Playaz Eyez
Veteran
It's 2020, and if you have been following Matt Hardy's career, you know he has had about as many re-inventions as Chris Jericho. Only including the solo incarnations of Matt Hardy when I ask this.
1) Matt Hardy V1 - Everybody knows this one. Amazing theme, great titantron, showing real personality as a heel. Trying to lose weight to make the Cruiser-weight division, having Shannon Moore as an MF'r and Crash Holly as a Moore-On. Dope matches with Benoit, Kidman, Eddie, Rey Mysterio, etc. Dude was a highlight on Smackdown in 2003 (though the early incarnation of this gimmick was late 02).
2) Simp Hardy - I call this gimmick Simp Hardy cause based on what happened the next 2 years after moving to Raw, he killed all the momentum he built up on Raw just to be able to be on the same show with Lita. The most notable thing about this version of Matt Hardy was his feud with Kane, who hadn't been unmasked that long. My favorite thing about this version of Matt Hardy was the ending of his match with Kane at Summerslam 2004.
3) Out For Revenge Hardy - You know the deal here. The Lita/Edge affair happened, Matt was released, then came back after and ROH stint. Him and Edge's feud was pretty awesome, as it felt real cause it pretty much was. Despite this horrible promo....
....Matt and Edge had a legit blood feud
Only thing about this feud, is that despite Matt Hardy having every reason to be furious at both Edge and Lita, he ultimately lost. Not only did he lose to Edge, but lost his woman, and was headed to Smackdown (cause remember, being sent to Smackdown is bad because Raw is the flagship show).
4) All Business Matt - Once Matt was banished to SD, it was pretty much him just being a straight up face have decent to good feuds and matches. Shane Helms and MVP were the biggest ones I remembered.
Him and MVP had a very entertaining feud, both being reluctant tag team champions, and facing each other for the US title.
Unfortunately during this period is when I noticed all those hardcore/extreme matches were starting to take a toll on him. His body was physically deteriorating at this point. Big Contrast from 2005 and back.
5) ECW Matt - Matt was drafted to the ECW Brand had was having some cool workman like matches with dudes there. His feuds with Mark Henry and Jack Swagger for the title is what I mostly remember from there.
6) Full of Hate Matt - Matt had just turned on Jeff Hardy here in 2009, and for the first time in a long time, I was actually interested in him. Made for some standout segments and matches in a pretty
time in the WWE. Matt was pissed at Jeff's selfishness and other things, and eventually became a sulking dude that simply wanted nothing to do with Jeff. Matt pulling a Bob Orton with his cast was a nice touch too. And the promo vids for the feud, my goodness they were excellent
7) TNA Debut Matt - Calling him that cause outside of looking like Raven, I'm not sure at all what his gimmick was, but he instantly became part of Immortal basically to watch out for Jeff.Somebody who was really watching TNA at the time can feel in the blanks for me.
8) Iconic/Big Money Matt - Basically a hybrid of both his ROH and TNA gimmick, but THIS made me interested in Matt once again. He was showing all types of personality during this period, and Reba Sky was the perfect bytch to be by his side.
9) Broken Matt Hardy - What a lot of people are currently familiar with (not just cause of AEW right now), but this is the gimmick that basically led to the invigoration of both Hardys. Matt came up with something so outlandish and TNA played it perfectly, so perfect that the WWE did an overly produced version of the same thing for the New Day vs Wyatt feud. Some people may not "get" the whole Broken Universe thing, but it was some very entertaining stuff, and I'm not sure if it's something you can just try to explain to people. It was something you had to have seen in real time, but I'll post these anyway.
The entire Broken Matt saga on youtube
1) Matt Hardy V1 - Everybody knows this one. Amazing theme, great titantron, showing real personality as a heel. Trying to lose weight to make the Cruiser-weight division, having Shannon Moore as an MF'r and Crash Holly as a Moore-On. Dope matches with Benoit, Kidman, Eddie, Rey Mysterio, etc. Dude was a highlight on Smackdown in 2003 (though the early incarnation of this gimmick was late 02).
2) Simp Hardy - I call this gimmick Simp Hardy cause based on what happened the next 2 years after moving to Raw, he killed all the momentum he built up on Raw just to be able to be on the same show with Lita. The most notable thing about this version of Matt Hardy was his feud with Kane, who hadn't been unmasked that long. My favorite thing about this version of Matt Hardy was the ending of his match with Kane at Summerslam 2004.
3) Out For Revenge Hardy - You know the deal here. The Lita/Edge affair happened, Matt was released, then came back after and ROH stint. Him and Edge's feud was pretty awesome, as it felt real cause it pretty much was. Despite this horrible promo....
....Matt and Edge had a legit blood feud
Only thing about this feud, is that despite Matt Hardy having every reason to be furious at both Edge and Lita, he ultimately lost. Not only did he lose to Edge, but lost his woman, and was headed to Smackdown (cause remember, being sent to Smackdown is bad because Raw is the flagship show).
May as well watch this
4) All Business Matt - Once Matt was banished to SD, it was pretty much him just being a straight up face have decent to good feuds and matches. Shane Helms and MVP were the biggest ones I remembered.
Him and MVP had a very entertaining feud, both being reluctant tag team champions, and facing each other for the US title.
Unfortunately during this period is when I noticed all those hardcore/extreme matches were starting to take a toll on him. His body was physically deteriorating at this point. Big Contrast from 2005 and back.
5) ECW Matt - Matt was drafted to the ECW Brand had was having some cool workman like matches with dudes there. His feuds with Mark Henry and Jack Swagger for the title is what I mostly remember from there.
6) Full of Hate Matt - Matt had just turned on Jeff Hardy here in 2009, and for the first time in a long time, I was actually interested in him. Made for some standout segments and matches in a pretty
time in the WWE. Matt was pissed at Jeff's selfishness and other things, and eventually became a sulking dude that simply wanted nothing to do with Jeff. Matt pulling a Bob Orton with his cast was a nice touch too. And the promo vids for the feud, my goodness they were excellent7) TNA Debut Matt - Calling him that cause outside of looking like Raven, I'm not sure at all what his gimmick was, but he instantly became part of Immortal basically to watch out for Jeff.Somebody who was really watching TNA at the time can feel in the blanks for me.
8) Iconic/Big Money Matt - Basically a hybrid of both his ROH and TNA gimmick, but THIS made me interested in Matt once again. He was showing all types of personality during this period, and Reba Sky was the perfect bytch to be by his side.
9) Broken Matt Hardy - What a lot of people are currently familiar with (not just cause of AEW right now), but this is the gimmick that basically led to the invigoration of both Hardys. Matt came up with something so outlandish and TNA played it perfectly, so perfect that the WWE did an overly produced version of the same thing for the New Day vs Wyatt feud. Some people may not "get" the whole Broken Universe thing, but it was some very entertaining stuff, and I'm not sure if it's something you can just try to explain to people. It was something you had to have seen in real time, but I'll post these anyway.
The entire Broken Matt saga on youtube
but I will say I LOVED Big Money Matt just as much, how he was pissing off Jay Briscoe was just jokes
Full of hate Matt should've been Christian.
