10. Firing Matt Hardy After Lita/Edge Affair (And Then Burying Him When They Brought Him Back)
You're on the bench with a serious knee injury. You discover that your long-term girlfriend and love of your life is having a secret affair with a man you thought was a close friend. Your fired from your job, while injured, because you made the story public. You're brought back to feud with the man who ruined your dreams, a feud that you lose. You're then buried and shunted down the card. 2005 was not exactly a banner year for Matt Hardy, was it? It was hard not to feel sympathy for Matt, given all he went through. WWE certainly didn't cover themselves in glory when they let the former Sensei of Mattitude go. Many felt that, if anybody should be given their pink slip, it should be Edge (and perhaps Lita) for causing the whole mess with their infidelity. That's what many normal companies would do, but WWE is not a normal company, and decided to fire the guy who made the story public. Matt no doubt regretted his impassioned response when looking back with the benefit of hindsight, but he can hardly be blamed for the nature of his reaction. WWE, on the other hand, can most certainly be blamed for the way they treated the North Carolina native. Matt could have had a great run on the indies and in TNA but he decided against that, opting for a return to WWE instead. It was a mistake, since WWE went about burying him pretty much from the get-go, having him decisively lose his dispute with the Rated-R Superstar, and subsequently being banished to Smackdown. While on the blue brand and trying to revive his flagging career, Matt persuaded a road agent to allow him to avoid an Undertaker chokeslam during the show-closing angle at Survivor Series. When the Deadman and JBL learned of this, they immediately went about chewing him out and the 'Wrestling God' dismantled him in the ring during their Armageddon PPV opener. A stupid decision by Matt, yes, but that whole thing could have been avoided had WWE handled the Edge/Lita affair fallout better.
