When a WWE wrestler had a match with a TNA wrestler

I think most of you heard about the time a WWF wrestler beat a WCW wrestler for the ECW Championship. It happened in 2000, and most people, rightly so, believed that we would never see something quite like Tazz vs Mike Awesome again.

However, while we never got a situation like this to happen again, we did have something similar in 2005, when Matt Hardy faced AJ Styles.

Matt Hardy was recently released by WWE. It had been revealed that Lita had cheated on him with Edge while he was injured. Matt Hardy was rightly furious about it and ranted about it on the internet, which led to his firing. The man who was justifyingly upset and hadn’t really done anything particularly wrong had his life falling apart.

WWE received a lot of backlash from fans and he was rehired two months later, just before his no-compete clause expired. Since he couldn’t have competed in the meantime, and he was just coming back from an injury, that means that he didn’t have a match since Summerslam 2004, 11 months ago. He needed some matches to get back in shape before entering his program with Edge that he agreed to do. So, throughout the month of July, Matt Hardy toured the indies, having matches with Dr. Feelgood, Christopher Daniels, Jason Styles and the topic of this blog.

Meanwhile, A.J. Styles had just lost his NWA World Heavyweight Championship to Raven a month prior, but this was during the time when TNA still let their wrestlers work in the indies as well.

Thus, the match took place at International Wrestling Cartel No Excuses in the Monroeville Sports Center of Monroeville, Pennsylvania on July 29th, 2005. If you want to watch the whole show, it’s available on Youtube and it lasts 3 hours. Here, I’m going to focus on the match.

Before the match starts, Matt Hardy cuts a promo, saying he’s not here to talk about Edge, Lita or Johnny Ace, he’s here because he wants to face AJ Styles.

The match starts with the classic feeling out process with neither man getting the advantage, showing them as equals. AJ had Matt in a side headlock, but Matt reversed it into a back suplex for a nearfall and then got control of the match. Matt Hardy overpowers AJ Styles for a while. Matt Hardy has control, but AJ still hits some moves. Matt tries to toss AJ to the corner, but he slides towards the floor and comes back with a Springboard Forearm, not quite “Phenomenal” yet.

Matt Hardy tries his new submission move, “The Scar”, which I can best describe as a Guillotine Double Underhook Choke. While it looks cool in my opinion, it also looks easy to counter.

Speaking of counter, AJ gets out of it and then does a Somersault Plancha on Matt Hardy. AJ is in control and batters Matt for a while until Hardy counters a Springboard attempt to make AJ crash on the top rope.

The match becomes a back and forth contest for a while, climaxing with a neckbreaker from Hardy, and a brainbuster from Styles. AJ barely hits the Springboard Inverted DDT. Matt Hardy hits a Side Effect, and then there’s a kickout at 2.

AJ hit the Twist of Fate for a nearfall. Matt then avoided the Spiral Tap. AJ avoided the Twist of Fate, but Matt then hit the Styles Clash. 1, 2, kickout. Matt went for a moonsault, but AJ got his knees up.

AJ had a jackknife pin, but he then transitioned into a Styles Clash, man that looked cool. 1…2…NOOOO! What a nearfall.

They fought on the top rope, Matt avoided a Frankensteiner, but then ate a Pele that sent him to the floor. They fight in a backslide position before Hardy hits a low blow/Twist of Fate combo: 1…2…kickout! AJ avoided a second Twist of Fate by holding onto the Top Rope and then got an Oklahoma Roll: 1…2…3! AJ wins in 25:56.

Matt shakes AJ’s hand after the match, and it’s good to see him so happy after all the shit he went through earlier in the year. Matt Hardy says that “ICW” is the future before leaving, with the commentators being rightly annoyed.

Good contest overall, a bit clunky during the first feeling out process, but then it picked up and was very entertaining. I’d give it a 7/10 and a recommendation.