Hardcore Holly, part 3

In 2002, Bob Holly turned heel on SmackDown! and began a short feud with then-face and newcomer, Randy Orton.When then-face Crash Holly was drafted from RAW to SmackDown!, he reunited with Hardcore Holly. As a result, Hardcore Holly turned face again.

Holly suffered a broken neck during a 2002 match against Brock Lesnar. Holly was wrestling a very stiff match against Lesnar and sandbagged an attempted powerbomb by Lesnar in mid-air so that Lesnar couldn't get him all the way up. This led to Lesnar powerbombing Holly neck-first onto the mat. He had a thirteen month hiatus from wrestling after surgery. Holly returned at the Survivor Series in November 2003 for revenge. He went on to challenge Lesnar for the WWE Championship at the 2004 Royal Rumble. To prove that he could take down Brock, Holly defeated the Big Show in a street fight on SmackDown!. At the Royal Rumble, Holly could not overpower Lesnar and was eventually defeated.

After this he would form short-lived tag teams with Billy Gunn, and later Charlie Haas in the hunt for the WWE Tag Team Championship gold, in which he was unsuccessful with both partners. He also failed to claim the WWE Championship from John "Bradshaw" Layfield in a hardcore match.

At the November 21, 2004 SmackDown! house show in Syracuse, New York, Hardcore Holly was involved in a tag team match with René Dupreé when Holly broke kayfabe during the match and legitimately attacked Dupree, punching and kicking him over a speeding ticket that Dupreé had picked up whilst in Holly's rental car. Dupreé gave Holly consent to "take it out on him" in the ring, but was still fined $10,000 and told by owner Vince McMahon that he was on his "last strike" with the company.

Holly next went into singles competition trying to acquire the United States Championship from Champion Orlando Jordan. After being defeated twice by Jordan, Holly finally managed to pick up a non-title win over Jordan via disqualification on WWE Velocity, which aired on August 6, 2005. In September 2005, Holly began another short-lived singles feud with the metrosexual Sylvan, addressing him by the sobriquets "Sylvy-an", "Sylvester" and "Sylvia". This feud ended with Holly winning a falls count anywhere match during an edition of SmackDown!. Holly then entered a short feud with "SmackDown!" newcomer, Mr. Kennedy. This feud climaxed on October 9, 2005 at No Mercy, where Mr. Kennedy defeated Holly after a Green Bay Plunge. After the match, Sylvan once again came out and attacked an injured Holly.