The Edge/Matt Hardy/Lita Love Triangle That Almost Ended In Disaster

In the summer of 2005, the pro wrestling world was captivated by the love triangle between Lita, Matt Hardy and Edge (AKA Adam Copeland) as the behind-the-scenes issues proved to be far juicier than any storylines playing out on Monday Night Raw or SmackDown. 

Art would eventually imitate life as the backstage issues played out on TV, but there was a lot more than met the eye when it came to how the whole situation unfolded both in real life and inside the squared circle.

The Early Career Of Edge, Lita And Matt Hardy

1999 proved to be an important year for The Hardy Boyz, Lita, and Edge & Christian. The Hardys received their first major WWE push, winning the WWE Tag Team Titles for the first time at the end of the millennium, while Edge and Christian ditched the Ministry of Darkness and eventually Gangrel to begin making a name for themselves in the tag division. This included a show-stealing Ladder Match between both teams at No Mercy 1999, while Lita also signed with WWE, having performed on the indies and for ECW as as Angelica and Miss Congeniality.

Amy Dumas already knew Matt and Jeff Hardy as they helped train her after they met at an NWA Mid-Atlantic show in early 1999, and Lita would soon link up with The Hardy Boyz in 2000 after a brief stint managing Essa Rios. As Team Extreme, Matt, Jeff and Lita were one of the most over acts of the early 2000s and their bond with Edge and Christian also continued to grow during this period, with Edge later describing Lita as his closest female friend in the business. It was Edge who suggested that Lita bring what would become her signature exposed underwear look to television, after accompanying her to try on clothes before a show.

By the time Lita and the Hardys became an on-screen unit, Lita and Matt were already dating in real life, something which was then confirmed to fans as they shared a passionate kiss on the February 19, 2001 episode of Raw. Team Extreme continued to thrive on WWE TV until Lita suffered a disastrous broken neck in April of 2002 on the set of Dark Angel after she was dropped on her head and neck while performing a hurricanrana. 

With their manager on the sidelines, WWE split up The Hardys, with Matt thriving as Matt Hardy Version 1, during which he reigned as the Cruiserweight Champion.

While Matt was on SmackDown, Edge – who was set for one of the biggest pushes of his career – was also put out of action with a broken neck and was booked for fusion surgery in February of 2003. 

Lita would later reflect on her time away from the business, noting that while she was at home she began to consider not just her career, but her personal life as well. She would admit that while she loved Matt, she wasn’t so sure they would end up growing old together as their main bond was their work, but their outside interests didn’t necessarily align. 

Lita And Edge Return From Injury & Matt Gets Injured 

Following a long road to recovery, Lita was able to return to the ring in September of 2003. When she came back she, naturally, wanted to travel with her boyfriend and asked Matt if he would consider putting in a request to swap brands and come back to Raw, which he duly did, with the real-life couple reuniting on-screen on the April 19, 2004 episode of Raw. The reunion took place after Backlash, a pay-per-view which featured Edge’s first match since returning from his neck injury. 

The injury bug would then strike again as Matt was forced to undergo reconstructive knee surgery to repair damage to his MCL and ACL once his summer programme with Kane had run its course. 

With Matt on the shelf, the careers of Lita and Edge went from strength to strength. Adam Copeland was presented as a would-be main event heel, while Lita defeated Trish Stratus to capture the WWE Women’s Championship in the historic main event of the December 6, 2004 episode of Raw. 

Towards the end of 2004, Edge and Lita would grow closer in real life as they began travelling together, with Matt later revealing that Lita didn’t like travelling alone, and since she didn’t get along with some of the other female talent at the time, Lita suggested she ride with Edge, who was also travelling alone at the time. Matt didn’t think anything of it since he was close with Edge and trusted him implicitly, and Edge had only just married his second wife Lisa Ortiz on October 21, 2004. 

This ultimately meant that while Matt was at home – not only intensely rehabbing his knee but also planning for his future with the woman he believed he would one day marry – his girlfriend and one of his closest friends were getting to know each other on a deeper level during the long drives between towns. Realising that they had a lot more in common than they initially thought, their platonic relationship quickly turned romantic.

Yet, while the secret affair was still young, Lita was dealt another major injury setback and she suffered a torn ACL at New Year’s Revolution 2005 while performing a Thesz Press just minutes into her WWE Women’s Title defence against Trish Stratus. Lita underwent surgery four days later and, outside of a few public appearances, was largely off the road to recuperate. 

The Affair Is Exposed 

In early 2005, Edge’s wife called Matt Hardy and expressed her concerns over how frequently her husband and his girlfriend had been calling each other. Matt brought it up to Lita but she shrugged off suggestions that anything untoward was going on and things continued as normal, at least in the short term until Matt began to notice Lita was acting strangely around Valentine’s Day. 

Eventually, Hardy’s curiosity got the better of him and, while Lita was sleeping, he listened to her voicemail messages, during which he proceeded to hear Adam Copeland profess his love for Amy Dumas, claiming that he couldn’t be without her and how he needed to know whether she wanted to be with him or Matt. 

This ultimately floored Matt and he confronted Lita with the evidence in the early hours of the morning, during which Lita admitted to the affair and later left their home, driving to her mother’s home in Atlanta, Georgia. Matt also called Edge to let him know that he knew about the affair. 

It didn’t take long for pro wrestling fans to realise something was wrong as Matt had all pictures of Lita removed from his personal website in March of 2005. Matt then alluded to the issues on his message board, telling fans: “If you happen to run into Amy at an appearance, I think you should ask her why her pictures have been taken down.” He then added that his Matt Fact of the day was, “Matt hates being lied to and having his trust broken.”

Thomas Simpson, Matt’s longtime friend and promoter of OMEGA Wrestling, then became one of the first to speak publicly about what had happened, writing: 

“Amy Dumas lied to Matt. Amy broke Matt's trust. While Matt told me this story of lies and deceit, I heard so much pain and anguish in his voice that it brought me to tears. I am still shocked and saddened at the pain that Matt has been caused by all of this. What is even more heartbreaking is the other man that precipitated the lies was supposedly one of Matt's better friends.”

Matt confirmed Thomas’s account, while Dumas took to her own website to write: “I'm going through some tough stuff personally right now. I hope that you guys can respect my privacy.” 

While all of this was happening, WWE were set to run a house show and Raw taping in North Carolina, otherwise known as Hardy country. Matt had been due to appear at the taping on March 7 in Raleigh, but he was asked to stay at home by WWE management. The company also altered plans for an autograph signing that weekend which was supposed to feature Matt and Lita. 

Matt, meanwhile, continued to post about the situation on his website, writing: "Just for the record, I never told anyone the story in its entirely until news sites on the internet started breaking the story (and there's still a tonne of appalling things you guys don't know). I took down Amy's pictures on my site and in my house because they were sickening to look at. When the story started coming out, in no form or fashion was I going to allow myself to look like the bad guy. I couldn't afford personally or professionally to let an incorrect version of the story stand. I just wish you guys could have experienced the truth and saw what actually happened. You can take my word for what it's worth, in your eyes and heart. Adam Copeland is faeces. As upset as I am with Amy now, I still care about her and I would hate to see her destroy her life. The faeces’ track record speaks for itself."

The Affair Causes Headaches Behind The Scenes 

Shortly after, speculation was fuelled that the whole situation was a work as Matt and Lita were spotted together at a Seven Seconds concert in Greensboro on March 10, even posing for a photo with the band’s lead singer. Matt was forced to confirm that the situation was not a work and that he and Lita had no issues sharing a public space despite their personal issues.

What many people did not know was that Matt, Edge and Lita had all met up at a hotel prior to the March 7 Raw in Raleigh. Looking for a way to move forward and work with each other professionally once Matt was back on the road, Hardy suggested to Edge that he go to Vince McMahon and request to be moved over to SmackDown. 

Edge wasn’t keen on the idea, according to Matt’s account, and also reiterated his love for Amy. In the end, nothing was resolved. The situation continued to cause headaches for WWE and at the March 14 Raw taping in Atlanta, security were ordered to confiscate any signs that mentioned Hardy, Lita and Edge together. A child even had her ‘Matt Hardy is My Hero’ sign taken away, while Lita was booed every time she was shown on-screen by a vocal section of the audience. 

Matt was then pulled from WWE house shows in the Carolinas on March 19 and March 20 by WWE Head of Talent Relations John Laurinaitis, who feared a fight might break out backstage. Despite being unbooked, Hardy showed up in Fayetteville, North Carolina anyway, partly in a bid to show people in the locker room that he was able to coexist with Edge. 

After the show, Matt went out with friends – including Shannon Moore, who was involved in a head-on collision with a drunk driver at about 1 AM. Thankfully, Moore suffered only minor injuries in the accident.

Edge, meanwhile, drove to Columbia, South Carolina for the next day’s show and his car was vandalised, with the tyres being slashed by an unknown assailant. People naturally assumed Hardy was the culprit, but his presence was accounted for in another town. 

According to Matt, Jason Arhndt (AKA former Mean Street Posse member Joey Abs) had spread the rumour that Hardy had put a 'hit' out on Edge and that when they couldn’t get the so-called 'hit' done, they messed with his ride instead. What actually happened, according to Matt, was that after he kicked Lita out of their house, Hardy called an old flame in Lori Barbour, who was dating Arhndt at the time, and they rekindled their physical relationship. Hardy claimed that after Arhndt heard about this, he became jealous and spread false information to WWE. The situation was even murkier, though, as Lori had apparently left Hardy for Arhndt in the first place when the two initially dated many years prior.

Adding to Edge’s misery, he was bombarded by signs and chants such as "You screwed Matt!" and "Matt will kill you!" on the Carolina shows. While there had been an order in place to confiscate any pro-Hardy signs, that weekend’s lead road agent Arn Anderson made the call to cancel it, saying that people had paid their hard-earned money and could bring whatever signs they wanted. 

WWE Fires Matt Hardy

With his knee now healed up, Matt was raring to go. As he was waiting for the call with his new start date and schedule, Hardy was instead wished the best of luck in his future endeavours by John Laurinaitis. 

Johnny Ace informed Hardy that they were exercising their right to terminate his contract on April 11, 2005. Citing creative having ‘nothing’ for him, Johnny Ace also told the former WWE Tag Team Champion that they wanted to try new talent out. 

Matt saw through those reasons and suspected that Laurinaitis enjoyed giving him his marching orders. The two had long been at odds, stemming from a situation when Matt was trying to gain momentum on SmackDown in late 2002 when, after the blue brand’s then-writer Paul Heyman had suggested that Matt be credited with putting Rey Mysterio out of action to set up a programme between them upon Rey’s return, Laurinaitis overruled Heyman and successfully lobbied to have A-Train take Hardy’s place. 

Hardy’s fans – thousands of which signed an online petition calling for WWE to rehire him – may have been upset at the news of his release, but Edge’s ex-wife Lisa Ortiz was much more so. 

On April 14, Ortiz sent the McMahons - and anyone else whose information she could get ahold of - copies of Edge’s private emails and chastised the company for firing Hardy when it was Adam Copeland and Amy Dumas who had been the transgressors. 

The bottom line, as far as WWE were concerned, was that Edge was the bigger star, was currently in the middle of a sizeable push, and Hardy had made things worse by being so public about everything. The tyre-slashing incident had sealed his fate - whether Matt was responsible or not - and WWE felt they needed to protect themselves from any issues happening backstage. 

For what it’s worth, when Laurinaitis had tried to talk to Edge about the situation, he had told the talent relations head that it was personal and didn’t concern him, while also bringing up several other not-so-secret affairs that everyone in the locker room knew about. This, coupled with the general sentiment that Matt got a very raw deal, made Edge something of a pariah among his peers, shunned along with Lita. 

On-screen, the winner of the inaugural Money in the Bank Ladder Match continued his ascension up the card, demonstrating management’s faith in his abilities as a performer. The ‘You screwed Matt!’ chants may have been a bitter reminder of his mistakes, but he was a heel and heat was heat at the end of the day. 

The same cannot be said for Lita, however, who was tasked with portraying a sympathetic babyface helping to ‘train’ 2004 Diva Search winner Christy Hemme for her WrestleMania 21 showdown with Trish Stratus, before resuming her feud with the WWE Women’s Champion.

Lita had to deal with smatterings of chants and boos aimed at her and coped well enough with the distraction, until things came to a head inside the World’s Most Famous Arena. On April 18, WWE Raw emanated from Madison Square Garden, a venue which had long been viewed as the barometer for fan sentiment within the organisation. 

WWE, bizarrely, decided to book Edge and Lita in back-to-back segments on the show. Opening the show, Edge competed in a singles match with Chris Benoit which went to a no contest after just five minutes of action. The bout may have been brief, but there was certainly enough time for those inside the World’s Most Famous Arena to shower Edge with catcalls, including a deafening chant of “You Screwed Matt!” 

Lita, on the other hand, was like a lamb to the slaughter during her in-ring promo segment with Trish Stratus. The MSG faithful were so loud and so vitriolic with their booing and chanting towards her that it ruined the segment and threw Trish, the heel trying to hold the segment together, completely off her game. 

Hardy said after that he enjoyed seeing things go off the rails and thanked the fans for their public support.

Things got worse after the show when Edge’s estranged wife Lisa Ortiz, who had moved out of their house and was living with her family in Colorado, posted a long and damning letter to Matt’s website. In addition to accusing both Edge and Lita of using steroids to achieve their superstar physiques, Lisa also claimed that she had photos of bruises on her face from when Adam Copeland had thrown her down and continued to point the finger at the couple and WWE for handling the fallout of the affair so badly. 

While Edge didn’t comment on the allegations, he was implicated in the Signature Pharmacy scandal in 2007, where it was revealed he had purchased two types of human growth hormone and one type of steroid between September 2004 and February 2007. He was suspended for 30 days. 

Matt himself commented on the ongoing drama in his first interview since being fired with Between the Ropes on April 20, 2005, noting he was surprised but not surprised by his release. 

“Once I did get my release, it did kind of surprise me, but at the same time it didn’t. Once again, it was one of those things where it was very obvious what the release was about. To think that the company would ask me not to be at the shows and leave me at home from WrestleMania and then release me, taking the cheap way out of the situation, that was not cool,” Hardy said (H/T Slam Wrestling).

Hardy noted he would be willing to go back to WWE if the opportunity arose, although he didn’t believe it would be likely.

“Who knows? One day I could be back in the WWE. It could be tomorrow, it could be in 10 years, maybe never, who knows? Right now, I have achieved my original dream of me and my brother being in WWE and being tag team champs. And I did achieve a lot more than I ever set out for, but there’s more I would have loved to do,” he added.

Five days later on the Opie and Anthony radio show, Matt continued to vent, admitting that he would love to beat the hell out of Edge, encouraged fans to keep aiming derogatory chants at Edge and Lita, and noted that he had already received offers to team up with Jeff again on the indies. 

Jeff, for what it’s worth, had reacted passionately to the news of the affair when it first broke, leaving an expletive-filled voicemail on Edge’s phone. He also spoke with Lita, who he was still close with, but ended the call with the sense that their friendship would no longer be the same as it was.

Matt continued to speak out publicly, including in an interview with the Charleston Post and Courier where he revealed he had been looking for engagement rings before finding out about the affair and how he hoped a reconciliation with Lita was still possible. He also accused Edge of playing mind games with Lita and trying to guilt her into being with him and lamented the fact that former WWE Talent Relations Head Jim Ross wasn’t in charge of handling the fallout from the company’s end, since he had a much better relationship with JR than Johnny Ace. 

Edge & Lita Are Paired Together On-Screen

On the May 16, 2005 episode of Raw, WWE decided to turn Lita heel. Not only that, though, as she was also aligned with Edge by betraying Kane and helping Edge defeat him in the finals of the Gold Rush tournament, before they embraced and kissed passionately on the stage. 

On the June 20 edition of Raw, WWE presented the televised wedding of Edge and Lita. Towards the end of the hilariously over-the-top ceremony, fans received a shock when – after the priest asked if anyone knew why they should not be joined in holy matrimony – Matt Hardy’s entrance music played in a troll job from sports entertainment’s most-hated couple. 

Matt may not have been there, but Kane was and in typical pro wrestling wedding fashion, he tombstoned the priest. 

Matt told a European reporter after the event that WWE were simply rubbing his nose in it with the tease and that he was not heading back to the company. At an indie show five days after the wedding episode, Hardy did a promo where he once again referred to Edge as "faeces" and called Lita a "slut" due to being mad at his ex for going along with the angle and using aspects of their real-life relationship in the programme with Kane. 

While Matt may have said he didn’t expect to return, he and WWE began to hold talks about working together again. Even though Matt had indie bookings for companies like Ring of Honor and was being publicly courted by TNA, it was rumoured that he had either agreed to return or would likely agree to return in order to work a programme with Edge and Lita. 

Matt Hardy Returns To WWE

Suspicions were confirmed on the July 11, 2005 edition of Raw when Matt Hardy attacked Edge both before and after The Rated-R Superstar’s match with Kane. Presented as a shoot, Matt first struck Edge in the backstage area before being chased off by John Laurinaitis and road agent Steve Keirn, only to come back later to jump his adversary in the ring. Once they had been separated by security and referees, Matt commandeered the microphone and cut a promo, referring to Edge by his real name of Adam (as well as a "b*stard") and calling Lita a "whore", vowing to make their lives miserable while plugging Ring of Honor. 

Handcuffed and ejected from the building, Matt continued to spit venom in the direction of Laurinaitis and proclaimed that WWE could kiss his ass. Designed to look as real as possible, the angle created some doubt amongst fans about what was staged and what was unscripted. 

The truth was Hardy had reached a deal to return to WWE in mid-June, once Lita and Edge had agreed to go through with the proposed storyline. The tease during their wedding had been just that – a tease, put in at the behest of Vince McMahon, who wanted some sort of official kayfabe beginning for the impending feud. 

As a means of misdirection, Matt had written a lengthy commentary on his website ripping on the company and criticising the recent releases of a pregnant Dawn Marie and the just-returned-from-their-honeymoon newlyweds Charlie Haas and Jackie Gayda. He also plugged his indie dates and praised TNA, yet did nothing to promote any sort of grudge with Edge. 

Two days after his shocking return, Matt Hardy called into WWE internet show Byte This and confronted guest Lita, with the two engaging in a very heated back-and-forth that ended with Lita walking off the set.

Edge vs. Matt Hardy 

As Matt continued to honour his indie commitments on the weekends, his feud with Edge went full speed ahead on Monday nights. Mr. McMahon officially welcomed Matt back to WWE on the August 1 episode of Raw and Matt beat Snitsky in his return match a week later. 

That was a mere warmup for what all this had been building towards – the first singles meeting between Matt Hardy and Edge. The second match on a stacked SummerSlam card, the initial Hardy vs. Edge clash failed to produce the sparks that the fans and the performers themselves had hoped for. Short and fiery, with a liberal amount of ‘potatoes’ being thrown back and forth, the match came to a premature end when the referee deemed that Matt could no longer continue after being dropped face-first on the ring post.

Their SummerSlam outing may have been a disappointment, but the finish at least helped further the story and set the stage for future matches down the road. 

Matt and Edge would only have to wait eight days to go at it again, this time in a Street Fight on Raw. A major improvement, this was really the match they should have had at the pay-per-view as they faced off for 20 minutes in a wild and engaging brawl. Again, though, the finish was inconclusive as the match ended in a no contest after Matt delivered a Side Effect to Edge off the side of the entrance stage and into some electrical equipment below. 

By this point, the ‘shoot’ aspects of the feud had been dialled down somewhat. The two talents still laid in strikes when they worked together, but professionalism was maintained and no liberties were taken by either man while the storyline took a more traditional turn.

The Unforgiven pay-per-view on September 18 would prove to be the rivalry’s high point. At the close of a thrilling contest that was even better than their gripping Street Fight weeks earlier, Matt ascended to the top of a steel cage and finished off his foe with a massive leg drop. Edge would later say that, regardless of everything the two men had been through over the past six-or-so months, there was nobody else he would want to look up and see standing on the top of the cage more than Matt Hardy. 

Backstage, things had thawed between Matt and Lita, too, with reports indicating that they had begun socialising again on the road after shows. 

With one win apiece and one match ruled a no-contest, a final match between the two was booked for the loaded Raw Homecoming show on October 3. On the three-hour spectacular to celebrate Raw’s return to the USA Network, Matt and Edge met in a Ladder Match where the winner would gain possession of the Money in the Bank briefcase and the loser would have to leave the red brand.

It was hardly a shock to see Edge prevail, since he was still pencilled in for a major push and WWE had no desire to take the briefcase off him. The match was another good one, too, even if it had nine minutes cut from it.

For Hardy, he would have to do some rebuilding on SmackDown, the change of scenery allowing him opportunities away from the distraction of Edge and Lita. 

The Legacy Of The Edge/Lita/Matt Hardy Love Triangle

Reflecting on their real-life and on-screen feud once all was said and done, Matt, Edge and Lita all agreed there were things they would have done differently if they were able to go back in time and do them again. In saying that, all three believed their careers benefited from the work they did together on television.

What started in ignominy turned into something productive that all three people could be proud of, with the Rated-R couple in particular using the momentum gained from the storyline and parlaying that into Edge's first WWE Title win at New Year’s Revolution 2006. 

Having her personal life made so public did take its toll on Lita, though, as the WWE Hall of Famer later admitted that she dreaded going to work during this era and considered quitting on several occasions. She might have been one half of one of the hottest acts in wrestling, but it was to the detriment of her physical and mental health.

Lita did end up leaving WWE after the 2006 Survivor Series when she opted not to renew her contract. Receiving an undignified sendoff courtesy of Cryme Tyme, Lita wasn’t exactly feeling great about her exit after the show, although her mood improved when she was taken to a bowling alley, where Edge had arranged a going-away party with many of her closest friends and family members. 

Twenty years on, everyone has moved on with their lives. Lita is a beloved icon whose presence is always welcomed, and she continues to work with WWE on various projects. Matt Hardy is married to Reby Sky and has four children. Edge is married to fellow WWE Hall of Famer Beth Phoenix and the couple have two children.