after the victory, Matt was attacked by Edge and as he was being carried backstage, Matt counterattacked Edge in a locker room.

On August 21, 2005, at SummerSlam, Matt Hardy and Edge faced each other. The match came to a premature end when Edge dropped Hardy onto the top of a ring post, causing him to bleed heavily leading to the referee ending the match on the grounds that Hardy couldn't continue. Edge was declared the winner.

After SummerSlam, the two continued fighting on RAW, with one encounter being a Street Fight that resulted in both men falling off the stage into electrical wires when Matt Hardy took himself down with Edge in a Side Effect.

At Unforgiven2005 Edge faced Matt Hardy in a steel cage match. Hardy, despite Lita's interference allowing the match to continue after a top-rope Side Effect won the match with a leg-drop off the top of the cage.

Hardy and Edge faced each other at WWE Homecoming in a Loser Leaves RAW, Money-in-the-Bank ladder match. Edge's briefcase holding the contract for his WWE World title shot was suspended above the ring. The winner of the match got the contract and the loser was forced to leave RAW. After a contentious match, Edge tied Matt's arms in the ropes and Lita trapped Hardy in a crucifix hold, leaving Matt only able to watch Edge win. When the match ended, Edge and Lita gloated over the victory, but Matt took it in stride and left the arena afterwards.

SmackDown!

With his defeat at the hands of Edge, Hardy was moved back to SmackDown!. His re-debut happened was a win over Simon Dean on October 21, 2005.

Matt was among five SmackDown! superstars - along with Christian, JBL, Rey Mysterio, and Hardcore Holly — to be voted on by fans to compete at Taboo Tuesday, against Edge and Chris Masters in November. Hardy led the voting, getting 51% overall, and along with Rey Mysterio (29%) defeated Masters and Snitsky, who filled in for Edge when he legitimately suffered a chest injury (which was kayfabed to Edge "not caring" about Hardy or Mysterio, the fans, or the RAW brand).

Back on SmackDown! Hardy started a program with MNM (Johnny Nitro and Joey Mercury) and their manager Melina when Melina approached Hardy, seemingly wanting Hardy to join with her team. Hardy refused the offer, which led to him facing off with the then tag team on several occasions with a variety of partners. One of his partners, The Road Warrior, brutally attacked him after they were defeated - sick of "pulling all the weight in tag teams". The Road Warrior and Hardy feuded for a while after this, with Hardy picking up several wins over the veteran, including a qualifying match for the Money in the Bank ladder match at WrestleMania 22 where he would come up short.

King of The Ring

Hardy next competed in the SmackDown! 2006 King of the Ring tournament, losing to eventual winner Booker T in the opening round thanks to a low blow and distraction from Sharmell.

On July 25, after the SmackDown! taping, Hardy was taken out of action after doctors found the remnants of the staph infection that had plagued him the previous year. He was sidelined until August 25 while he healed.

Reunion of the Hardy Boyz

Hardy made a surprise appearance backstage at Unforgiven after Jeff's match against Johnny Nitro. Lita joined the two in the segment, making this the first time the three had been seen together on WWE television since February 2003.

On the November 21, 2006 episode of ECW on Sci Fi, Matt and Jeff competed in a match together for the first time in almost five years. They had their old titantron video and entrance music, and defeated the Full Blooded Italians.

At Survivor Series, the Hardy Boyz were matched to go with CM Punk as part of Team DX VS Team Rated-RKO (which included Edge, Randy Orton, Johhny Nitro /w Melina, Mike Knox and Gregory Helms) in a traditonal co-captains match. Team DX won by case of a shut out, eliminating Orton for the win.

Move to ECW?

At December to Dismember, the Hardy Boyz issued an open challege to any tag team in the world. MNM answered their challege by reuniting at December to Dismember and ultimately lost to the Hardy Boyz. Matt has been wrestling with his brother Jeff on RAW two weeks in a row.

Wrestling facts

  • Finishing and signature moves
  • Managers
  • Theme
  • The theme song for Matt Hardy is Live for the Moment by Monster Magnet. The original incarnation of the theme had typing noises and sounds of a computer loading up to match his "V-1" gimmick, but was later taken out of the song when Matt returned to the WWE in Summer 2005.


Championships and accomplishments

  • OMEGA Pro Wrestling Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
  • OMEGA Pro Wrestling Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Jeff Hardy
  • Matt has won five PWI Awards. He won Tag Team of the Year in 2000 with Jeff. He also was part of the Match of the Year in 2000 and 2001. Both matches were the Hardy Boyz vs. the Dudley Boyz vs. Edge and Christian. He was part of the Feud of the Year in 2005 with Edge and Lita. He was also ranked # 489 in the PWI 500 years.

Books

  • Hardy, Jeff; Hardy, Matt; and Krugman, Michael (2003) The Hardy Boyz : Exist 2 Inspire, ISBN 0-06-052154-6
Wikiquote has quotations related to Matt Hardy.

References

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