Matt Hardy Reveals Angle Vince McMahon Nixed For WWE Ultimate Deletion

After finally becoming "Woken" in late 2017, Matt Hardy's feud with Bray Wyatt culminated on a March 2018 episode of Monday Night Raw when the two rivals clashed in the Ultimate Deletion, a cinematic match at the Hardy Compound that was reminiscent of Hardy's clashes in TNA under his "Broken" gimmick.

The match would feature the usual Broken Matt tropes, including Senor Benjamin, the Mower of Lawn, and Vanguard One. Matt would ultimately pick up the win with the Twist of Fate after Brother Nero distracted Wyatt. Bray was then thrown into the Lake of Reincarnation, only to disappear and return at WrestleMania 34 to help Matt win the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. They would briefly reign as Raw Tag Team Champions before being pulled from TV, with Matt Hardy claiming in 2020 that WWE were simply sick of them suggesting ideas. 

Speaking about the Ultimate Deletion on the Extreme Life of Matt Hardy podcast, Matt revealed an angle that Vince McMahon nixed as he wanted the match to move away from the squared circle. 

"Where Jeff did the Swanton off the tree where I was on the ladder in the Final Deletion, I had two tables I was going to set up, put Bray on the bottom one and come off that tree. I had built a stand on it and everything to go up there and I had already practiced it. I was going to jump off the stand and leg-drop him through the two tables and he was going to move, which was going to put me in jeopardy to kind of go into the heat aspect of the match, and Vince said 'nothing else in the ring, no more of this sh**.' I thought that would've been a real cool spot because I wanted to still incorporate the wrestling ring and wrestling spots and TLC sh**. Once they got that call from Vince they said, 'Okay, we can't go back to the ring. Vince said he doesn't want any of this wrestling bullsh**, he wants this campy, over the top, this is supposed to be fun, larger than life, absurd to a degree,'" Matt said.

Vince McMahon also pitched ideas for the match, one of which would have seen Bray Wyatt rise out of the Lake of Reincarnation with a fish in his mouth. The crew on hand in North Carolina ultimately couldn't secure a fish at 2 am, though.

"One of my favourite suggestions, he said, 'I like this lake concept. I like how it changes a character. That's great sh**, pal. What I could see is Bray gets knocked into the lake and then all of a sudden we have a false finish where he pops out of the lake but he's got a fish in his mouth and then sinks back down.' And they mentioned something about this. They said, 'Can we get a fish?' I'm like, dude, we're in Cameron, North Carolina. When they're telling me this it's 2 o'clock in the morning. It's not like you can just go to a Bait and Tackle store that's open 24 hours. I don't think we want to spend time catching a fish out by the Lake of Reincarnation either. He said, 'Well if we can't do it, we can't do it, but it would be great,'" Matt added.

Matt left WWE in 2020. He would briefly revive his Broken gimmick in All Elite Wrestling in 2020 before abandoning it again. He is currently a member of The Firm.

H/T to Wrestling Inc.