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July 24, 2003
OFFICIAL SMACKDOWN PREVIEW
Benjamin & Haas, meanwhile, will defend the WWE Tag Team Championship this Sunday against Rey Mysterio & Billy Kidman, who battle Matt Hardy & Shannon Moore on SmackDown!
Will this be a tune-up for Mysterio & Kidman? Or can Hardy & Moore pull it off, setting themselves up for a title shot in the near future?
Will any more matches be announced for Vengeance? What else is going to happen? Find out tonight (8/7 CT on UPN) on SmackDown!
July 26, 2003
CONFIDENTIAL PREVIEW
The SmackDown! Superstars just returned from "Unleashed in the East," a highly successful tour to Thailand and Japan. Confidential cameras shadowed Torrie Wilson, and were also on hand as Matt Hardy and John Cena visited a Japanese restaurant.
Get the exclusive footage this week on Saturday night's Confidential (11/10 CT on The New TNN).
MATT MENTIONED IN 1WRESTLING ARTICLE
The Good, The Bad, The Ugly and More by Buck Woodward
The Good...
Sometimes, you have to be thankful for the little things. This week, I am thankful that both Raw and Smackdown gave us at least one match that made the show worth watching.
While there was plenty to not like on both shows, the matches between Chris Jericho and Shawn Michaels on Raw and the tag team match between Rey Mysterio & Billy Kidman and Matt Hardy & Shannon Moore were both pleasant surprises.
The Smackdown tag match was more of a legitimate surprise, as I did not expect such a competitive match between the four. With Mysterio & Kidman challenging for the Tag Team Championship on Sunday, I figured on them having a short, decisive victory to lead them into Vengeance.
Besides, its not as if Matt Hardy and Shannon Moore have been getting a mega-push lately. Heck, they're not even invited to the APA Brawl on the Pay-per-view. Instead of a glorified squash, we got a hot tag bout, with both sides working hard to make for a believable encounter.
The highest compliment I can give the match is that at one point I thought Hardy and Moore might win, despite all logic saying that Mysterio & Kidman had to win going into the PPV.
They delivered some great false finishes, and they even managed to inject some drama into what (over the last few weeks) has become a predictable "619-Shooting Star Press" finish. Hopefully the powers that be in WWE noticed the great reaction this match got, and how a pure tag team wrestling match can get over with a crowd.
August 6, 2003
V1 T-SHIRT DISCONTINUED
According to wweshopzone.com, Matt's V1 t-shirt has been discontinued. We can only hope this means that there are plans in the works for some NEW V1 merchandise.
NEW HARDY BOYZ BOOK
There is a new 48 page book on Matt and Jeff Hardy written by Angie Peterson Kaelberer on amazon.com.
It is geared towards younger fans between the ages of 9 and 12 and should be available sometime this month.
NEW MATT HARDY T-SHIRT
There's no longer any need to mourn the V1 shirt because Matt's NEW "Sensei of Mattitude" t-shirt is available on wweshopzone.com now!
August 6,2003
MATT RATED #5 IN 411'S TOP 50 WRESTLERS
NUMBER 5: Matt Hardy Version 1.0
Last Year: #23
What we said: Don't give up trying Matt, you'll make it someday...
IB: From the moment a bewildered Shannon Moore and Hardcore Holly wondered exactly what the hell Matt was looking so pleased about on that fateful Smackdown morn, a Juggernaught called Mattitude Version 1.0 has been tearing through WWE, amassing a cult following among the fans and injecting a bit of personality into the traditionally humourless cruiserweight division.
While Hardys ring abilities still leave a lot to be desired, particularly in comparison to the rest of the top ten, this has been more than compensated by a veritable feast of Matt Facts, the slickest video entrance this side of the original dX, and the always hilarious sight of him thingyting that daft hick around.
It is hard not to respect Matt a hell of a lot more once his hard work and dedication to the business becomes more and more apparent in their book, so much so that you cannot help but hope he goes on to bigger and better things than mere comedy skits, as funny as they may be. Given that management must surely look at him as a WWE creation good things may very well be in his future.
RW: We always knew that Matt had it in him to excel by himself. This year, hes taken to instructing the world in the ways of Mattitude and has made for some of the best TV on offer. His introduction to Smackdown was inspired, and slowly and surely, he turned himself into a farcical heel. Matt eked some enjoyable matches out of The Undertaker and Brock Lesnar, whilst displaying the Mattributes that would endear him to us.
The relationship built with Shannon Moore gave the little fella a desperately needed rub. Matts added layers to his performance to make us believe that he can go from cool-but-conceited guy one minute to borderline nutjob the next its a similar formula that worked for Kurt Angle with the arrogant dork morphing into a killing machine bit.
For the past year, hes probably been the most reliably entertaining performer on Smackdown and Ill be damned if he doesnt get his hands on the US Title at some point in the next year.
TOP 5 LIST
1) Kurt Angle
2) Eddie Guerrero
3) Chris Jericho
4) AJ Styles
5) Matt Hardy
Friday, August 08, 2003
A FACE TURN FOR MATT?
The Roanoke Civic Center website apparently leaked a spoiler regarding a SmackDown! storyline, in the card for an upcoming six-man tag at the 9/13 house show.
This is not a typo, and lists Matt Hardy, Shannon Moore, and Zach Gowen against The FBI. All sources backstage indicate that the live event team jumped the gun on the storyline and leaked the Matt Hardy/Shannon Moore face turn before they were supposed to.
MATT TO TAKE PART IN WOODBINE RACETRACK'S WWE DAY
We've officially confirmed via phone that Matt Hardy will be one of the 10 WWE Smackdown Superstars to participate in Woodbine's second WWE day on Sunday August, 17th in Rexdale, Ontario - Canada.
MATT MENTIONED IN PRO-WRESTLING ILLUSTRATED
In the October edition of PWI Magazine, Matt was mentioned a total of 5 times!
Matt Hardy vs. Rey Mysterio Jr (WrestleMania XIX) came in at number 18 in the top 20 PPV matches of the Half Year.
"Ever since he debuted in WCW in 1996, Mysterio has been the measureing stick for all crusierweights. Most fans thought Rey would have no trouble with Matt Hardy. Rey looked good, hitting a corkscrew plancha early, but Hardy had him well-scouted. Hardy avoided the West Cost Pop and won by pinfall."
Coming in at number 17 on the top 20 PPV countdown was Billy Kidman vs. Matt Hardy - No Way Out.
"Hardy made the most of his crusierweight title shot after spending weeks trying to make weight. He hit a leg drop followed by a powerslam and a choke to weaken Kidman. Hardy then worked the champ over with a sleeper and more powerslams until Kidman railed with an enzuiguri. A powerful Twist of Fate sealed the win for Matt Hardy."
Coming in at number 8 on the countdown was the Royal Rumble match at the Royal Rumble.
"Brock Lesnar had to beat The Big Show just for a slot in the match. It came down to Lesnar, Kane, Batista, and Undertaker. Lesnar answered critics by nailing Kane with an F5 and surviving a tombstone piledriver to toss 'Taker and win. Chris Jericho and Matt Hardy also turned in impressive performances."
Matt Hardy was also mentioned in a section where they gave letter grades to superstars. The letter grades went from A - F. A being the best, and F being the worse. The column is extremely long, so I will only type the section that contained Matt who was classifed under A.
"Matt Hardy may not be a true Cruiserweight, but there is no doubt he is a true talent."
Matt Hardy was also ranked in with the top 10 Smackdown Superstars.
1. The Big Show
2. Rey Mysterio Jr.
3. John Cena
4. The Undertaker
5. Kurt Angle
6. Chris Benoit
7. Rhyno
8. Matt Hardy
9. Sean O'Haire
10. Brock Lesnar
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