Matt Hardy

Matt Hardy often wonders how they did WWE.com lists without him.

At the dawn of the original brand split in 2002, Matt and Jeff Hardy went their separate ways — Jeff to Raw and Matt to SmackDown — leaving the WWE Universe to wonder who would be the bigger breakout Superstar. Many pundits placed their bets on Jeff, wowed by his unique energy and daredevil tendencies. Hearing this, Matt realized that he needed to go back to square one … Version 1, that is.

Completely retooling his attitude (or, Mattitude as it would come to be known) and demeanor, Hardy endorsed this relatively new thing called the internet and created Version 1 — a brand that was all about embracing two things: Everything cutting-edge and telling the world how stinking great Matt Hardy was.

Matt would develop “Matt Facts” (little nuggets about him that appeared on the screen during his dialup-inspired entrance), gain Mattitude Followers (shout-outs to Shannon Moore and his Moore-Ons), and become one of the most dominant Cruiserweight Champions in SmackDown history, even main-eventing an episode with a title defense against Rey Mysterio.

Version 1 catapulted Matt up the blue-brand ranks and saw him take the internet by storm long before it was really even possible to do so … it would be far from the last time The Sensei of Mattitude pulled that off, though. — RYAN PAPPOLLA

Credit: WWE.com