One of the most talked about moments in Matt Hardy’s WWE career is the weird segment during the 2006 Royal Rumble where Viscera gave him the gimmick. It appeared to be random and out of nowhere. However, it was part of a lengthy punishment meted out to the then young star by Vince McMahon. Hardy believes that his heat with The Undertaker led to one of the most difficult periods in his WWE career. However, he took full responsibility for it and claimed that he deserved everything that happened.
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The AEW superstar discussed the moment on the recent episode of his podcast, The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy. Following his feud with Edge, Vince drafted him to SmackDown to keep them away from each other. He was told that he was going to face Eddie Guerrero at Survivor Series that year. However, the late great passed away before the PPV, forcing Hardy out of the card.
A frustrated Hardy was then told that he was going to be a part of wrestlers who would walk out to celebrate with Randy Orton after his main event win, only to be cleared by a returning Undertaker. A frustrated Hardy talked with Vince McMahon, who advised him to roll out of the ring and avoid taking a big move to protect himself. However, Matt Hardy ended up throwing a temper tantrum that rubbed the Deadman the wrong way.
Matt Hardy says heat with The Undertaker led to Viscera Royal Rumble bizarre act
Vince McMahon told Matt Hardy to powder out of the ring and avoid taking any bumps. However, he had other plans.
“I was planning on powdering out but there was a part of me that was just so frustrated and once again, it was my fault, just when Taker came out, I was laying on the ropes and I didn’t react to him like I should have and looking back in hindsight, I was like, what a dumb move that was,” Hardy recalled.
At first, no one seemed to notice it, but JBL brought it to everyone’s attention. Hardy remembered Undertaker shaking in anger, but he calmed down after Hardy apologized and told him that he would do anything to make it right.
“Then, for the next two or three months, there were points where I was pretty much doing jobs” Hardy said.
“People talk about that Royal Rumble clip where he (Viscera) jumped on me and he was giving me his gimmick. Once again, it was just like I was having to pay my penance and I did it for like three months. There was a point where I talked with Taker and he said, ‘Thank you for apologizing. We’re good’ and then just everything stopped.”
Hardy was convinced that Taker asked Vince to punish him, but took it in stride and believed that he paid his penance in full.
Matt Hardy became a bigger star outside WWE
Unlike his brother Jeff, Matt Hardy always seemed to have a ceiling in the WWE. It felt like he had a limit to how high he could climb the card. However, all that changed after he joined TNA. His Broken Matt Hardy gimmick became one of the most talked about things in wrestling at its prime.
Hardy capitalized on the very loud pops he was receiving week after week and soon climbed to the summit of the promotion by winning the World Championship.
He was soon poached by the WWE, who brought them back as soon as their contracts expired. However, his gimmick in the WWE did not have the same impact (pun intended) as it did in the promotion, he had just parted ways with.
Following a run of lackluster feuds and matches, Hardy was given reigns of his woken gimmick and showed Vince McMahon exactly how to do it.
However, with his body battered from the bumps over the years, the WWE believed it was time for him to become a producer instead. Hardy did not agree and joined AEW, where he still wrestles, most recently teaming up with Ethan Page and Isiah Kassidy and challenging the Elite for their World Trios Championships.
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