10 Insane Wrestling Gimmicks That Morphed Into Another Level

3. BROKEN Matt Hardy

Undertaker Lord Of Darkness
WWE

Watching those early Matt Hardy appearances, it was thought perhaps Matt Hardy simply couldn't act - particularly since we knew with certainty that Jeff could not.

Matt himself had experienced mixed success with his attempts to disassociate us from the Hardy Boyz to become a singles player; his ROH anti-bullying campaign was disingenuous heel gold, but the deeply IWC message board 'Angelic Diablo' was the sort of emo cringe front we all adopted as heartbroken youths in our formative years. Maybe not in out thirties.

An early confrontation between two brothers ripped apart started with faint glimmers of Matt's English accent and ended with Ruby throwing a fake baby into Jeff's arms - but this was TNA. Booker T adopted an African accent because he treated the company with such disdain that to him, it wasn't a wrestling company at all. It was a casting couch.

We couldn't be sure.

It soon became apparent that Matt Hardy had happened upon the inherent so-bad-it's-good potential within pro wrestling, and steered into the absurdity of it all on a maverick creative tear: drones, kangaroos, dilapidated boats, lakes of reincarnation, preposterous malapropisms and mispronunciations - all of this sprung from a mind intent on proving to us that he was a creative wrestler, not a Create-A-Wrestler.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!