Despite spending most of their careers in the hip area, there have been times when WWE or TNA have tried to break up Matt and Jeff Hardywith mixed results. Most would agree, however, that WWE’s short-lived attempt to break up the duo in 2001, when their Team Extreme stablemate Lita came in the middle, was the worst ever. in an interview with “The Astounding” Matt Hardy revealed that the division was short-lived because Jeff Hardy didn’t like the direction WWE wanted to take the division, leading to WWE cutting the corner and putting the Hardys in the doghouse.
“There was a story for our characters and they wanted us to break up,” Hardy said. “And we were asked to do a few things and Jeff was uncomfortable and didn’t want to do it. So we were off TV for a while, I guess as punishment. But we were still doing live events. And then they put us back together because we knew we weren’t ready to break up and break up as a team yet.”
Hardy was then asked if he was aware of any of his brother’s creative ideas, and confirmed that he was not. However, Hardy didn’t elaborate further, although he strongly hinted that it had something to do with Lita. his girlfriend at the timeengagement, telling the interviewer that she would “like to stay married.”
The Hardys would eventually continue to wrestle as a team for a few more months after an aborted angle before breaking up after Matt betrayed Jeff on the summer 2002 episode of Raw. He immediately jumped to “SmackDown” starting his “Matt Hardy Version 1” persona, while Jeff would stay on “Raw” before leaving WWE in early 2003.
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit “The Stunner” and credit ah/t Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
