
In the ring, Matt Hardy lives his motto: "I will not die." Time and time again he has sacrificed his body for both the enjoyment of the fans, and the sport which he has loved so dearly for his entire life.
Matt came to the WWE in 1998 as a tag team specialist, teaming up with his brother Jeff to form the appropriately named The Hardys. While severely undersized, The Hardy's outstanding chemistry and unmatched heart carried them to stardom. The Hardys went on to become five-time World Tag Team Champions in WWE before breaking up in 2002.
In 2003, shortly after joining the SmackDown roster, Matt Hardy pursued the Cruiserweight Championship. After struggling for weeks to make the weight limit, Hardy defeated Kidman for the Championship at No Way Out '03.
After he won the title, Hardy endured an up and down rivalry with Rey Mysterio. Hardy got the best of Rey Mysterio in a controversial Championship match at WrestleMania 19. A month later however, Mysterio got his revenge, defeating Hardy for the Cruiserweight Championship on SmackDown.
While Hardy was away, he learned that his long-time real life girlfriend, Lita, was having a sordid affair with Edge. Adding to an already emotional period, Matt was also released from WWE during the same time. It wasn’t long before information regarding the personal hell Matt was experiencing became public knowledge. His faithful followers began to make their voices heard at WWE events across the country. In fact, Matt points out the crowd’s reaction at Madison Square Garden at the April 12 Raw for starting his “movement.”
Unable to simply sit at the sidelines while his heart was wrenching, Matt started popping up uninvited at WWE events, wreaking havoc on Edge and Lita every chance he had. He even called in and crashed Lita’s Byte This! interview, confronting her about their tumultuous relationship. Not long after, Mr. McMahon said that Hardy was starting fires all over the place, and he couldn’t help but to pour gasoline on those fires by re-hiring Matt.
Upon his return, Hardy adopted a vicious focus that has been previously unmatched in his career. For several months in 2005, Matt made the lives of Lita and Edge a living hell, just as they did to him.
After clashing with Edge on several occasions including a classic steel cage bout at the 2005 Unforgiven which saw Hardy defeat Edge following a daring legdrop from the top of the cage, Hardy and Edge would meet one more time in a ladder match at the Raw Homecoming in October 2005. The battle would result in the two bitter rivals’ careers going in quite different directions. After taking Edge to the limit and nearing an end, Lita interjected herself in the match costing Matt not only the match but his spot on the Raw roster.
After joining SmackDown once again, Matt soon found himself tag team champions along with his rival, the then United States Champion, MVP. Although the pair were not the best of friends, they made very effective champions, even though MVP constantly insisted that he was the entire reason for it. Unfortunately for Matt, MVP's true motive for partnering with him was to keep him from challenging him to his beloved United States Championship. When Matt pushed the issue, MVP double-crossed him and caused Matt a serious injury, forcing him to leave SmackDown once again.
Upon returning from this injury, Matt not only cost MVP the Money in the Bank match at WrestleMania XXIV, but inevitability the United States Championship as well.
In 2008, Hardy was drafted to ECW as part of the WWE Draft. A few months later, at Unforgiven, Hardy satisfied his career-long hunger for a World Title when he won the ECW Championship Scramble Match against Mark Henry, Finlay, Chavo Guerrero and The Miz.