Why We Need “Big Money” Matt Hardy on WWE TV
You’ve seen him broken, woken, and everything else in between, but it’s high time Matt Hardy introduces his “Big Money Matt” persona to the WWE Universe.
When Matt Hardy resurfaced on SmackDown Live earlier this year after a long layoff, it looked like he had ditched his “Woken” persona to become one half of The Hardy Boyz again.
In other words, he was able to “tame his vessel” and return to his normal, non-Broken state.
As entertaining as Hardy was when he was “Woken,” SmackDown needed tag teams. Reuniting The Hardy Boyz to bolster the division was more important than Matt doing his own thing and when the time was right, maybe Matt would have brought back one of his other classic characters.
Unfortunately, The Hardy Boyz’ run as SmackDown Tag Team Champions was cut short due to Jeff Hardy recently suffering an injury that is expected to keep him out of action through the remainder of 2019. They officially vacated the titles on the April 30 episode and promised to regain the gold when Jeff was cleared to compete.
Aside from the inevitable one-on-one match with Lars Sullivan (who is credited in storyline for putting Jeff on the shelf), what should Matt do now that he is once again a singles competitor?
Another run for “The Woken One” is the most obvious option, but that persona doesn’t feel like it’d be as good of a fit on SmackDown as it was on Raw. Enter Big Money Matt.
For those unfamiliar, Big Money Matt was a persona portrayed by Hardy for the better part of his stint in Ring of Honor several years ago. After getting rejected by the ROH fans upon his arrival in the promotion, he soon began bragging about how wealthy he was and how much better he was than everyone else.
Up to that point, Hardy didn’t have much experience working as a heel. His Version 1 persona in 2003 was short-lived (yet fun while it lasted), but that wasn’t going to get him beyond a certain level. Additionally, his 2009 heel run never lived up to its full potential in addition to ending abruptly.
As Big Money Matt, however, he truly felt like a main event player as if he could one day win an ROH World Title.
His alliance with S.C.U.M. and rivalry with Kevin Steen were unforgettable, but he had to leave ROH for IMPACT before he could capture championship gold. He spent his first year back in IMPACT teaming with his brother Jeff, but once The Charismatic Enigma was sidelined with an injury (sound familiar?), he tried his hand at being a heel again and of course knocked it out of the park.
During the revival of his Big Money Matt persona, Hardy reigned as IMPACT World champion and had exciting feuds with the likes of EC3, Drew Galloway and even Jeff. An “I Quit” loss to Jeff paved the way for the debut of “Broken” Matt Hardy, and Big Money Matt hasn’t been seen since.
While there is no shortage of credible heels on SmackDown at the moment, Big Money Matt would be a very valuable asset to the blue brand’s midcard scene and be a fantastic foil for someone such as Finn Balor or Aleister Black.
Assuming WWE doesn’t take Matt up on his offer to reinvent himself, he’ll likely settle into an undercard role before long. There’s no need for him to be contending for the WWE Championship as he enters the twilight of his career, but he has much more to offer than being relegated to enhancement duty.
WWE already put their own unnecessary twist on Hardy’s “Woken” persona when he introduced that to the audience in late 2017, so there is no guarantee that Big Money Matt would work within the confines of this company. That said, it’s worth a shot, and with the right amount of creative freedom, he could be one of the best heels on either brand.
Matt Hardy is one of the most creative and innovative people in all of wrestling, and if WWE has no plans to do anything of note with him, he should be given a chance to show the world what he can do as Big Money Matt. Fans may be surprised to see how great of a villain he can be.