By David González Rodríguez On 05/04/2023

2005 It was one of the most difficult years in the life of Matt Hardy, both professionally and personally. On the one hand, he ended his relationship with Lita, with whom he had been with for several years. Additionally, she left with Edge, Matt’s clothing partner. This led to Matt having a series of bad behaviors, which ended with John Laurinaitis being fired the same year, although weeks later he was rehired.

In a recent appearance on his podcast extreme life, Matt spoke about this situation, in particular about his dismissal. He indicated that he didn’t have a good relationship with Laurinaitis, and Hardy thinks John liked to fire him. “John Laurinaitis and I had a lot of problems. I felt that when he called me to release me from my contract in 2005, I had a little fun because it’s like, ‘this guy bumped into me and questioned my authority.’ “Matt explained that he and Laurinaitis often clashed after he and Jeff Hardy split in 2002, and the two had different ideas about how Matt should be described as a heel.

Despite these issues between them, Hardy opened up about why he has respect for the former RAW and SmackDown General Manager. “Ultimately, he was Vince McMahon’s villain.. Vince McMahon doesn’t need to tell people the bad news… That’s John Laurinaitis’ job. So it’s hard and thankless work in many ways. So, despite my problems with him, now i’m fine with john lauriniatis and I respect him.”

Hardy was fired in April 2005 after posting on social media that his real life girlfriend, Lita, was having an affair with Edge. On screen, Lita was “married” to Kane, but soon after she got married to the Canadian. This led to WWE creating a rivalry, one of the most personal in memory, between Matt Hardy and Edge, being one of the many times the company took advantage of an actual event to create history between fighters.