MATT HARDY

Matthew "Matt" Moore Hardy^[3] (born September 23, 1974)^[5] is an American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment, on the SmackDown brand.^[4]
Before signing with WWE, Hardy, with his brother Jeff, founded a wrestling organization called Organization of Modern Extreme Grappling Arts (OMEGA).^[6] While there, Hardy held many championships including the Heavyweight and Tag Team Championship, which he held with Jeff.^[3] The promotion folded in October 1999 when they signed contracts with WWE.^[3] The Hardys gained notoriety in WWE's tag team division due to their participation in Tables, Ladders, and Chairs matches.^[7] 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.^[3][4]
Apart from his success as a tag team wrestler, Hardy is a one-time world heavyweight champion, having won the ECW Championship in 2008. He also has won other singles championships,^[3][4] having held the Hardcore, European, Cruiserweight, and United States Championship on one occasion each.

Singles career (2001–2005)

In 2001, after Jeff's Intercontinental Championship run,^[23] Hardy was given a singles championship push. He won the European Championship on SmackDown! four days before Backlash.^[24][25] 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.^[25] He became the second-longest reigning European Champion in history and the longest-reigning American-born European Champion.^[26]

Matt Hardy, one half of the Hardy Boyz, at WrestleMania X8

Throughout the year, the Hardy Boyz continued to win as a tag team, winning the WWF Tag Team Titles two more times,^[27][28] and the WCW Tag Team Championship during the Invasion.^[4] By the end of the year, the Hardy Boyz began a storyline where they were having trouble co-existing.^[3] This culminated in a match between the two, with Lita as the guest referee, at the Vengeance pay-per-view, which Jeff won.^[29]
At the beginning of 2002, it seemed Team Xtreme had patched things up.^[3] After the Brand Extension, however, Hardy was relegated to Heat while Jeff wrestled on the main show, Raw.^[3] 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.^[30] A short time later, Hardy joined the SmackDown! roster.^[31] On the October 3 episode of the show, Hardy took advantage of a run-in from Brock Lesnar to defeat The Undertaker.^[32]

Matt Hardy: Version 1

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 220 lb (100 kg) weight limit to compete for the WWE Cruiserweight Championship.^[3][33][34] After just barely making weight, Hardy defeated Billy Kidman at No Way Out to win the Cruiserweight title.^[35][36] At WrestleMania XIX, he successfully defended it against Rey Mysterio.^[37][38] The Mattitude faction then expanded to include Crash Holly as Moore's "Moore-on" (follower).^[39] 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.^[40] On his first night back, he turned on Lita in storyline after teasing a proposal to her.^[40] Hardy spent little time on Raw^[3] and later turned into a fan favorite by engaging in a rivalry with Kane.^[41][42] 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.^[3][43] This time off was due to a knee injury.^[44

United States and ECW Champion (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.^[98] On April 27, 2008, Hardy defeated MVP to win the United States Championship at Backlash.^[99][100]
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.^[101] 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.^[102][103]
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.^[104] 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.^[105] 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.^[106]
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.^[107] 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.^[108]