Matt Hardy considers his 2003 feud with Rey Mysterio over the WWE Cruiserweight Championship one of the most memorable periods of his wrestling career. The rivalry included a notable match at WrestleMania XIX where Hardy defeated Mysterio to retain the championship.
During a recent episode of his Extreme Life of Matt Hardy podcast, Hardy reflected on the significance of this program. He expressed gratitude for the opportunity to work with Mysterio in what became a standout chapter in his wrestling journey.
I’m glad I ended up doing the feud with Rey because that is one of the more memorable things that I have done in my career. People remember that when I’m trying to lose weight and I’m doing all these funny vignettes with Shannon [Moore].
Hardy revealed that the WrestleMania match was initially planned as the culmination of their story. However, Vince McMahon’s positive reaction to their chemistry led to an extension of the program.
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It actually was going to be at one time — whenever I wrestled him at WrestleMania, that was going to be the end of it, we were just going to do that but Vince liked what we were doing and working together so much he was going to drag that out and we were going to end up doing a blowoff match with the Cruiserweight title near Anaheim, we were going to be doing that in Southern California so it’d be a big deal for Rey whenever he won the Cruiserweight title. It ended up being the main event of SmackDown, so that was really really cool.
The feud was characterized by Hardy’s memorable character work, including comedic weight-loss segments featuring Shannon Moore. This storyline element contributed to making the rivalry distinctive and memorable for fans.
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