Matt Hardy on John Laurinaitis nixing big WWE feud before Vince McMahon stepped in
Matt Hardy wrestled for WWE when John Laurinaitis became a creative team member and talent relations executive in 2001. In a recent podcast episode, the TNA star disclosed details about a disagreement he once had with the former WWE official.
In late 2002, then-WWE Chairman Vince McMahon wanted Hardy's Version 1.0 character to feud with fan-favorite Edge. However, Laurinaitis thought the villainous A-Train should be Edge's rival instead.
On his Extreme Life of Matt Hardy podcast, Hardy recalled how Laurinaitis got his way and the plans for him to work with Edge were nixed:
"John Laurinaitis, this is shortly thereafter, he had been really putting his fingerprints on a lot of the creative stuff and we'd had a couple of differences of opinion from when he came in with WCW, and then he thought I should not have that slot with Adam [Edge]. He thought the slot with Adam would be much better served if Prince Albert or A-Train got it, and then he [Laurinaitis] ended up winning and getting that deal." [33:15 – 33:37]
The story resulted in Edge defeating A-Train at Armageddon 2002. The Rated-R Superstar also beat the current NXT coach in a rematch on the December 19, 2002, episode of SmackDown.
Matt Hardy explains how Vince McMahon fixed the situation
Rey Mysterio emerged as one of WWE's top babyfaces on SmackDown in the second half of 2002. After the Edge idea failed to materialize, Vince McMahon booked Matt Hardy against Mysterio in early 2003.
Hardy added that McMahon "felt bad" about the Edge storyline and wanted to give him a high-profile feud with another popular star:
"Vince said, 'We're gonna go a different direction now. We're not gonna do the thing with Edge, but I'm thinking about doing something where maybe you try to lose weight to compete for the Cruiserweight title against Rey Mysterio. That could be a really good story.' He almost said it like he felt bad for me that I didn't get the original plan, the original idea that he had to work with Edge." [33:44 – 34:03]
In the same episode, Hardy explained how McMahon once insisted he record a statement-making win over The Undertaker on SmackDown.
Please credit The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy and give an H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription if you use quotes from this article.
