Matt Hardy took to an episode of his “Extreme Life of Matt Hardy” podcast, where he talked about a number of topics including Shane Helms reinventing himself as Gregory Helms in 2006.
Hardy said, “They were ready to change him up as a character, I do know. And they wanted to give him a more serious edge. And I’m also pretty positive that they didn’t want him to go with the title of ‘Shane,’ because there was a Shane McMahon, obviously. And they were very big on people not having the first same name, especially in those days. So they ended up going with Gregory, who was his legitimate first name, he’s Gregory Shane Helms. But he just wanted to change things up, and he wanted to show people that he really could be a serious performer. And I think he took a lot of pride in it, and I was very proud of him for being able to make that change and being a very serious competitor.”
On his new look:
“This was a good look for Shane, I like this look. I like this look with the biker briefs and the long, sleeveless overcoat. It’s just very different from The Hurricane. It’s very unique, it just kind of makes him look very different.”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
