Matt Hardy has spent many years in various wrestling promotions, including a significant part of his career under Vince McMahon in WWE. Given his time there, Hardy is familiar with McMahon’s unique ideas, including one where McMahon reportedly wanted to turn Hardy into a Hispanic character.
Under McMahon’s leadership, WWE often encouraged wrestlers to change names, appearances, or personas, but Hardy was among those who kept his real name and character. However, in 2002, WWE strongly considered a major character change for him.
On his Extreme Life of Matt Hardy podcast, Hardy recounted McMahon’s desire for him to take on a new persona. This was during his early “Matt Hardy Version 1” character development after he and his brother Jeff parted ways.
Initially entering with the Hardy Boyz music, Hardy soon got a new theme song, “Live For The Moment” by Monster Magnet. Reflecting on that time, he noted that WWE underestimated the Hardy Boyz’ overall popularity, as McMahon perceived Jeff as the standout, despite their strength as a duo.
Paul Heyman, involved in WWE’s creative direction then, suggested Hardy align with Chavo Guerrero and adopt a Hispanic name, possibly in a storyline where he renounced his Hardy roots. Hardy, however, resisted this shift, seeing value in keeping his real name. Instead, he pitched the “Matt Hardy Version 1” character, which ultimately allowed him to retain his identity.
Here’s what Hardy said:
“When 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 (Guerrero) 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.’”
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