10 Awesome WWE Ideas That Didn't Last
2. Renegade Matt Hardy
The Edge/Matt Hardy/Lita saga of 2005 was a mess, to say the least. In short, Edge and Lita were fondling whilst Matt was injured, a state of affairs that wouldn’t be so bad if Lita and Matt weren’t an item at the time. WWE subsequently fired Matt, as Edge was a top heel and Lita was Lita. Matt was merely an injured performer.
The WWE audience and internet community were disgusted by this however, and almost overnight Matt Hardy became the most sympathetic babyface in wrestling. It couldn’t be ignored, and rumours of Matt returning to WWE were rife. Before they could truly catch fire Matt started appearing on WWE TV, attacking Edge and either escaping before capture or being arrested.
It was true fourth wall stuff, one of the most convincing times WWE has blurred the line between fiction and reality in forever. Matt would indeed be brought back, and surely the matches between him and Edge would make two genuine new stars for the company.
Their first match came at SummerSlam 2005, and whilst it ended in blood it did so in a ridiculous manner. Edge beat Matt so bad that the match was stopped by the referee. The right ending to that match for sure, but why in god’s name wasn’t it Matt beating Edge into a bloody pulp? From here on the story was dead.