During his Extreme Life of Matt Hardy podcast, Matt Hardy talked about being pitched an angle with Mark Henry during his first run in WWE:
“There was one thing I was very nervous about doing. It didn’t end up happening but I was going to have a deal where I teamed with Mark Henry and there was talk of us working against Booker T and RVD when they were the Tag Champs and winning the Tag Titles. It was right towards the end of my Matt Hardy V1 and the whole story of what was pitched to me from Vince and creative was that I was almost going to go to Mark Henry and him being black had a lot in common with me having Mattitude because we were both oppressed then I would talk like a black person. They knew at this time, like even when John Cena was doing raps, we’d be on international trips and myself and John, we’d be freestyling back there and messing around. They knew I was a big rap fan and I was aware of all that stuff but there was a point where I was almost going to start talking with more black slang and almost tell Mark Henry like ‘Mattitude is oppressed too man, we have that in common.’ I was very uncomfortable with that then and obviously, Mark got hurt, maybe it was a sign from the Seven Deities and it didn’t happen at all. That was something I was a little worried about doing because it was something they wanted me to start and pushing me into.”
