Jeff Hardy Says The Kliq Nicknamed Him ‘Vanilla Ice,’ Recalls Being Keith Davis Against Scott Hall

On a 1994 episode of WWE Raw, Jeff Hardy made his WWF debut under the name Keith Davis. Hardy, who was just 16 years old at the time, used the name because the original Keith Davis wasn’t keen on taking the Razor’s Edge from Scott Hall [Razor Ramon].

“I was terrified,” Hardy recalled to Ariel Helwani on The Ariel Helwani Show. “[Italian] Stallion said, ‘Hey brother, put your birthday back a few more years. You need to be 18.’ I was so nervous. I think I had to go out there first. Matt was on the live Monday Night Raw. I was so nervous. I didn’t really know what was going on.That ring was so hard. I was 16. What an awful experience, but not really. After it was over….the next night I wrestled X-Pac (1-2-3 Kid) and that kind of refilled my soul to want to remain in the pro wrestling world. After that match with Ramon, I was like, ‘I don’t know if I’m cut out for this.'”

Asked why he had those thoughts, Jeff replied, “It was just rough. He was real rough. Out there, I was going, ‘Oh my God.’ That ring was so hard.”

Matt Hardy chimed in, giving the backstory of why Jeff was in the match in the first place.

“There’s also a backstory. Jeff was called Keith Davis in that match. He was wrestling one Stallion’s guys named Keith Davis. He was one of those guys that was a weekend warrior, wasn’t in great shape. He just did Stallion stuff on the weekends. 10-15 minutes before the match was going to happen, and he came said, ‘I can’t do that. I can’t take that Razor’s Edge. I got a bad neck. It’s going to hurt my neck. I can’t take it. I can’t do it.’ Stallion was like, ‘We’ll get somebody else. Get this brother right here. He can take any bump. He’s like a rubber man.’ Scott Hall is talking to him and he’s aggravated. ‘Yeah, I’ll do this. Just listen to me.’ He went out there and kind of took out his frustration on Jeff. There was a point where he drove him into the post and his knee hit the post, and he felt real bad for that. They came back and remember how apologetic he was?” asked Matt.

Jeff agreed that Scott was apologetic.

“It’s where I got my nickname, ‘Hey, this guy. You look like Vanilla Ice.’ I had me a little nickname with the Kliq. I was good to go,” said Jeff.

The Kliq consisted of Shawn Michaels, Hall, Kevin Nash, Sean Waltman, and Triple H.

Matt closed by saying, “Kevin Nash said, [to the tune of Ice Ice Baby] Bump, bump, bump, bu bu bump bump. They had so much power at the time. Later on, as time went on, they would always go, ‘Stick them with the Hardy guys. They’ll make them look good. They would push for us and be advocates for us to work against other guys.”

Jeff wrestled 1-2-3 on WWE Superstars two days after facing Hall.

Elsewhere during the interview, Jeff reflected on his AEW run. You can find his full comments by clicking here. 

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