Why did Matt Hardy leave WWE in 2005 and 2010?

Matt Hardy is in the news this week as his character began to morph into the over the top BROKEN state we remember from his time in Impact Wrestling. It’s something the fans have wanted to see since the Hardyz came back at WrestleMania 33 and quite frankly, it’s as exciting as it gets for a mid-carder.

Jeff has been out injured for a couple of months and is not likely to return until we’re well into 2018 so Matt has been left to fight some of the other talent on the roster that isn’t doing anything. He’s not been after a title, he’s not really had a push, so to see him bring this character back to life is brilliant as a viewer.

It means we get to be entertained not only by the main event talent but also by something different happening in the middle of the card. It can’t have come soon enough for Matt, who would have stagnated without his high-flying brother if just left to job to talent.

Matt has been in this sort of position before, but without a gimmick to get him out of it. He has had a trouble relationship with WWE in the past and has actually left the company twice, neither times on good terms.

Matt making his way to the ring

Matt Hardy first left the company in 2005. He was actually fired by WWE and it’s because of a dramatic real-life affair that took place when Matt was recuperating from a knee injury. He was written off television after a rivalry with Kane, in which he saved Lita, his real-life girlfriend, from getting wed to the Big Red Machine.

The two men traded victories and in the summer of 2004, Hardy was chokeslammed through the stage by Kane and went home to rest and fix his knee.

It was during this time that Lita, whom Matt had been dating for a few years, began an affair with Edge. Travelling all year long must be hard and I’m certainly not making excuses for Lita or Edge because I find cheating on someone pretty abhorrent, but when you’re together with someone ad nauseum, sparks can fly and emotions can get the better for you.

Lita had found someone new and it was one of Matt’s best friends. Needless to say, when he found out, he hit the roof.

Matt Hardy could not contain his emotions and took to the Internet to tell everyone how he felt about the situation. As we have all learnt since, using the Internet to vent your frustrations is not the best idea, especially when you work for WWE, who protect their brand vehemently.

Obviously, this created a lot of backstage drama and an intense atmosphere in the locker room which resulted in WWE management seeing no other option but to fire Hardy on April 11th. However, this turned out to be a pretty poor move as the fans were behind Matt fully as they saw him as the victim.

This was in part to Matt sharing the story with the world in the first place. Two months later, on July 11th, 2005, Matt was rehired and started a feud with the man who took his woman, Edge. They had backstage brawls, fights on Raw and some of the punches thrown were extremely stiff.

Edge even said to Matt, “get your shots in because I’ll be firing back after that”. He actually allowed Matt to pop him a couple of times because he did realise that what he had done was wrong.

Matt went on to be quite a success following this feud. He held the United States Championship and the ECW Championship and also teamed up with his brother once again in 2006 before feuding with him a few years later, not long before the second time he was released from the company. This time, at his own request.

Fast forward to 2009 and Matt Hardy was in a triple threat match with MVP and Kofi Kingston where he suffered an injury that would make most sick to their stomach. His intestines exploded through his abdominal wall. Now I don’t know about you, but that is just nasty.

He was also in the middle of quite the push so this could not have come at a worse time really. He had already suffered an abdominal tear 2 years earlier but it had not needed surgery. This was obviously a much different situation.

He had a fairly uneventful year following his comeback after successful surgery. In September of 2010, Matt Hardy was sent home from the European tour, much like Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn were recently, for reasons unknown.

It’s clear that Matt was not in the right mind as shortly after he began expressing his discontent with the WWE as a whole and requesting his release from the company. Matt seemed a little bit broken at the time and he was insistent he wanted to leave the place that had given him so much.

He was finally released in October 2010 as he had demanded, as he felt his character was being underutilised.

At this point, you’re probably thinking, what character?

Matt didn’t really have a personality towards the end of his second run and quite frankly, I was bored of watching him. This was the best thing that could have happened to him as he spread his wings and flew to TNA to develop his character.

He had a rocky road, once being released for a DUI, but found himself back there, and back on the straight and narrow.

He became a World Champion, developed a character that made the Internet Wrestling Community love him once again and seemed to move on with his life. He was in a much better place following the resurgence in himself and even found love in Reby Sky.

They now have a son known as King Maxel and it would actually be cool if they could also make an appearance as Matt morphs back into the character he built in TNA.

He returned earlier this year with his brother Jeff to begin his third run in WWE and we can only hope that he stays the course this time and doesn’t leave on bad terms once again.

Now Matt has the rights to his gimmick back, it should be an unforgettable run that will DELETE all the low points of Matt’s career.

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