Edge & Lita Had Legit Heat On Them After Matt Hardy Cheating Scandal

The pro wrestling business is full of drama, and sometimes the scandals backstage are more sensational than anything going on in front of the camera.

The Edge, Lita, and Matt Hardy love triangle in 2005 saw real-life drama, shoot interviews, and a blood feud, almost ruining the legacy of one of WWE’s most trailblazing female wrestlers. Lita made her WWE debut in 2000 as the manager of Essa Rios and quickly led him to the Light Heavyweight Championship before going their separate ways. The four-time Women’s Champion then aligned herself with The Hardy Boyz to form Team Xtreme, beginning a partnership that lasted nearly five years.

Matt Hardy and Lita began dating in 1999, and by 2004, their relationship had already become rocky. After Hardy was shelved with a severe knee injury, Lita started traveling with their close friend, Edge. Matt’s absence caused Lita to begin an affair with Edge, who was married at the time, and Lita herself was still with Matt, creating a very uncomfortable and chaotic situation.

Upon discovering their affair, an enraged Matt Hardy made the whole thing public and posted all their dirty laundry on the internet. Hardy was released from his WWE contract due to his unprofessional conduct on social media. The real-life drama eventually became a storyline, and Edge and Lita soon became the hottest heels on Raw.

While speaking on a 2016 episode of Something to Wrestle, Bruce Prichard revealed that there was legitimate backstage heat on Edge & Lita owing to the Matt Hardy cheating scandal. He also addressed the accusations that Matt Hardy had against John Laurinaitis that he was treated unfairly.

Edge and Lita at this time, we’re going on record in every interview since and say that they really felt like they had been alienated in the locker room and that the locker room had turned on them. Do you remember any sort of situation like that when you came back after he was gone?

You know, let’s go back to the whole Johnny Ace thing, OK? I believe, I do believe Johnny’s take on that. And I’m sure that there was probably a feeling that Matt airing his dirty laundry and and Matt being emotional and going public with everything. Probably didn’t help his cause. And I’m sure that Johnny probably had several conversations with him.

I was not privy to the conversations between Matt and Johnny, but that wouldn’t surprise me. OK. And as far as Adam and Lita kind of being ostracized a little bit, yeah, there were, I think guys that looked at it, you know, the bro code. And felt that. Not cool, you know, Matt’s at home. But at the same time, look, I’m not gonna take, I’m not gonna take sides here. Life happens sometimes. And as you say, you know, they’re in the ‘they’re on the road, they’re in the car. For many hours every single night in between towns, shit happens.’ I’m saying, right? Not saying it’s wrong. It’s just life. Life happens sometimes.

And I dare say in the end, as we all sit here today, everything worked out, you know? Pretty good on all sides, you know, on all fronts. But it sucked at the time going through it on both sides of it and so you fast-forward a little bit. You know, Heyman does his stuff and the Matt freaking Hardy comment. And the audience, you know, the audience is intelligent, man. They know, you know, they read the crap. And so they’re.

Fans are doing the [You Screwed Matt] chants, and it’s one of those situations that I always would say to people, you know, talent can’t be denied. Right. And if it’s there, you know what’s there. So there was a groundswell of man. We want Matt Hardy, the real life story. That was going on behind the scenes was now taking place in front of the cameras, and we’ve only got, you know, 2/3 of this trilogy here. So. You’re sitting there going, OK, do you just ignore it? You know when the crowd hijacks?

Following his WWE release, Matt Hardy began wrestling in Ring of Honor and explored the independent scene. He would make unscripted, unannounced calls into WWE Byte This to tear into Edge and Lita. Hardy made his shocking return to WWE by attacking Edge backstage on July 11th, 2005.

After weeks of similar beat downs, Matt Hardy cut a worked shoot on Edge and Lita on Raw. This promo was an absolute disaster and ended Hardy’s hopes of becoming a main-event wrestler. At Raw Homecoming, Edge beat Hardy in a Loser Leaves Raw Ladder Match, thereby winning the entire feud and putting an end to the long-drawn dramatic storyline.

Transcription by Ringside News

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