Matt Hardy is one of the most respected names in the professional wrestling business. He and his brother, Jeff Hardy, rose to prominence as the dynamic and captivating tag team, ‘The Hardy Boyz’, who revolutionized tag team wrestling with their high-flying style, charisma, and death-defying feats.
Even when Hardy embarked on a singles career, he kept doing those extreme moves in his matches. However, he made a change in his career at one point. This came after he delivered a risky leg drop on former WWE superstar Edge, which had a huge impact on his health.
Why did Matt Hardy decide to make a change in his wrestling style?
In the mid-2000s, Matt Hardy was embroiled in a heated feud with current AEW star, Adam Copleand, working for Tony Khan, who recently addressed WWE’s schedule clash with theirs. Hardy’s girlfriend at the time, Lita, had begun an affair with Edge while still being in a relationship with him. This real-life scenario was translated into a storyline on WWE television programming.
Amidst the feud, Edge and Matt Hardy were scheduled to battle each other inside a Steel Cage at the 2005 WWE Unforgiven pay-per-view. During that bout, the former WWE Tag Team Champion delivered a risky leg drop from the top of the cage on the Rated-R superstar, which was a jaw-dropping sight to witness.
Speaking on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Hardy disclosed that the leg drop led to a major injury, which prevented him from walking straight for four weeks. Following that, he decided to make a change in his in-ring style, moving forward in his career, only doing the leg drop on a few occasions.
I think a lot of it changed after the Unforgiven 2005 match against Edge when I did the leg drop off the top. I couldn’t walk straight for like four weeks, like I had a little kink in my step and that’s the point where I said instead of doing the leg drop every single time, I’m going to go, “Ohh!” and drop an elbow to the back of the neck and land on my feet. That was the biggest turning point for me as far as learning how to work smarter.
As Hardy mentioned, he began to use the leg drop less and interchanged it with a dive from the top, and landed an elbow to the back of his opponent’s neck. This turning point allowed him to continue his in-ring career for years, and even today, he remains a competitor inside the squared circle.
Where is Matt Hardy currently wrestling?
Following the end of his first WWE run, Matt Hardy signed with TNA Wrestling in the early 2010s and underwent a huge change, debuting his “Broken” gimmick. He returned to WWE in 2017 for a brief tenure and also had a run in their rival promotion, AEW, till 2024, about which he had a regret involving Edge.
As of 2025, both Matt and Jeff Hardy are signed with TNA Wrestling. The celebrated tag team returned for their second stint. Moreover, the Hardy Boyz even returned to WWE as part of their developmental territory, NXT, following a multi-year deal with TNA that was signed earlier this year.
The multi-time tag team champions squared off against Nathan Frazer and Axiom, which was a classic showdown where they successfully defended the TNA World Tag Team Championships. As Hardy continues to wrestle in the ring, it remains to be seen what the future holds for him moving forward.
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