Matt Hardy recently recalled a gimmick pitched to him during WWE's Ruthless Aggression era that left him nervous.
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Matt Hardy has had a storied professional wrestling career spanning over two decades now. And in that time, the elder Hardy became an expert of getting unusual ideas over.
Be it the ‘Version 1’ gimmick or the Broken/Woken gimmick, he’s always been a boundary pusher in terms of creativity.
However, not everything pitched to him has been a home run. Indeed, he recently recalled a gimmick pitched to him during WWE‘s Ruthless Aggression era that left him nervous.
“There was one thing I was very nervous about doing,” Hardy said on his ‘The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy’ podcast.
“It didn’t end up happening. But I was going to have a deal where I teamed with Mark Henry and there was talk of us working against Booker T and RVD when they were the Tag Champs and winning the Tag Titles.
“It was right towards the end of my Matt Hardy V1. And the whole story of what was pitched to me from Vince McMahon and creative was that I was almost going to go to Mark Henry and him being black had a lot in common with me having Mattitude because we were both oppressed then I would talk like a black person.”
WWE’s past storylines don’t exactly paint a picture of sensitivity when dealing with such issues. However, this would have been extreme even by their way of doing things.
Hardy noted that the company was aware of his rap music fandom, so perhaps that’s why it was pitched. However, he admitted not being at all comfortable with it.
Thankfully for him, the gimmick never saw the light of day. The reason? Henry ended up getting injured before it happened.
“They knew at this time, like even when John Cena was doing raps, we’d be on international trips and myself and John, we’d be freestyling back there and messing around. They knew I was a big rap fan and I was aware of all that stuff.
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“But there was a point where I was almost going to start talking with more black slang and almost tell Mark Henry like ‘Mattitude is oppressed too man, we have that in common.’
“I was very uncomfortable with that then. And obviously, Mark got hurt, maybe it was a sign from the Seven Deities and it didn’t happen at all.
“That was something I was a little worried about doing because it was something they wanted me to start and pushing me into.”
