There were many backstage rumors that wrestlers were asked to change their appearance, names, and personas when Vince McMahon was in charge of the WWE. A few people get to keep their real names and personas. Matt Hardy is one of those wrestlers who has wrestled under his real name throughout his career, however there was debate in 2002 about making a significant alteration to his character.
On the most recent “Extreme Life of Matt Hardy” podcast, Matt Hardy discussed how Vince McMahon wanted him to change his name in 2002:
‘Whenever they split Jeff and I in 2002 and I started doing Matt Hardy Version 1, The Sensei of Mattitude, whenever I first started coming out and I used the Hardy Boys music until they got me new music, which ended up being the Monster Magnet theme, ‘Live For The Moment, I was still getting strong reactions. I still think at that time, WWE just didn’t fully grasp how popular we were together because Vince saw Jeff as the popularity of the team, but we’re at our strongest when we’re together.
There was a pitch, because Paul Heyman was also in creative too, where he wanted me to join Chavo and change my name, where I was no longer going to be Matt Hardy and have some other name, maybe even like a more Hispanic-based name, or something else, be something completely different, so I had a totally different identity, and I was, like, shaming that I used to be a Hardy. I didn’t want to do that. It probably would have garnered the desired effect, but I was also thinking big picture, like, hold up. I’m Matt Hardy and there’s a lot of equity in this name, and plus it’s my real name. I do want to keep that because I got that at this point. I ended up pitching the whole Matt Hardy Version 1 thing. Once I started doing promos and I was super delusional over the top, Vince actually fell in love with it. You can tell that because he had me beat The Undertaker. I got to pin The Undertaker one time. Vince told him, ‘Look, this guy is going to pin you because we’re trying to build him.’”
You can check out the podcast below:
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
