Date of Birth
23 September 1974, Cameron, North Carolina, USA
Birth Name
Matthew Moore Hardy
Nickname
Matt
Matt Hardy Version 1
The Sensei of Mattitude
The Angelic Diablo
Height
6′ 1″ (1.85 m)
Mini Biography
Matthew Moore Hardy (born September 23, 1974 in Cameron, North Carolina) is a professional wrestler. He worked for World Wrestling Entertainment on the RAW brand until April 2005 and returned to WWE in July 2005.
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Career
Before his then-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. Other wrestlers associated with OMEGA include Christopher Daniels, the future Lita, Shannon Moore and The Hurricane. Once signed, the brothers formed an acrobatic tag team and became known as The Hardy Boyz. Although they had several managers during their tag team run, the five-time WWE Tag Team Champions were most prominently accompanied to the ring by Lita. The three together became known as “Team Extreme.” 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.
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 he 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 and, at WrestleMania XIX in Seattle, defended it against Rey Mysterio. The Mattitude stable also included the late Crash Holly as Shannon Moore’s “Moore-on.” 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 rivarly with then heel, Kane.
Release from WWE
Along with his friend Rhyno, Matt Hardy was released by WWE on April 11, 2005. Matt’s release was officially 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. It has also been speculated that Hardy was going to confront Edge during a RAW episode, but these claims are largely unfounded. However, it was further speculated that Hardy was released because management did not generally like him, and an excuse to fire him had been presented. In fact, 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.
It should be noted that some people believed that Hardy’s release (and subsequent rehiring) was part of an elaborate work. The WWE frequently referenced the Hardy situation on televised broadcasts, whereas normally they would not acknowledge real-life situations which reflected badly on the WWE onscreen. Given Matt’s vitriolic interviews and the fact that Edge’s wife accused him of steroid abuse, this seems possible, but it remains uncertain. Since Matt has now been re-hired by WWE, his comments could have been partially or completely worked.
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.
Return to WWE
On the June 20 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 the wedding should not go on. Moments later, it was revealed as a joke played by Edge and Lita. On the July 11 episode of RAW, Matt Hardy made his return, attacking Edge as he made his way to the ring for his match against Kane and calling him out by his real name (Adam). On the July 14th 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, believed to have been a complete shoot, which led to Lita walking off the set. It has been confirmed that Matt reached a verbal agreement with WWE return to the promotion in early June, giving up the chance to sign a contract with TNA, where he would likely have reformed the Hardy Boyz with Jeff. His new WWE contract is rumored to be both longer and far more lucrative than his old contract.
Matt appeared at a scheduled Ring Of Honor event on July 16 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 an 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.
It was recently confirmed through a TNA press release that Matt Hardy will not be appearing at any of their future shows, including their 17 July pay-per-view No Surrender. There was previously heavy speculation that Hardy would make a run-in at the event.
On July 18, Matt Hardy again attacked Edge, this time before his steel cage match with Kane, before Matt could be handcuffed, however, he managed to escape and left through the crowd.
Seven days later on RAW, Matt Hardy ambushed Edge yet again, this time after a stretcher match with Kane, which Edge had won. Matt, however, was quickly restrained by security.
On August 1, Vince McMahon came out on RAW and officially acknowledged Hardy’s return to WWE, adding that Hardy would face Edge at the upcoming SummerSlam pay-per-view. On August 8, Matt Hardy made his in ring return, defeating Gene 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 in a battle which was hardly considered a wrestling match but an all-out brawl calling the “Kill or Be Killed” Match. The match wound up coming to a premature end when Edge dropped Hardy onto the top of a ring-post, causing him to bleed and eventually leading to the referee ending the match on the grounds that Hardy couldn’t continue. Edge was declared the winner.
On August 22, 2005, Matt Hardy had a match against Rob Conway. While this match was running, Edge and Lita were sitting on the commentator’s desk trying to distract him. Edge was a guest commentator. Conway defeated Matt and then Edge came over with a smiling Lita to attack Matt and then put his head in between the steel steps and the ring post and kicked it causing Matt to stay practically paralyzed.
On August 29, Matt Hardy and Edge once again faced off on RAW in a Street Fight which saw the two superstars take it to each other like never before. Steel chairs, a ladder, steel ring steps, a singapore cane, if it wasn’t glued down, it became a weapon. The match went back and forth, and eventually wound up on the stage near the Titantron. As Matt was about to powerbomb Lita off the stage in retribution for her distracting him, Edge intervened, and the two of them tried to use their finishing moves on each other but failed. Matt nailed Edge with the Side Effect, but the two of them went flying off the stage onto electrical equipment. They were then carted off by EMT’s to receive medical attention for possible broken necks. After being held over night, both Edge and Matt Hardy were let go. No serious damage took place, though they were physically bruised and battered.
Singles competition
On the July 6 edition of SmackDown!, Matt Hardy won a non-title match against Montel Vontavious Porter (MVP), which resulted in a feud between the two. Hardy was unable to defeat MVP at The Great American Bash for the WWE United States Championship. MVP then claimed that he was “better than Hardy at everything”, which led to a series of contests between Hardy and MVP, such as a basketball game, an arm wrestling contest, and a chess match which MVP “sneezed” on and ruined when Matt put him in check. MVP challenged Hardy to a boxing match at Saturday Night’s Main Event, however MVP was legitimately diagnosed with the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome. Since MVP was unable to compete, Hardy faced his replacement, former world champion boxer, Evander Holyfield. The match ended in a no-contest after MVP entered the ring to verbally abuse Holyfield, who then knocked him out. MVP also challenged Matt to a beer drinking contest at SummerSlam, but as revenge for what happened at SNME, Hardy substituted Stone Cold Steve Austin who simply stunned MVP then kept drinking.
After a segment involving MVP inadvertently choosing Hardy as his tag-team partner, Theodore Long promptly set up a match against Deuce ‘N Domino for the WWE Tag Team Championship which the duo were able to win, therefore setting up Matt’s first reign as WWE Tag Team Champion. It is the first time Hardy has held a Tag Team championship with someone other than his younger brother Jeff. Hardy and MVP retained the titles at the Unforgiven PPV in a rematch against former champions Deuce ‘N Domino.
Title History
WWF World Tag Team Champion (5)
6/29/99-7/25/99 (with Jeff Hardy)
9/24/00-10/22/00 (with Jeff Hardy)
10/23/00-11/6/00 (with Jeff Hardy)
3/5/01-3/19/01 (with Jeff Hardy)
11/12/01-11/18/01 (with Jeff Hardy)
WCW World Tag Team Champion (1)
10/18/01-10/23/01 (with Jeff Hardy)
WWF European Champion (1)
4/24/01-8/27/01
WWE Cruiserweight Champion (1)
2/23/03-6/3/03
WWF Hardcore Champion (1)
4/24/00-4/25/00
OMEGA Pro Wrestling Heavyweight Championship (1)
12/5/97-12/1/98
OMEGA Pro Wrestling Tag Team Championship (1)
7/24/98-1/29/99 (with Jeff Hardy)
NWA 2000 Tag Team Championship (1)
3/7/98-6/29/98 (with Jeff Hardy)
NCW Light Heavyweight Championship (2)
7/24/97-12/1/98
???-???
NEWA Heavyweight Championship (1)
5/8/95-???
NFWA Tag Team Championship (1)
4/??/95-??? (with Venom)
NDW Light Heavyweight Championship (1)
7/17/98-???
Awards
Matt has won three 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.
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