For more than two decades, Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy have been synonymous with one of wrestling’s most iconic tag teams, The Hardy Boyz. But according to Matt, there was once a surprising pitch behind the scenes that would have dramatically changed his identity in WWE.
Speaking on The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy podcast, Hardy recalled the period in the early 2000s when he and Jeff were first separated on WWE television. During that time, the company experimented with presenting Matt as a singles star while still playing the Hardy Boyz theme music.
“Whenever I split from Jeff and the first few weeks they played the Hardy Boyz theme music, they were just hoping I’d get booed, and I ended up getting cheered,” Hardy explained.
According to Hardy, Paul Heyman then proposed a drastic creative idea meant to completely distance him from the Hardy name.
“He just said, ‘I was thinking about it. We should change your name to something. We’ll come up with a first name. Something… something Guerrero. And we’ll just say you’re not a Hardy.’”
Hardy said the idea involved presenting him as someone with Mexican heritage and linking his new identity to the famous Guerrero wrestling family.
Matt added that the storyline would have involved him claiming he preferred the new identity instead of being known as a Hardy.
“That didn’t happen though,” Hardy said.
In previous interviews, Hardy explained that the pitch would have paired him with Chavo Guerrero while regularly mocking the Hardy name.
Instead of going forward with that concept, Hardy pitched a very different idea for his character. That concept eventually became the “Version 1” persona, a self aware and arrogant gimmick that caught the attention of Vince McMahon and helped revive his singles run.
Looking back, Hardy’s decision to pursue the Version 1 character proved to be a turning point in his career and allowed him to establish himself outside of the Hardy Boyz tag team.
Do you think Matt Hardy’s career would have been better or worse if WWE had actually gone through with the idea of removing the Hardy name entirely?
