Matt Hardy Claims Edge Almost Suffocated Mid-Match
Being a professional wrestler comes with the obvious dangers associated with the sport, and fans have seen some extreme injuries in wrestling, but sometimes fans aren't privy to each and every situation. One such moment that put WWE Hall of Famer Edge at serious risk occurred back at WWE No Mercy 2000. After several matches between The Hardy Boyz and Edge & Christian, it appeared their rivalry was going to come to some sort of conclusion leading up to the No Mercy pay per view. The Hardy Boyz definitively defeated the duo on an episode of "Raw" weeks before, banning Edge & Christian from receiving any further tag team title matches while the Hardys were champions. Instead of taking the loss with grace and accepting the stipulation, Edge & Christian donned gold luchador disguises and began calling themselves "Los Conquistadors."
The day of No Mercy 2000 arrived and the event featured Los Conquistadors vs. The Hardy Boyz. During a past episode of his "The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy" podcast (h/t Sportskeeda), Matt Hardy recapped what occurred that day and what led to a dangerous situation for Edge. "They didn't have enough masks when we got to the building," Hardy said. "I wanna say there was one. They went out to a mall and bought some masks. I wanna say it was some famous Mexican masks or whatever. Adam's mask, Edge's mask, was actually spray-painted gold [that same day]."
Suffering For The Art
Now, there have been countless wardrobe malfunctions over the years in WWE; however, a wardrobe malfunction will rarely put you into serious jeopardy as it did with Edge. Because the wardrobe team was forced to spray paint a luchador mask the color gold hours before the tag team bout took place, Edge apparently "almost suffocated." "He almost passed out because he was wearing a mask that had been spray-painted just a couple of hours earlier," Matt recalled on his podcast.
The finish of the nearly 11-minute match tied in with the idea that The Hardys were trying to expose Edge and Christian's true identities. However, an unexpected twist would reveal that the men had two gold masks on, so they remained in disguise even when Matt ripped one of Edge's masks off. "I would guess that [the spray-painted mask] is the mask that was on underneath once the top mask came off." Thankfully, it didn't lead to any serious injuries for "The Rated R Superstar," and the team of Edge and Christian ended up pulling out the victory. All four men have since gone on to have legendary careers, with Matt, Jeff, and Christian currently signed to AEW while Edge continues his legacy in WWE.