According to Renaming a repository:

When you rename a repository, all existing information, with the exception of Project Pages URLs, is automatically redirected to the new name, including:

• Issues
• Wikis
• Stars
• Followers

However, I don't want this. I want to replace my current repo with a new repo of the same name.

Basically, I mucked up the issues numbering by testing a few pull requests. I wanted to import the issues from my existing ticket system using the same issue numbers, so I need to restart again from #1.

If I create a new repo named project-new and import all of my issues, can I then rename project to project-old and rename project-new to just project? Or will the name project still be taken by redirects to the project-old repo?