6.04.2011

#75: Matt Hardy

Real Name: Matthew Moore Hardy
Biggest Fan: John Rohner "Jeff Hardy's tag team partner. He was cool."

The quote from our expert pretty much says it all for Matt Hardy. He was Jeff Hardy's tag team partner. Having a more-talented brother in the same profession as you might seem to be quite frustrating at times. Say, for example, Hardy Family Thanksgiving: "Oh, Jeff, I hear you won the World Heavyweight Championship. That's the same belt that Ric Flair had for so many years, right?" "Oh, Matt, I hear that your girlfriend, Lita, broke up with you for real and started dating Edge. Keep at it, buddy, you'll get there!"

But Matt Hardy isn't on this list because he is easy to make fun of. He's on this list because our panel of experts clearly award bonus points to superstars who design and sew costumes and ring attire for all the other wrestlers.

Again, it's just so difficult to write about Matt Hardy without ridiculing him. But in all seriousness, Matt is a former WWF/WWE tag team champion eight times over. He counts the ECW championship amongst his list of singles titles, and he has been a consistently popular performer in the squared circle for well over a dozen years. Such a hit with the fans is Matt that he was brought back to the WWE in 2005 after an online petition from the legions of Mattaholics demanded it.

Additionally, Matt has twice been involved in the PWI's Match of the Year, at WrestleMania 2000 and WrestleMania X-Seven (during a time when the WWF evidently thought that simple roman numerals weren't exciting enough for its audience and started naming WrestleManias like a bunch of idiots). His feud with Edge and Lita also took home Pro Wrestling Illustrated's award for Feud of the Year in 2005.

Truly, Matt Hardy falls into a category with Owen Hart, The Genius, Raymond Rougeau and Hoss Funk (who, coincidentally enough, trained Matt to be a wrestler); they may not have been as good or successful as their brothers, but sometimes there is room on a list for two members of the same brood, and Matt is definitely worthy of being called a Top Superstar of Wrestling.

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