Matt Hardy's 2005 WWE run was incredibly controversial for fans who remember, as a real-life affair between his then-girlfriend, Lita, and Adam "Edge" Copeland, led to Hardy lashing out on social media and ultimately being released, only to return due to fan uproar much like RonKillings recently did and reinventing himself. During an episode of his "The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy" podcast, the veteran recalled his release and added that he was injured at the time.
"I'd been out with knee surgery, and there was an issue between three talents, right? And I had, I'd caused an upstir, obviously; I look back, much younger at the time, I regret many of the things I said during that," he recalled. "Someone has to go, should we take this guy off that is like, red-hot, top star? Or the other person, who can go from this momentum in this situation, we can take them off in another direction? Or, is it the person who's been off TV for nine months and nobody's been talking about recently?"
Hardy then claimed that he understood why he was let go, but expressed how he was grateful for the fan backlash while adding that neither Lita nor Copeland wanted him to get fired.
"They wanted me to be back, they both were very remorseful over everything, and that came in action pretty soon," he recalled, noting how the actual issues between the three of them were resolved very quickly, but within a month he had conversations with Jim Ross about returning to WWE, which would lead to one of his most compelling runs in the promotion.
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
