Matthew "Matt" Moore Hardy
(born September 23, 1974) is an American
professional wrestler. He is
currently working for
World Wrestling Entertainment
(WWE) on their
SmackDown brand.
Before signing with WWE, Hardy, with his brother
Jeff, founded a wrestling organization called
Organization of
Modern Extreme Grappling Arts (OMEGA). While there, Hardy held
many championships including the
Heavyweight and
Tag Team Championship, which he
held with Jeff. The promotion folded in October 1999 when they
signed contracts with WWE. The Hardys gained notoriety in WWE's
tag team division due to their
participation in
Tables, Ladders, and Chairs
matches. As a tag team wrestler, Hardy is a
six-time World Tag Team Champion, a
one-time WWE Tag Team Champion, and a
one-time
WCW Tag Team
Champion.
Apart from his success as a tag team wrestler, Hardy has won
numerous singles championships, including the
Hardcore,
European,
Cruiserweight,
United States and
ECW Championships once each, the last of
which was his first
world
heavyweight championship.
Professional wrestling career
Hardy, along with his brother
Jeff and
friends, started their own federation, the Trampoline Wrestling
Federation (TWF) and mimicked the moves they saw on television.
They later created their own wrestling
promotion,
OMEGA
Wrestling, in which Hardy competed under the name High Voltage.
Shortly after Hardy sent in a tape for the
World Championship Wrestling
(WCW) Amateur Challenge using the ring name High Voltage, a tag
team named
High
Voltage began competing in WCW, causing Hardy to change his
name to Surge. 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 that the name High Voltage was blatantly stolen
from it.
The Hardys also wrestled for several other North Carolina based
wrestling organizations and adapted a number of alter-egos. As The
Wolverine, Hardy captured the New England Wrestling Alliance (NEWA)
Championship in May 1994. As High Voltage, he teamed with
Venom to claim the New Frontier Wrestling
Association (NFWA) Tag Team titles in March 1995. A month later,
High Voltage defeated the
Willow for the
NFWA Championship.
World Wrestling Federation / Entertainment
The Hardy Boyz (1998–2001)
Hardy worked as a
jobber for the
World Wrestling Federation
(WWF) from 1994 up until he signed a full-time contract. His first
WWF match was against
Nikolai
Volkoff on May 23, 1994, which he lost by
submission He wrestled
sporadically throughout 1994 in the WWF, losing matches against
Crush,
Razor Ramon,
Owen Hart
and
The Undertaker. Hardy continued
wrestling with the WWF sporadically, including matches against
Hunter Hearst Helmsley and
"The Ringmaster" Steve Austin. It
was not until 1998, however, that the Hardy brothers were given
full-time WWF contracts, and sent to train with former wrestler
Dory Funk, Jr.. 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,
Hardy was a prodigious high-flier himself. In 1999, while feuding
with
Edge and Christian, the duo
briefly picked up
Michael
Hayes as a
manager. On July 5, they
won their first
WWF Tag team
Championship by defeating
the Acolytes, but lost it back to
them a month later. They soon dumped Hayes however, and joined the
short lived stable
The New
Brood. After breaking away from
Gangrel, Hardy and Jeff were briefly
managed by
Terri Runnels, after they
won her services in the first ever tag team
ladder match.
In 2000, the Hardy Boyz found a new manager in their real-life
friend
Lita. Together, the three became
known as "
Team Xtreme".
Throughout 2000 they continued feuding with
Edge and Christian, defeating them for
the WWF Tag Team Titles on two occasions. Hardy won the
WWE Hardcore Championship on April
24, 2000, on
Raw is War, by
defeating
Crash Holly, but lost it
back to Holly three days later on
SmackDown!. At
SummerSlam the Hardy Boyz competed in the
first ever
Tables,
Ladders, and Chairs match, for the Tag Team Titles against the
Dudley Boyz and
Edge and Christian, but were
unsuccessful.
Singles career (2001–2005)
In 2001, after
Jeff's
Intercontinental
Championship run, Hardy was given a singles championship push.
He won the
European
Championship on
SmackDown! four days before
Backlash. Hardy believes that he was
pushed to win the title because of Jeff winning the
Intercontinental Championship, and because of the effort he put
into his previous storyline with
Triple H
and
Stone Cold Steve Austin.
He became the second-longest reigning European Champion in history
and the longest-reigning American-born European Champion.
Throughout the year, the Hardy Boyz continued to win as a tag team,
winning the WWF Tag Team Titles two more times, and the WCW Tag
Team Titles during
the Invasion. By the
end of the year, the Hardy Boyz began a storyline where they were
having trouble co-existing. This culminated in a match between the
two, with Lita as the
guest
referee, at the
Vengeance
pay-per-view, which Jeff won.
At the beginning of 2002, it seemed Team Xtreme had patched things
up. After the Brand Extension, however, Hardy was relegated to
Heat while Jeff wrestled on the main show,
Raw.
On the August 12 episode of
Raw, Hardy turned against Jeff
during Jeff's match against
Rob Van Dam,
because Hardy was frustrated at not receiving a match against Van
Dam for the number one contendership for the Intercontinental
Championship. A short time later, Hardy joined the
SmackDown! roster. On the October 3 episode of the show,
Hardy took advantage of a
run-in from
Brock Lesnar to defeat
The Undertaker.
Having now dubbed himself "Matt Hardy: Version 1", and with his
MF'er (Mattitude Follower)
Shannon
Moore in his corner, 2003 began with Hardy frantically trying
to lose weight to get under the weight limit to compete for the
WWE Cruiserweight
Championship. After just barely making weight, Hardy defeated
Billy Kidman at
No Way Out to win the Cruiserweight title.
At
WrestleMania XIX, he
successfully defended it against
Rey
Mysterio. The Mattitude faction then expanded to include
Crash Holly as Moore's "Moore-on"
(follower). He later disbanded the group and returned to
Raw in order to be able to travel and work with his then
girlfriend
Lita, who just returned from an
injury. On his first night back, he turned on Lita in storyline
after teasing a proposal to her. Hardy spent little time on
Raw and later turned into a fan favorite by engaging in a
rivalry with
Kane. Lita was also
involved in the storyline, and Hardy took time off after a
chokeslam from Kane off the stage during Lita and
Kane's wedding. This time off was due to a knee injury.
Release and independents (2005)
Along with his friend
Rhyno, Hardy was
released by WWE on April 11, 2005. Edge and Lita received jeers
from the crowds at WWE events, often 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. Lita,
for the first time in over five years, became a
villainous character as a
result of the affair becoming public knowledge. Fans began a
petition on the internet, wanting WWE to resign Hardy, and amassed
over fifteen thousand signatures.
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 had been
treated by Lita and WWE. On the June 20 episode of
Raw,
during the storyline wedding of Edge and Lita, 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 episode
of
Raw, Hardy made his return, attacking Edge as he made
his way to the ring. On the July 13 edition of WWE's webcast
Byte This!, which featured Lita as its guest, one of the
callers was Hardy himself. The two engaged in a huge argument which
led to Lita walking off the set.
Hardy
appeared at a scheduled Ring of Honor
(ROH) 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 backlash following a match with
Homicide from the fans at a subsequent
ROH event, which Hardy won. The next day at his final ROH
appearance, he lost to
Roderick
Strong.
Return to World Wrestling Entertainment
Return (2005–2006)
On July 11, 2005, Hardy posted on his website that he was finally
"free", that wrestling fans had not seen the last of him, and that
he had a surprise for the fans who had supported him. That night on
Raw, Hardy attacked Edge backstage and again later during
Edge's match with Kane, leaving the commentators speechless. Before
being escorted out of the building by security, Hardy stated that
Edge and Lita would pay for their actions and told fans that they
could see him at Ring of Honor. Hardy also called out Johnny Ace as
he made his way out. This caused an uproar amongst fans, who were
confused and wondered if the whole thing was a work or a shoot.
Similar occurrences repeated during the following two weeks.
On the August 1 episode of
Raw,
Vince McMahon officially announced Hardy's
return to WWE, adding that Hardy would face Edge at
SummerSlam. Hardy made his in-ring return,
defeating
Snitsky on the August 8
Raw. Seconds after the victory, Hardy was attacked by
Edge, and as he was being carried backstage, Matt counterattacked
Edge in the locker room. On August 21 at SummerSlam, their match
came to a premature end when Edge dropped Hardy onto the top of a
ring post, causing him to bleed heavily. The referee ended the
match on the grounds that Hardy could not continue, and Edge was
declared the winner. After SummerSlam, the two continued fighting
on
Raw, including a Street Fight that resulted in Hardy
performing a Side Effect on Edge off the entrance stage and into
electrical equipment below. At
Unforgiven, Edge faced Hardy in a
steel cage match.
Hardy caught an interfering Lita with the
Twist of Fate
and 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 ladder match. Edge's briefcase holding the
contract for his WWE World title shot was suspended above the ring.
The winner of the match received the contract and the loser was
forced to leave
Raw. After a contentious match, Edge tied
Hardy's arms in the ropes, and Lita trapped Hardy in a
crucifix hold, leaving
Hardy only able to watch Edge win. When the match ended, Edge and
Lita gloated over the victory, but Hardy took it in stride and left
the arena.
With his defeat at the hands of Edge, Hardy
was moved to the SmackDown! brand where he re-debuted with a win
over Simon Dean on October 21 in Reno, Nevada
.
Back on
SmackDown!, Hardy started an
angle 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 the tag team on several occasions with a variety
of partners. One of his partners,
Road Warrior Animal, brutally attacked
him after they were defeated – sick of "pulling all the weight in
tag teams". Animal, who was renamed 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, which
was ultimately won by
Rob Van Dam.
Hardy next competed in the
SmackDown! King of the Ring tournament, losing to
eventual winner
Booker T in the
opening round thanks to a
low blow and
distraction from
Sharmell.
Hardy also became the first man to defeat
Mr. Kennedy. 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. 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. Hardy then began a rivalry against
Gregory Helms which saw both winning over each
other time and time again. Then at
No
Mercy, in both of their hometown, Cameron, North Carolina,
Hardy beat Helms. The two met again one more time at
Survivor Series, where Hardy's team
won in a clean sweep.
The Hardys reunion (2006–2007)
On the November 21, 2006 episode of
ECW on
Sci Fi, Hardy and Jeff competed in a match together for
the first time in almost five years, defeating the
Full Blooded Italians. At
Survivor Series, the Hardy Boyz
competed with
CM Punk and
D-Generation X (
Triple
H and
Shawn Michaels) as part of
Team DX versus Team Rated-RKO (which included Edge,
Randy Orton, Johnny Nitro with Melina,
Mike Knox, and Gregory Helms) in a traditional
Survivor Series match. Team DX won
with a shut out, last eliminating Orton. At
December to Dismember, the
Hardy Boyz issued an open challenge to any tag team who wanted to
face them. MNM answered their challenge by reuniting at December to
Dismember, but ultimately lost to the Hardy Boyz. At
Armageddon, Hardy and Jeff competed
against
Paul London and
Brian Kendrick, MNM, and
Dave Taylor and
William Regal in a
Ladder match but
lost. Subsequently, he and Jeff feuded with Joey Mercury and Johnny
Nitro after the
legitimate incident where
they injured Mercury's face at Armageddon 2006. This led to a
bitter long term rivalry, and at the
2007 Royal Rumble, Hardy and Jeff
defeated MNM. Mercury and Hardy continued to feud until Mercury was
released from WWE in March. Before Mercury's release, however,
Hardy defeated him to earn a spot in the
Money in the Bank ladder
match at
WrestleMania 23, which
was ultimately won by
Mr. Kennedy.
The next night on
Raw, the Hardys competed in a 10-team
battle royal for the
World Tag Team
Championship. They won the titles for the sixth time after last
eliminating
Lance Cade and
Trevor Murdoch. After briefly feuding with Cade and Murdoch,
the Hardys retained their World Tag Team Championship in their
first title defense at
Backlash. On
the June 4 episode of
Raw, however, The Hardys lost their
titles to Cade and Murdoch, after Murdoch pushed Jeff's foot off
the bottom rope during Cade's pinfall, causing the three count to
continue.
Storyline with MVP (2007–2008)
Hardy making his way to the ring
On the July 6, 2007 episode of
SmackDown!, Hardy won a
non-title match against WWE United States Champion
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
Hardy 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 Hardy to a beer drinking
contest at
SummerSlam, but as
revenge for what happened at SNME, Hardy allowed
Stone Cold Steve Austin to replace
him; Austin simply performed a
stunner on 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 Hardy's first reign as WWE Tag Team Champion. It was the
first time Hardy held a tag team championship with someone other
than his brother. Hardy and MVP retained the titles at
Unforgiven in a rematch against former
champions Deuce 'n Domino. Hardy was scheduled to face MVP at
Cyber Sunday, but due to a head
injury sustained on the previous episode of
SmackDown!, he
was not medically cleared to compete.
On the November 16 episode of
SmackDown!, Hardy and MVP
dropped the
WWE Tag Team Championship to
John Morrison and The Miz. Despite
the fact that Hardy was hurt, MVP immediately invoked the rematch
clause. After the rematch, in which Hardy was forced to tap out,
MVP attacked Hardy, repeatedly targeting his knee. It was later
confirmed by WWE.com that Hardy had suffered an injury at his
former partner's hands and that he might not be able to compete at
Survivor Series. Despite his
absence at the pay-per-view, his team was able to win the match.
On
November 21, WWE's official website reported that Hardy underwent
an emergency appendicectomy in
Tampa,
Florida
. A CT scan revealed an inflamed appendix
after Hardy was feeling extreme pain. Later surgery revealed that
his appendix had already burst. According to Hardy himself, on
December 8 doctors back in North Carolina found an abscess of
infection that had not been caught, and he had it drained, spending
an additional several days in the hospital. Hardy made an
appearance at the December 31 episode of
Raw supporting his brother Jeff. To further
Jeff's storyline with
Randy Orton,
however, Hardy was attacked by Orton.
Hardy made his return
at a live event in Muncie, Indiana
on March 1, 2008.
United States and ECW Championships (2008–2009)
On March 30, 2008, at
WrestleMania
XXIV, Hardy made his televised return to WWE programming in the
Money in the Bank ladder
match by cutting through the crowd, and attacking MVP to
prevent him from winning the match. He made his official in-ring
return the next night on
Raw, losing a singles match to
WWE Champion Randy Orton. On the April 4 episode of
SmackDown!, Hardy faced MVP in a non-title match, which he
won, re-igniting their storyline rivalry. On April 27, 2008, Hardy
defeated MVP to win the
United States Championship at
Backlash.
After some sporadic feuds for the title, Hardy was drafted to the
ECW brand on the June 23, 2008 episode of
Raw during the
2008
WWE Draft, in the process making the
United States Championship
exclusive to ECW. After a successful title defense against
Chavo Guerrero at
Night of Champions, he dropped the
United States Championship to
Shelton
Benjamin at the
Great
American Bash pay-per-view on July 20, 2008, which meant that
the title returned to SmackDown.
Hardy as the ECW Champion.
On the July 22 episode of
ECW, Hardy became the number one
contender to
Mark Henry's
ECW Championship after defeating
John Morrison,
The
Miz and
Finlay in a
Fatal Four-Way match. He won the title match at
SummerSlam by disqualification due to
interference from Henry's manager,
Tony
Atlas, thus he failed to win the title. Due to the ending of
the pay-per-view match, Hardy received a rematch for the title on
the next episode of
ECW, but again failed to win the title
when Henry pinned him after a distraction by Atlas.
At
Unforgiven, Hardy won the ECW
Championship during the
Championship
scramble match, defeating then-champion Henry, The Miz, Finlay
and
Chavo Guerrero by pinning
the Miz with three minutes left, thus making Hardy the first person
in history to win a championship scramble in WWE, and marking his
first
world
heavyweight championship win. He continued to feud with Henry
until
No Mercy, where Hardy
successfully retained the title. After successful defenses against
Henry, Chavo, Finlay, and
Evan Bourne,
Hardy lost the title to
Jack Swagger on
the January 13, 2009 episode of
ECW, which was taped on
January 12.
Storyline with Jeff (2009)
At the
2009 Royal Rumble
pay-per-view, after losing an ECW Championship rematch to Swagger,
Hardy turned into a villain when he hit his brother Jeff with a
steel chair, allowing Edge to win the
WWE Championship. On the January
27, 2009 episode of
ECW, it was announced by
General
Manager Theodore Long that Hardy
had requested, and been granted, his release from ECW, and had
re-signed with the SmackDown brand. As part of the buildup to this
feud, Hardy implied that he was responsible for all of Jeff's
accidents leading back to November, including an automobile
accident and a
pyrotechnics accident,
in an attempt to stop Jeff holding the WWE Championship, and at
WrestleMania XXV, Hardy defeated
Jeff in an Extreme Rules match, and in a stretcher match on the
following episode of
SmackDown.
On the April 13 episode of
Raw, Hardy was drafted to the
Raw brand as part of the
WWE draft.
Two weeks later, in a rematch from WrestleMania, Hardy lost to Jeff
in an
"I Quit" match at
Backlash, in which he broke his hand. Hardy
continued to wrestle with his hand in a cast, incorporating it into
his persona and claiming that he was wrestling under protest. At
the June 22 taping of
WWE
Superstars, Hardy suffered an injury, when his intestines
"exploded" through his
abdominal wall,
during a Triple Threat match against MVP and
Kofi Kingston. Hardy had suffered a tear in
his abdominal muscle two years previously, but had not needed
surgery until it worsened, and became a danger to his health. He
was then traded to the SmackDown brand on June 29, and underwent
surgery for the torn abdominal muscle on July 2. He made his return
on the August 7 episode of
SmackDown as the
special
guest enforcer in the
World Heavyweight
Championship match between his brother, Jeff, and CM Punk, and
helped Jeff retain the championship by counting the pinfall. On the
August 21 episode of
SmackDown, after apologizing for his
past actions towards Jeff, he had his first match back after his
injury when he teamed with Jeff and John Morrison to defeat
The Hart
Dynasty and CM Punk, in the process turning him into a
fan favorite again.
Other media
In 1999, Hardy, along with his brother Jeff, appeared as an
uncredited wrestler on
That '70s
Show episode "
That
Wrestling Show". Hardy and Jeff also appeared on
Tough Enough in early 2001, talking to and
wrestling the contestants. He appeared in the February 25, 2002
episode of
Fear
Factor competing against five other
World Wrestling Federation
wrestlers. He became the eventual winner, and won
$50,000 for the
American Cancer Society. Hardy
appeared on the October 13, 2009 episode of
Scare Tactics.
In 2001, Hardy, Jeff and Lita appeared in
Rolling Stone magazine's 2001 Sports Hall
of Fame issue. In 2003, Hardy and Jeff, with the help of Michael
Krugman, wrote and published their autobiography
The Hardy
Boyz: Exist 2 Inspire. As part of WWE, Hardy appeared in their
DVD,
The Hardy Boyz: Leap of Faith in 2001. On April 29,
2008, WWE released
"Twist of Fate: The Matt and Jeff Hardy
Story". The DVD featured footage of the brothers in OMEGA and
WWE. Hardy also appears on
The Hardy Show, an internet web
show which features the Hardys,
Shannon
Moore and many of their friends.
Personal life
Hardy and his ex-girlfriend, Amy
"Lita" Dumas
Son to Gilbert and Ruby Moore Hardy, he is the older brother of
Jeff Hardy. Their mother died of brain
cancer in 1986. Hardy played baseball as a child, and played
throughout high school, but had stopped by his senior year. He also
played football, as a
linebacker or a
defensive end.
Hardy was a good
student at North Moore Highschool in North Carolina, and was a
nominee for the "Morehead Award", a scholarship to any university
in North
Carolina
.
Hardy
attended University of North Carolina at
Charlotte
, where he majored in engineering; however, after a
year he dropped out due to his father being ill.
He then
attended Sandhills Community College in Pinehurst
to gain his associate's degree.
Hardy is good friends with
Marty
Garner,
Shannon Moore and
Gregory Helms. Hardy was in a six year
relationship with former WWE Diva
Amy
Dumas, known by the ring name "Lita". They first met in January
1999, at a
NWA
Mid-Atlantic show, but did not begin dating until a few months
later. They used to share a home in North Carolina. The couple
broke up when she had an affair with one of Hardy's close friends,
fellow wrestler
Adam "Edge" Copeland
in February 2005. Hardy has stated in interviews that he and Dumas
have since patched things up, and he still considers her a close
friend. He has since dated former WWE Diva
Ashley Massaro.
In wrestling
Matt Hardy pinning Mike Knox at a
Puerto Rico house show.
- Nicknames
- "Version 1 (V1)"
- "The Angelic Diablo"
- "The Sensei of Mattitude"
- "The Man Who Will Not Die"
- "(Arguably) Everyone's Favorite Wrestler"
Championships and accomplishments
- National Championship Wrestling
- NCW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- New England Wrestling Alliance
- NEWA Championship (1 time)
- New Frontier Wrestling Association
- NFWA Championship (1 time)
- NFWA Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Venom
Notes
References
External links
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