Shocking Last-Minute WWE WrestleMania Change Revealed
This blockbuster WrestleMania had a match whose finish was changed at the last minute.
WrestleMania 19 was one of the most memorable WrestleManias in WWE history. The card for that event showcased major stars in intense rivalries like Rock vs Austin, Kane vs a returning Undertaker, and high-stakes title matches like Kurt Angle vs Brock Lesnar for the WWE Championship.
There were many memorable mid-card matches as well, one of which was Matt Hardy vs Rey Mysterio for the Cruiserweight title.
Hardy was being given a singles run as Matt Hardy Version One (V1) at the time due to his brother and tag team partner Jeff Hardy’s departure from WWE. Even though Hardy was no cruiserweight, his real-life weight loss, which fans praised, caught the eye of then-WWE CEO Vince McMahon, who decided to turn it into a storyline.
Hardy would just barely make the weight for the cruiserweight division and win it from Billy Kidman at No Way Out 2003. He would eventually face Rey Mysterio at WrestleMania 42 to defend his title.
The match was supposed to end with Mysterio winning the title, but Vince McMahon decided at the last minute to keep the belt on Hardy, as his V1 gimmick was doing well.
Vince McMahon Changed Matt Hardy Vs Rey Mysterio WWE WrestleMania 19 Match Finish
Speaking on TMZ Inside The Ring, Hardy was asked about memorable late changes during his WrestleMania career. He pointed to his Cruiserweight Championship run in 2003 and revealed how things changed a lot during this period.
There’s a lot of things that have happened that have changed, like last-minute WrestleMania. One of the wildest things that had changed was whenever I was wrestling Rey Mysterio at WrestleMania 19. I was kind of given that story of losing weight and dropping down to be a cruiserweight, kind of a bullshit cruiserweight. I was given that story kind of because one was taken away from me, that was given to someone else.
And Vince tried to reward me to a degree, but he liked the work I did so much as Matt Hardy Version One, losing the weight. I was going to drop the title to Rey Mysterio, and Vince changed that like two days out. So that was something that was pretty chaotic, which was pretty surprising, and it was very cool that Jeff had just left the company.
Matt also reveals that his brother Jeff was going through a rough patch at the time, due to which he had left WWE. He then said he was thankful that Vince had faith in him and rewarded him with his singles run.
Jeff was kind of going through a very rough period. He was in some dark days at that time. And it was very cool that Vince could see my value, and he rewarded me, and he let me have it throughout the summer. Then we eventually did the title change in Anaheim.
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