Matt Hardy Reveals Why His No Holds Barred Match With Randy Orton On WWE Raw Was Scrapped

On the February 17 episode of Monday Night Raw, Matt Hardy and Randy Orton were scheduled to go one on one in a No Holds Barred match. Hardy was supposed to have been written off TV the week prior, but his segment with Orton did so well WWE decided to keep him around for a little bit longer. However, the match didn't go ahead as advertised and instead the former SmackDown Tag Team Champion and The Viper repeated their segment and Orton hit him with another Con-Chair-To.

Reports at the time noted that Vince McMahon decided to rewrite Raw before the show, but no reason was given for the change.

During a recent appearance on Talk Is Jericho, Matt shed more light on what happened with the match. He explained that he and Orton were supposed to have a two segment bout in the main event of WWE's flagship show. At this time, the company were still trying to sign Hardy to a new contract, but he rejected their advances because he wanted to be given "creative assurances" that were not forthcoming. This led to Vince scrapping the match in the production meeting before the show as he was convinced Matt was going to leave WWE. This resulted in Paul Heyman catching up with Hardy backstage to ask him if he was indeed leaving. The Broken One said he didn't know, but that he had repeatedly voiced his conditions for signing a new contract to Vince. 

After this, both parties ultimately decided to go their separate ways and Hardy made his debut on AEW: Dynamite earlier this week.

Matt said: "That week in the production meeting, we were going to have a two segment match, it was going to end Raw. I was going to come out selling a neck brace. I had already pretty much made up my mind I was going at this point, even though they actively tried to sign me, I couldn't have like any kind of creative assurances and that's what I wanted at this point and I wanted a dialogue with Vince…That day in the production meeting, Vince is like 'I don't think we should have this match because I think Matt's leaving. I don't think he's going to stay. I don't think he's signing, I think he's leaving.' I remember Paul Heyman grabbed me and said 'tell me the truth, are you leaving?' And I said 'I don't know' I said 'if there's nothing for me to do here I can go elsewhere and be utilised in a better way.' And that's what's important to me here towards the end of my career."