Matt Hardy says Kevin Dunn deserves credit for the original Matt Facts
Matt Hardy’s “Version 1” character from 2002 was the first major chance at a solo career for the former IMPACT Wrestling World Champion. A major part of that character was the entrance which featured a Windows Media Player style overlay with Matt Hardy’s “Matt Facts” featured in the corner with different legitimate facts about Matt Hardy added every week.
On the most recent episode of The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy podcast, Matt Hardy credited long-term WWE producer Kevin Dunn with the original idea for the special entrance.
"I gotta be honest about this too. Like, I remember talking about having some sort of entrance that kind of related to the internet. I remember pitching that idea. They put together this tent of what was going on and I remember they had that great look where I'm so smart, which I always try and like redo that expression whenever I do kind of the half-smile," Matt said. "A little sarcastic, shit-eating grin. I remember they had that little image and they did the box like a little Windows Media Player, old school things. Oh, my God, this is great. Then Kevin Dunn is the one who said, 'We can put like a little factoid up here about Matt.' So I had to give Kevin Dunn credit for that. That was his idea initially, and then they said 'Just give us a few Matt Facts and we'll pick a couple. So every week at TV, I would submit like four or five different Matt Facts and they would pop two of them up on the screen during the entrance, and I love that. Just looking back in hindsight, I'm so glad that I was able to get that entrance and be able to call those things Matt Facts.”
Although Matt Hardy credits Kevin Dunn with having the original idea for the Matt Facts, he also vividly recalls the one-time Kevin Dunn ruined the formula for the weekly factoids to plug The Hardy Boyz's autobiography.
"The only time they weren't mine. There was a small period when our book first came out, Exist to Inspire. Kevin Dunn put up some of the Matt Facts — and I think I've shared this story before. Kevin Dunn created some of the Matt Facts. I remember, one time, the Matt Fact box said, ‘Have you read Matt's book?’ and I was so furious. I didn't know that was gonna happen. I was like, ‘Dude, I'm really passionate about these things. You broke the formula. Every one of these stores was like, ‘Matt…’ It has to have, ‘Matt does this, Matt does that…’ Matt Facts.
"You can't have a Matt Fact that [ doesn't start with] the word 'Matt,'" he continued. "This delusional cocksucker [the ‘Version 1’ character] would never let that happen. I was so passionate about the ego and the delusion of Matt Hardy, Version One, that I got so personally upset about that. It's so funny because later on, it really wasn't a big deal. But I was very passionate about this thing."
Speaking of The Hardy Boyz’s autobiography, Matt Hardy recently stated that he believes it's time for them to write a new book as both he and Jeff Hardy have lived much more of a full life in the two decades since their original biography was released. Learn more here.
Should you use any portion of the quotes above, transcription credit should go to Fightful with a H/T linking back to this article.
