Matt Hardy Says Paul Heyman Once Pitched Him On Absurd Name Change In WWE

For more than 25 years, brothers Matt and Jeff Hardy have been one of the preeminent tag teams in pro wrestling. However, they haven't always been paired up together. Matt and Jeff notably split for the first time in 2001 and several times thereafter, and according to Matt, WWE's Paul Heyman once wanted to do something drastic to separate him from the Hardy brand.

"Whenever I split from Jeff and the first few weeks they played the Hardy Boyz theme music, they were just hoping I'd get booed, and I ended up getting cheered," Matt recalled during an episode of his "The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy" podcast. "But [Heyman] just said, 'I was thinking about it. We should change your name to something; we'll come up with a first name. Something... Something Guerrero. And we'll just say you're not a Hardy.'"

Matt claims that Heyman told him they'd end up pretending that he has Mexican heritage, specifically relating himself to the Guerrero family, and that he'd tell fans that he prefers going by that instead of being a Hardy. "That didn't happen though," Matt added. 

In the past, Matt went into further detail about the experience, adding that he was going to be teamed up with Chavo Guerrero and constantly take shots at the Hardy name. However, this all led to him pitching his 'Version 1' gimmick instead, which Vince McMahon absolutely loved.

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.