10 Times WWE Attempted To Use A Real Life Situation To Their Advantage (And Failed)

10. Matt Hardy, Edge, and Lita

Given the shamelessness of WWE, it’s amazing they almost didn’t use this angle at all. When Matt Hardy and Lita’s real life relationship ended in the aftermath of the latter’s affair with Edge, WWE officials took the natural step of firing… Matt Hardy. Fan outrage caused them to bring him back, and from there, a feud with Edge was on the cards.

It started out red hot, but quickly petered out due to some baffling booking decisions. The first clash lasted under five minutes, culminating with Edge knocking Matt Hardy out. Hardy won the next two bouts, including a pretty decent cage match at Unforgiven. Then, they met in a Loser Leaves Raw fight, which Edge won - and that was the end of that.

It was clear that Edge was on the way up, and they had no intention of messing with the programme, but the organic babyface pop Matt Hardy got as the wronged party seemed too good to pass it up. And yet, pass it up they did. This wasn’t a taste and decency issue, because frankly those things don’t exist in WWE. They simply dropped the ball.