Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Matt Hardy On His AEW Status, Possible WWE Return, Hardy Boyz Legacy

Episode Date: April 2, 2024

Matt Hardy (@matthardybrand) is a professional wrestler signed with AEW. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet at the Squared Circle Expo in Indianapolis, IN to talk about his AEW contract coming to an end, being offered a new contract from AEW, the rumors of him and Jeff Hardy returning to WWE, what he considers the most important factor to either re-sign with AEW or go to WWE, wanting to help young tag teams, the legacy of The Hardy Boyz, the original plan for his AEW debut in March 2020, how his leg drop off the steel cage to Edge at Unforgiven 2005 changed the way he wrestled, Jeff Hardy's craziest moves, his podcast "The Extreme Life Of Matt Hardy" that he co-hosts with Jon Alba, he reviews my backyard wrestling moves and much more! Get tickets to Friday's live episode of "The Extreme Life Of Matt Hardy" at WrestleCon here: http://matthardylive.com “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always be where you’ve always been.” —T.D. Jakes Sponsors: PRIZEPICKS: Download the app today and use code INSIGHT for a first deposit match up to $100! BABBEL: Learn a new language and get 50% off your lifetime Babbel subscription at http://babbel.com/cvv MAGIC SPOON: Get $5 off with the code CVV at http://magicspoon.com/cvv RHONE: Upgrade your closet with Rhone and use CVV to save 20% at https://www.rhone.com/CVV ROCKET MONEY: Join Rocket Money today and experience financial freedom: https://rocketmoney.com/cvv BETTERHELP: Get 10% off your first month with the code INSIGHT at http://betterhelp.com/insight MUDWTR: Get 15% off with the code CVV15 at http://mudwtr.com/cvv MYBOOKIE: Bet on WWE! Get up to $200 cash bonus when you use the code CVV and sign up at http://mybookie.ag BLUECHEW: Use the code CVV to get your first month of BlueChew for FREE at http://bluechew.com PLUNGE: Get $150 off your Plunge with the coupon code CVV150 at http://plunge.com BONCHARGE: Go to http://boncharge.com/CVV and use coupon code CVV to save 15% on your BONCHARGE Infrared Sauna Blanket! For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://podcast.chrisvanvliet.com If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests.  Follow CVV on social media:  Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Chris Oh man, welcome back to another one here on Insight. It's your friendly neighborhood, CVV, Chris Van Vlee. Thank you for being here. And thank you, as always, for making Insight one of the top wrestling podcasts on the planet. It is WrestleMania Week, my friends. And you know this for wrestling fans.

It's like Christmas. I'm going to give you my full WrestleMania 40 predictions on Friday's AskCV episode. And look, if you think you know who's going to win at WrestleMania 40, why don't make a little bit of money on it? You can bet on WrestleMania and every other WWPLA at my bookie.orgie.g. Yeah, you heard that right. You can bet on WrestleMania at my bookie.orgie.

When you use the promo code, CVV, you'll get a 50% bonus on your first deposit. I'll run down just a quick look at some of the odds here. Rock and Roman Raines heavily favored in that tag team match. Logan Paul favored over Randy Orton and Kevin Owens in the U.S. championship match. Bailey, a minus 900 over EO. Sky. Ria Ripley, minus 500 over Becky Lynch. Jimmy and Jay, it's really tight, but the odds say that Jay is going to win. Cody Rhodes, favored for the main event.

So if you think that somebody else other than one of the people I just listed is going to win, that's your opportunity right there to make a pretty good amount of money. So use that code CVV when you sign up. up at my bookie.ag. It's an honor today to have Matt Hardy back on the show. I'm sure you've heard me talk in the past about how I was a backyard wrestler Chris Sharp when I was in high school. And if you've seen the highlight reel that I posted on social media, yeah, you can tell I was heavily inspired by the Hardy Boys, like plenty of swan tom bombs and twist of fates there. I actually showed Matt some of my backyard wrestling clips at the end of this interview. And I was like,

could you just, you know, could you rate these moves? Like I'm obviously very inspired by you. I did a twist of fate. Can you rate these? So that was just kind of a cool moment, I think. What an interesting time in Matt's career right now. And a really interesting time to be chatting with him. He's been very public that his AEW contract is coming to an end. They've offered him a new deal. He hasn't signed it, at least not yet. Now there's a ton of rumors on the flip side about the Hardee's and this tag team ladder match at WrestleMania 40. I ask him about all of that and just the legacy of the Hardy Boys and the impact that they've had on the wrestling business as a whole.

Also, have you checked out Matt Hardy's podcast yet? It's called The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy. He hosts it with my good friend John Alba. And if you're in Philly this week, they have two live shows. First one at RussellCon. It's on Friday at 4 p.m. Matt's going to be telling never before heard stories about the Dudley's. edging Christian, and they'll also have a Q&A, so you can ask your questions to Matt at the end of that.

And if you already have a RussellCon ticket, this is free. If not, go to Matt Hardy Live.com to grab tickets. I'm also going to be at RussellCon on Saturday and Sunday. So if you're in Philly, if you're at RussellCon, I can't wait to see you there. On Friday at 9 p.m., Matt Hardy and John Alba have an event going on at the Monster Factory just outside of Philly. For info on that, that one, send John an email. It's John Alba SFC at gmail.com. John Alba SFC at gmail.com. And look, if you're a wrestler or a commentator or a podcaster or a YouTuber, this is your chance to be in the same room, a very small, intimate setting with Matt Hardy. I would, if I was in your shoes, I'd be going to that event, 9 p.m. Friday night at the Monster Factory.

just to be in the same room, to be able to pick the brain of a future Hall of Famer like Matt Hardy. So again, send John on email, John Alba, SFC at gmail.com. Snap a screenshot. Let us know you're listening to this episode and tag us so we can share it as well. He's at Matt Hardy brand. I'm at Chris Van Fleet. We did this interview just this past weekend at Squared Circle Expo in Indianapolis. It was so cool being able to meet so many of you guys and chat a little rassland.

with you. Matt and Jeff were there. They had one of the longest lines. Their line was like two, three, four hours all day long, just solid. Sting was also there, had a crazy long line. Kane also had a big line, but I appreciate the Matt Hardy took the time to sit down with me on a very, very busy day. So please enjoy this conversation with Matt Hardy. You're looking really lean. Oh, thank you. I, uh, I've been working on myself. You saw, I saw you posted something on Twitter. You were at 204?

Yeah. 204 is the lowest I've been. And that was down from 22 to 23. The goal's 200? Yeah. 200 is the goal. You know, just being older, it's like being big and being bulky isn't going to change me at all. I'm Matt Hardy.

I am who I am, right? I mean, I've been doing this 32 years. Just the more athletic and the more nimble and agile, I am, the better. So that's just kind of where I'm shooting. So you said the goal is 200 and then you have more goals after that. So then what's what's the goal after? We'll see. We would determine.

I think it'd probably be just how my body physically looks and how I feel. And I almost hate like, I'm going to have to break down and buy an actual cold plunge machine now because I did this in my pool when it was free. You know, it would be 28 degrees outside and I would jump up and it was freezing. And it was like tortures. But like there's guys who have been getting good effects from it. And like my lower back in hips, which had gotten so messed up from all those years of leg, You know, when Jeff and off her start, our finish was the event omega. It was a leg drop off the top and he did a splash simultaneously.

And we would do that every single night. I mean, that's when we were wrestling 10 nights straight. And then we'd have four days off than 10 nights straight. And we did that like every night for a year. You know, and that was that was that hard ring back in the day that was built for the big monsters that were 350, 400 pounds. You know, not for guys who took a lot of bumps. And they changed it later, thankfully. But yeah, just my back was so beat up.

But I could tell a huge change in the, the way my lower back and hips felt from doing this cold plunges. I mean, it really is legitimate. I also swear by cold plunging. I'm doing it like a year and a half now, 39 degrees every day. And I live in California. So 39 feels really cold when it's, you know, 70 or 80 out. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll connect you with someone when we're done here. Yeah, no, that's great. I mean, because I am, I'm going to get one because it is warmed up enough now that we're getting in spring in North Carolina. The water's so cold, but it's not as cold as it needs to be to get the desired effect, right?

Yeah. At what stage of your career did you start to rethink the moves that you did and rethink the way that you work in the ring? I think a lot of it changed after the Unforgiven 2005 match against Edge when I did the leg drop off the top. I'll never forget, I walk back through the curtain. And Ted DiBiase and IRS, Mike Rotunda, they looked at me. They said, oh, my God, how are you feeling after that?

And I said, I have adrenaline going right now. I said, ask me tomorrow. Ask me tomorrow. But like I couldn't walk straight for, you know, like four weeks. Like I had a little kink in my step. And that's the point where I said, instead of doing that leg drop every single time, I'm going to go ho and drop an elbow to the back of the neck and I know my feet. Like that's where that's was the biggest turning point for me as far as learning how to work smarter, you know, especially with the way it pertains to bumps. How did you feel the next day? Not as bad as I thought I would. Not as bad as I thought I would.

I figured I wasn't going to be able to walk or move, but there were times over the course of the next couple years where my lower back got really bad, just as an effect from that, especially if I was working hard. There's like different moves that started like changing that I wouldn't do necessarily, because there would be times where I'd bump in a certain way

and then it would affect me where I couldn't get out of bed as easily or do whatever. There's just things that were like my back and hips were more vulnerable to. Is there something that when you wake up in the morning now, that you're like, oh, that specific body part hurts. Not as much. It's been really good over the winter. Like doing those cold plunges, man.

As you said, you swear about them. I do, too. I swear by the effects that I had. And I feel pretty good. And just like the way I train now, I'm not a guy who goes heavy. I do a lot of reps. I try and do stuff back to back to get like a good pump. And I do like super hard cardio.

And I do feel like that makes a huge difference in the way my body feels and it functions. I feel like once you stop, if you stop working out and stop training, and you can probably feel this too. Like, then as soon as you take one bad bump or you follow something, then that's when everything shuts down. Like it's crazy how physically that prepares your body, you know, to go out and take bumps or do whatever.

I mean, if you keep your body up to date, if you keep it tuned up, it reacts so much better with the way it recovers, even being older. You turn 50 this year. Yeah. Do you think about that? Yeah, it feels crazy. I remember being young and my dad was 40 and I was like, oh my God, he's so old. And then I was thinking back like, that's crazy.

I'm like 10 years older than him. And I don't say, yeah, I'm still like a kid at heart. And even having my kids, I feel like they keep me super young anyway because I really do. At my heart, I'm a kid. I love to go out and play with them and do things. And it's so funny. Maxwell, my oldest is about to turn nine. And he's like so fast and he's moving.

It's like pretty soon. You got a couple years. You're going to be faster than me. You've got a little ways to go as far as being stronger and, you know, tougher. I said, but like, you're going to be faster than me because he can fly now. He can move. And it's, it's crazy. It's just, it's just crazy.

He's good and healthy. They're in the ring, too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He loves, I mean, he'll jump off the top. I mean, he actually did a swan ton on AW TV to Stokely Hathaway. And it was one take, too. I mean, it was, you know, he did a cinematic match, but he jumped up the second and jumped up to the second and jump straight on him.

And I just said, like, don't be afraid. I told him, he's like, I don't want to hurt. anybody or whatever. I said, don't be afraid. I said, you weigh at this point, 63 pounds, whatever. I said, you're not going to hurt him. It's fine. Just jump. But he hit smooth and rolled off like old school Jeff Hardy. Not current Jeff Hardy that gives people croutons, you know, where they have to, they have to absorb the full weight of his body. You call him croutons? Yeah. That's so good. Yeah. Yeah, he's landing right on them now. I remember we wrestled with private party, Isaiah and Quinn, man. They're so great. I love them so much.

they really are. Like, I call them bios. And they're like my adopted children in many ways. And I love the run that I had with them and just teaching them and working with them and whatnot. But like, they said, oh, man, this is so cool. We're working the hardies in the finish that night, was Jeff doing the swan ton. And Jeff hit a crouton, a very extremely heavy crouton.

And I remember we came back and he said, I always thought it'd be really cool to get it by swine time, but I don't, I don't want to give. by another one. They were done. You know what I mean? Because especially, you know, if Jeff goes, Jeff is protecting himself. He doesn't do that deal where he, like, lands how in his neck and rolls off them real easy. He tries to hit it nice, but he may not.

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top-notch performance. That's why I'm excited that Unified Healing is sponsoring this episode of Insight. Unified Healing is a new and super innovative global network of wellness centers powered by energy enhancement system or EES system. If you haven't heard of the EES system yet, this technology promotes wellness, deep relaxation, purification, and rejuvenation. They have hundreds of locations across the globe, so access to a center is easy and affordable. And if you're interested in experiencing the EES technology for yourself, go to Unifiedhealing.com slash insight to learn more and to find a center near you. That's Unifiedhealing.com slash insight.

U-N-I-F-D-healing.com slash insight. No materials or testimonials on the Unified Healing website are intended to be viewed as medical advice or a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health care provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or treatment and before undertaking a new health care regimen, including EES system. Do you think about how many more years you want to keep wrestling? I think about, yes, I do. And I think a couple more, just depending on how my body feels and like the way I said my body felt over the winter break,

and it was so good. Even it was weird, I was feeling so good and so healthy. When Jeff Sting had an injury, and he wasn't there, and they ended up doing Jeff versus Darby, and then Jeff had some singles matches for a few weeks. And just during that time,

I was like, ready. That's when I'd start diving, and I was trimming down. I was ready to get in the ring and start rock and roll, whatever. And it's just I've had time off, but just the way my body felt so good during that time, that makes me feel like I can go for a little bit longer,

But I would love to do another two years, especially if I'm capable. Because I feel like I don't have to do the things that the young guys do. As long as I can go out there and be competitive and do my stuff. Do the greatest hits of Matt Hardy and sell for these people or take their stuff. Then we're good with it. You know, it's been pretty public that your AEW contracts coming to an end. What are you thinking about when you're thinking about what's next? If it's resigning there, if it's going back to WWE, what's important to you at the stage of your life?

What's important to me, I think more than anything else right now is just like the legacy of Jeff and I. Because, you know, we do get that, we get mentioned in the conversation of the greatest tag team ever. Of course. And we want to help younger teams. We want to build teams. But also you have to be put into a position to succeed where you do seem like relevant, where you do seem like you're, I think, top of your game. You can't just go out there and like get beat every single week. So it's very important to me that we're utilized in the right way so that when we do have a program with someone

and we build to a big match and when they beat us, then it means something. Because if you just get beat without reason, it doesn't really mean anything. You already have the legacy. Like you are already one of the greatest tag teams of all time, if not the greatest tag team of all time, depending on who you talk to. Right. What could possibly change the next two to five years? I mean, I think a legacy could be completed, like a good run as a tech team champions somewhere else, where we have good quality matches, especially working with guys that we are smartly booked against, you know, because Jeff right now is in one of the best stages of his life that he's ever been in. And this is throughout the entirety of his wrestling career. You know, he's just got everything together in his personal life, which is really good. And he's also a maniac now that he's in this position.

He gets up every morning at 5 a.m. And he does cardio for an hour. You know, this is kind of what he does. And that's his drill. But he's also taking really good care of himself, you know, and he's got it together. So I think between him and I kind of going through this midlife transformation and trying to be in the best shape that we can possibly be, I do think there's legs in us, like, being successful as a tag team, wherever it may be.

There's a lot of people that are thinking in WrestleMania 40s right around the corner. We saw that pop at WrestleMania 33 when you guys. surprised everybody. I think people are like, could this happen again? Is that a possibility? It's great that people think that. That makes me happy. It makes people excited.

If you hear someone talk about a ladder match, are they going to show up? And that's great. So I don't know. It's pro wrestling, man, and pro wrestling, never say never. Yeah, when ladder matches get talked about, Matt and Jeff Hardy are the names that immediately come to mind.

That's cool. And I can say that a great compliment. I want to talk about WrestleMania 33. I was there. What a cool moment. And we've seen the behind the scenes. It was the best, man. It was the best.

I'm so grateful we were allowed that moment. We've seen the behind the scene footage of how they snuck you into the building. When you went out there, can you describe what that wave of sound that hit you, how that felt? It's wild because usually when you're at the building at a televised event, a TV show or a pay-per-view, you've been out in the arena, right? And you've seen the landscape. You know what the ramp looks like. You know what the set looks like.

You kind of have a good gauge of like how far it is to the ring and whatnot. We did a big signing at Evolve for like five hours a day, all of House Hardy. And then we took a picture when we came in from the airport and we're like, I posted. I said, thank you, Orlando for a great weekend. You know, we beat the Lucha Bros. and we had a hell of a ladders war with a young bucks, and now we're heading back home after a five-hour signing and evolved that was packed. Yeah. And we literally, like, went back to our hotel,

then we got picked up from our hotel, and then, like, was driven around a little bit. And we got there, like, 30 minutes before we were going to go to the ring. We went into a trailer, and in this trailer, the other teams came in. We went over the game plan once again. And then they left, and then we had. had about five minutes before we're going. They said, okay, it's time to go.

And then they darted us out of the trailer. And then we go into the building and we go up three flights of stairs. That's where guerrilla was. And it was crazy. My wife had Maxwell wrapped and she was baby carrying Maxwell. Wolfie was in her tummy. So she's like running up these stairs. Like, oh, my God.

How far do we have to go? And then we get up there. And then, you know, myself and Jeff, we walk in. And then there's Vince and there's Hunter and John Sina and Sean Michaels. And he goes, hey, it's like this great, you know, this band. family reunion, you know, it's crazy. You know, you're saying hello at all these people. And then the next thing you know, the music hits and we go out and then we go into this arena and like, we haven't seen it. And like it was so massive and the pop was so loud. And usually when you

think about things like that, I love to say like I remember vividly, right? Just it's like so crystal clear. You remember vividly. But this was very surreal. It was like blurry around the edges of my vision. I was looking at people and, you know, they're going, doling, doing, delay, and then like around the edges, it was blurry. It was like a dream. It's like, it was like the dream filter was on my eyes as I was walking to the ring. Wow. And it was just so crazy and it was so overwhelming. And it was like surreal and blurry, but there's also some of it was in slow motion. I was like this, you know, we were in T&A when they were like almost on on the verge of going out of business. And the broken universe kind of helped to get them another

TV do and stay on TV. And, you know, it's just like a little company that people thought weren't going to do anything. And now there's an arena full of tens of thousands of people doing the taunt that I've made famous there, which was wild. And it was so strange to hear Michael Cole, like, say broken and like admit that this thing, because that wasn't happening at the time. Yeah, right. They weren't like acknowledging other companies. So for you guys to come out to that massive pop and then Michael Cole to say broken was like, wait a second. Like, they know. And it was, then there was the question of, okay, now is this, is this mad Hardy that

we're seeing? Or is this broken Matt Hardy? And it's like, I don't know. We'll have to watch to see. Yeah. That was all, that was all so cool to be able to watch. I worked, thank you for that. And I worked really hard to try and be like an in-betweener type figure.

Like still have these elements of broken mat and then still be like original Hardy voice, Matt. Because like we had the thing that happened right before. that with the Ring of Honor where TNA was, you know, claiming the copyright deal. And we had that little legal battle. So I didn't go over the top, but I still wanted to keep it consistent in case we could get back there. And I wanted to go back there. And I remember Triple H said something to me a little later on. He said, hey, he said, like, you know, let's do old school Hardy boys. We can have a good run with that. And I could see it on the road. Then we get like a, you know, a broken Matt Hardy run. You know, we can revisit that again. And I mean, he was definitely down for that. So I thought

that was really cool. We could have seen broken Matt Hardy and WW. agree. Well, it ended up being Woken, but then that was only because of the legal reasons, but then it was settled like a week later. Talk about timing issues, right? And then it was stuck with Wogan. So, you know, never said never, man. What I think is so fascinating about the legacy of the Hardy Boys is, of course, one of the greatest tag teams of all time. But then you and Jeff individually have also had Hall of Fame careers. And that's what's so amazing. It's like, you guys were able to do your thing as a tag team, then do your thing as individuals,

and then do your thing as a tag team, and all of it as a whole is a Hall of Fame career. Thank you. We've been very blessed, especially with all the insane stuff we've done, we've been very blessed to stay healthy, you know, and stay upright and continue to walk. But yeah, I do.

And I still think, like when Jeff first came in to AWA, the stuff we did generated, a lot of interest and had a ton of potential for us as a tag team. And I still think there's there, you know, that that's there. And I think me and Jeff, uh, being featured in a solid position is something I would like to see. I love AW. I think AW is very important for the wrestling industry. Tony Kahn is a good human being. He has treated me very well. He's one of those guys that I didn't have to work for every week. He said, go home and be with your kids. And he was always cool with that. So that's something I'm very grateful for. Uh, I, I just want to make sure

myself and Jeff are looked upon as an important act, as an important part of A.W. And treated as such and handled as such. That's something that is very important to me. What was the original plan for your AAU debut? Because I don't think a lot of people remember that this happened like three days into the world being shut down. This was March 18th, 2020. The world basically shut down like March 16th that Monday. What was the original plan? The original plan were that we were still going to do a double reveal. It was going to be in Rochester, New York, where Brody Lee's hometown was. And we were both going to reveal on that day.

So that didn't necessarily change. But it was going to be a deal where I joined the elite. And I was there fifth man because Nick Jackson was out. And I was going to be in that first blood and guts with him, which ended up getting postponed. For a year. Yeah. Yeah. That mean the moment of seeing you in the stands.

was so cool. Yeah. But at the same time, I'm like, how much cooler would this have been? Yeah. Had we somehow been able to see this a week ago? And Broken Matt is a character that thrives off the audience, too. It's very important that they do the sing-along and the taunts. It's just pandemic wrestling was one of the weirdest stages of all time.

It was so crazy. Even that, I remember there was someone by me that said, okay, well, you know, you're going to be up in 30 seconds, whatever. are like, go to your position. And then I go down the stands to where I'm going to be standing there, doing the broken mat on the debut. And like, there's no one talking to me. There's no fans around.

I don't know when the cameras on me or if it cuts off of me. You know, usually there's like people around so that they can like give you a cue or whatever. But I had no idea. I was flying blind out there. So I did this delete thing. And like, I probably did it for 60 seconds after we were off there because I didn't know.

I was like, maybe it's on air. You know, I got to keep going. You can't kill the gimmick. I remember Cody coming out at the start of that episode. He came out wearing that like p coat and he cut that promo basically like, you know, it's a different time right now and we're going to make this work.

That episode was actually like it was a turning point for just wrestling in general. Because AEW was actually the first one to be like, instead of showing you there's no fans like everybody else is doing, we're going to put the focus on what's important here. Yeah. Focuses on the performers. and we're going to shine the, put the camera right at the entrance way. That was great.

And also, it was Tony Kahn's idea to like put people, even extras and people that were maybe doing not as much on the shows, put them in the crowd and have some sort of interaction or noise. So there was some sort of like human emotion involved in these matches. And I thought that was very beneficial. And you're right, the way they did shoot it, that got picked up by other people. Very quickly. Yeah. Is the leg drop off the cage the craziest thing you've done in your career?

I don't know. It's, I mean, maybe it definitely ranks up there. I mean, even at WrestleMania 25 when Jeff and I wanted to try that idea about the, he put me in between the tables, he put me on a table, and then there was another table on top of me. And I had a chair over me to, like, protect my inner organs so that table didn't, like, pierce me, you know? What are you thinking when you're laying there?

I was just like, I just hope Jeff didn't kill me. Jeff was super easy with it. He almost like shot it. He almost overshot it a little bit. He was going to try and land heavy on that side. So it didn't punch down on me very hard, but he almost like went too far over where it was like almost too light on me in some ways. But yeah, I was just like, well, this could be it.

You know, like this could be it. It's almost like, I mean, it felt like I was a vampire. He was ready to stake me, right? He could have drove that table through my heart and ended me right there. But yeah, that that was risky. But, I mean, there's a lot of things that have been risky. Obviously, the thing I did with Sammy, where I took the spear off and hit there, that was I mean, but pro wrestling, it's a risk, you know, and that's one thing we forget.

And sometimes it's real easy to, like, blame people because, you know, oh, my God, they shouldn't have done that or they shouldn't have done this. And sure, you need to have things thought through as much as possible, but accidents do happen. And that's like a reality in pro wrestling. Yeah, Sammy spearing you off that, says, or left. That was scary. Yeah. What do you remember from that?

It's crazy. My memory is much better than you would probably guess. I just remember being so mad I couldn't stand up when I was trying to get up. And I felt like you were like super drunk or something. You know what I mean? Just like, why can't I stand up? But I didn't realize that I had been knocked out, you know, which was crazy. Yeah.

You know, so it is what it is. The United States Soccer Federation present the U.S. soccer podcast. My name is David Goss, and I'm Tori. by my co-host Megan Clevenberg. And now we're giving people an inside look at the World Cup. Times ticking. I think you can feel the intensity. All the guys are wanting to really take their claimant,

and they want to be on that World Cup roster. There's no doubt about it. Hosting the World Cup on the home soil comes with its pressures, but we're just really excited just as the people are. The U.S. Soccer podcast, presented by Hencoe. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. What's the scariest thing you've seen Jeff do? Oh, my God.

There's a long list. Yeah, I don't even know where to begin. Still, I mean, I wasn't even there for when he did that long dive in TNA, where he jumped off some sort of something high and like jump over the stage through the table. It was really far and so high. And it's like, if he'd landed short on that and like hit the stage, that would have been disastrous. I remember seeing that and I'm thinking like, whoa. I mean, I didn't see it there live.

Even when he did the deal, once again, I'll compliment you up on this. when we did the deal where I turned broken in our I quit match in T&A, there was a little perch built up on the top of the stairs that he could stand upon and jump off. And he put me through a table there. And like he was coming from a long ways down. But he once again took care of me. He like hit me and kind of rolled off of me. I did not get a crouton on this particular occasion.

So thank goodness. What do you think the price has been to be mad hardy? Well, I've beat up my body. I mean, Jeff has to as well. But that's also something we knew came with the territory as we want to be pro-rest. I feel blessed because this was my dream and my passion and something I greatly enjoy. So I don't think I'd do anything differently. You know, I'm very lucky to have been able to do this.

I'm going on year 32 now. And just make a great living for myself and my family and be able to give my kids. I mean, that's the most important thing to me now when I can be able to give my kids a head start in life, something I never had because Jeff and I were raised by our dad and he was dirt poor. You know, so we like started from scratch whenever we started. We didn't know anybody in wrestling. We just very, we were lucky to be able to to get a break in the first place. So a lot of, in a lot of ways, I feel very gifted and very blessed, you know, and it's crazy too. There's still social media is something that, you know, I can get into.

I've said in the past, the best thing about social media is it gives everyone a voice. The worst thing about social media is it gives everyone a voice. And there's still a lot of people like, you came by and you saw our line today. Huge.

Like we started at 4 p.m. And we signed nonstop until after 10. Which is what? But like, once again, that shows there's demand for us. And if we can get in the ring and we can still do things well and wrestle well,

We don't have to be, you know, Darby Allen now, or we don't have to be like a Yom, Sammy Gavar. We don't have to do those things. But if we can wrestle one in the ring and go with these guys, I mean, then we're good. Social media, especially the AW audience, they're pretty tough on a lot of people. And I know there's older guys who lend a lot of star power to the show. And they're pretty brutal on some of those guys. I get a lot of that, you know, right now.

I mean, Jeff does too in some, in some sense. that that's one thing that is a little bit of a price in some way, I feel like, because like even though you feel like you're trying to give back and you're trying to help, sometimes these people feel like they're selling the no. They're, if, once again, I say this too all the time. Social media doesn't reflect reality, but if I let myself buy into that, it could be mentally taxing. You know what I mean?

And I just, I don't. I'm able to read things with a grain of salt. and like, I've been through a lot when it comes to the internet as far as that goes. You know what I mean? So I'm at that point now. We're like, if it's not in real life and from someone I know, then I don't think twice about it. You can tell there's such an appreciation. Like, that was a long line.

And you guys made that a moment for every single person who came up. That's what we try and do. And I feel like that's what's important. If I had met macho man Randy Savage, he was my first guy. And if he would have been super nice to me and just like gone out of his way to be super nice and friendly and have a conversation. I was like, that would have made me a fan for life. Yeah.

And I feel like Jeff and I have a lot of equity with the fans because we have always done that. Because like once again, I don't feel like some sort of star who's important or like, you know, like supposed to like not interact in public. I mean, I love going in public and I love interacting people. Somebody comes up says, oh my God, can I have a picture? Like I'm never offended. I'm found with it at any time. I'm very happy because this is what I wanted my life to be.

And it is. you and Jeff did it for me 23 years ago. I met you guys at a pizza pizza in Pickering, Ontario, Canada. Okay, yeah. And, I mean, the line was so, so, so long. And you guys still, you made it. That's cool. Yeah, you made it a moment.

And this is completely full circle now to be able to sit down with you and be able to have these conversations. So I just want to say, thank you. Very cool. That's cool. Thank you. Thanks for saying. I remember that pizza pizza, pizza and pickering. I remember that that's crazy.

It's so wild. And that is something that's so funny. Sometimes just not even if I sense, there was one person who came through today. They said, oh, my God, do you remember me? And I mean, I kind of have like, I've done this long enough that I kind of know how to do it. I go like, your face looks very familiar.

God, I can't put a name with it. But too many chair shots, you know, I know. But it's so funny because like there are times where you'll meet someone where you met them for 30 seconds. 18 years ago. Like, do you remember me? Do you remember me? You know, I just,

or I like, I'm a middle-aged dude. Oh, who's already, who meets tens of thousands of people here. Yeah. But it's funny. I also think it's very sweet and adorable, always, that people say that.

And it's also, too, one thing I recommend wrestlers, if you're ever doing autographs, and have you done this for a long time, if you see, when you see people say, oh, it's great to see you, as opposed to say,

it's great to meet you. Because then they'll get offended We met seven years ago. Right, right, right. So that's my, I always say, it's great to see you. You took pictures with everyone at WWE when you went to RAW. So what are you thinking when you're signed to AEW, but you're going to a WWE show? So what happened there is my wife has a spa that she's part of, and she gets a lot of her stuff there, and she goes visits there a lot.

So she has a real close friend in Raleigh, and she invited my wife. I just, it said like, I'd probably rather not go, whatever. It'd be chaotic, especially if there's people around. They said, oh, no, it's a skybox is a private suite, whatever. And I was like, okay. So, like, we walked in about 9 o'clock. And then it turns out it was like open on the front or whatever. And then there were, you know, I was still sitting back.

And somebody said, man, Hardy's up there, Matt Hardy. And then we, you know, start seeing people do delete. And then people started coming and a line formed. And then, like, I wanted to look friendly. And I took pictures with everybody and did that. And then, like, we cut out. we said there about 80 minutes in a hole and and my wife was salivating over it I think because it was great content for her right and she's a content creator she can put some good content she loves

and the video she posted like you posed with everybody like you you took the time to pose with everything I probably took 200 pictures and then you guys snuck out yeah it's I mean this is just a true testament to to who you are you always make time for the fans why is that I mean it's just it it's who I am blessed to be doing what I do. And I know that without people supporting me, and there's so many longtime fans, I mean, there's people that supported myself in there for decades,

and I know without those people, like I wouldn't be able to do what I do. You know, even today, I mean, it's still, and it resonates with people, you know, even like the turnouts we have, when we do Comic-Con, we do a lot of these, but we still always have one of the biggest turnouts everywhere. Yeah.

It's crazy. And it's like, you know, if you think about it, like to to be able to maintain that big of an audience for so long every night we come out on a w programming one of the biggest spots in the night absolutely we still get a nice reaction i mean that means that there are people interested in seeing us everybody knows that song you know what i mean and and i think at the end of the day man with pro wrestling if if you have popularity and you can go out there and entertain people there is value in you i've always been so curious what is the genesis of the twist of fate

So the twist of fate began with Michael Hayes. He wanted to get us a new finish. Once he started with us, he said, okay, well, let's figure out what we're going to do

as a finish. I have this idea. He said, and I was thinking, like you grab the gun in the front face, like a DDT, right,

but you don't do a DDT. You swing your other arm through and you grab, you hook your hands again, and you drop their face down. He said, and we call it the JLT, just like that.

I said, okay, I mean, that's kind of cool move. you know, we'll do that. You know, I'm cool with that. So we did that a couple times. And I remember he said, like,

now we want to do a tag team move like this. He said, what if, you know, either you pick the guy up or Jeff picks the guy up, you know, and then you grab the guy in the JLT and you swing through and you do it kind of as they're coming down and it would be requested. Well, that's kind of like the 3D. The Dudleys do at ECW. He said, who are the Dudleys?

And he said, where are the Dudleys out? Are they in WWF? And I said, well, they're in ECW. so to hell with them. And like we did it once, whatever. And it's so funny. Like someone I knew from ECW said like, oh, Bobba said, like,

if you do his finish again on TV, he's going to be upset with you, whatever. And that never came back again. We met and it was always cool. And obviously we made so much history with those guys. But I remember we told Michael, we said, Michael, that's probably not a good avenue to go down

because this 3D is very popular and people like it. So, like, we did it at his request, you know, a couple of towns. But we ended up, doing the JLT normally and we actually transitioned the name to Twist of Fate, something we felt like fit more in the vernacular of the Hardy Boys. I remember seeing it for the first time.

I was like 16 and going, that's so cool. Yeah. You guys heavily inspired my backyard wrestling career. Well, when people say that, I don't know if I should say congratulations or I'm sorry. You should probably say, you know, I don't know. If I showed you some of these clips, you'd say, congratulations that you can still walk. Okay.

Yeah, I get that. Yeah, I'll show you. I did a pretty mean twist of fate. Oh, that's cool. Yeah, I'll show you. Actually, I'd love to get your reaction before we wrap this up. Yeah. I did a twist of fate was in my moveset and the swan ton bomb was in my moveset.

Oh, I love it. I love it. So I would love to have you. You're a one-man, Artie boys. I'll scroll back here. I would love to have your input on a, um, what you thought of my twist of fate and what you thought of my swan ton i thought it was actually pretty good uh how far back do i have to go here to get this one thing i do hear from people all

the time's like oh my god we got in so much trouble because you guys we were doing swan tons on the sofa and on the couch and leg drops on the sofa and on the couch when we broke them and our parents whipped our ass that is one thing that we hear pretty consistently i i could definitely I'd be one of those people here. How far back do I have to go? My goodness. Well, as I look for this, I'll show you this in a second.

Just thank you for everything. All right. Right now, over the course of your entire career, thank you. And I end every interview with gratitude. It's such a big part of my life. What are three things in your life that you're grateful for?

Same here. I'm very big on gratitude as well. Really? I love that. Very, very big on gratitude. The three things that I'm probably the most grateful for are my health. The chance that I've been given to live out my dream and passion and make a nice life for myself. Because I know I'm very fortunate to.

And the third thing would be the health of my family and my children. That would probably be about three things I'm most grateful for. I love that. All right. I found it. Take a look here. All right. Oh, here we go.

I may have lost it there. Is it the first one? I'm sorry. That's okay. We can even... There is music here. Nice super kick. I was swinging DDT.

Oh, that was a nice twist of fate. Okay. Yeah. I think I did the wrong side, though, no? On that one, I don't think you did. There's probably a few swan tons in there. Yeah, I saw one earlier. There's a swan tonne.

Oh, it wasn't a crouton. It was an actual swan time. Super kicks. There's a twist of fate. It was right. Yeah. Was that twist of fade okay? Yeah, the first one was really good.

I think this is just repeating. Yeah, loop, right? I'm going to see the other one again. Okay. No, you did it with the right, you did the right way both times. Hey. What would you rate it out of 10? I mean, I would give that first one a seven or eight.

I'll take it. I was strong, especially on the ground, yeah. Dudos. I'll give you, though, my colleagues, nabes. Matt, thank you. I appreciate you. And the, if the 16-year-old version of me, Chris Sharp, my backyard. Chris Sharp, yeah.

If Chris Sharp knew that Matt Hardy was watching his twist of fate, that would blow his mind. That's blowing my mind right now. I like it. It's Chris Sharp. This kid's got a future. He just needs to keep his feet on the ground. Keep reaching for the stars. High voltage.

Is that the noise? That the noise? Yeah, chik-ch-cha-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-got-that from the candy commercial. What is that? You know that? Isn't that the Ferris Bueller? It may be. I feel like he was in some candy commercial, too.

Someone's going to, in the comments, be like, how do you guys not know? Right, right. Of course they will. But that's what, so when I was a kid, I was trying to get something out of the electrical socket, and I got shocked. And I got shocked.

And I knocked me back. This is a dumb kid, right? I deal with dumb kids all the time. Every day my life. But I did that and I was like, I survived. I said, maybe I can conduct electricity. I said, maybe I'm high voltage. That's how that came to be.

That's why I thought you were like Spider-Man? Yeah, right. Exactly. Yeah. I was into Spider-Man too. Come on, I got to be a superhero in some capacity. I can absorb electricity. Thank you so much.

Thank you, man. Thank you. I do. Can I promote? Plug away. I want to do a little plug. on Russell Con weekend, myself and John Alba, we are bringing the extreme life of Matt Hardy

to the Russell Con Hotel, and we're going to be talking about the TLC years, which something I think is pretty popular. It's very cool. I just saw the Rivals episode that was on A&E, and that was very cool. I was very humbled to be part of that,

and they really taught our story in a really, really solid way. And the other thing I was going to say is that my brother, Brother Nero, Jeff Hardy, he is going to be playing on Thursday night following the Russell Con And at a wrestling show, he's going to be playing a concert.

And that's his passion now. He loves music. Like, when we do these signings, like, people like, oh, we want you at the signing because, like, you know, you guys always draw a good crowd or you're very popular, whatever. And Jeff will ask the guy who books us, like our age and our guy, Tony. He'll say, like, well, can you book me a concert? If you built me a concert, I'll go. And that's like his thing, man.

That's his big passion. I've been to a few Jeff Hardy concerts. Yeah. He's playing one right now, actually. You can tell he, like, lives and breathes. Like he loves music. Oh, he does. He loves music.

He loves writing the lyrics, like the poetry of lyrics and just telling a story when it comes to writing our thoughts and being creative. That's one of his greatest creative outlets. I love that what you and John are doing. It's like you're telling stories you've never told before. I think that people will be very excited to show up for that. Yeah. And I love John Alba and I love what you guys are doing together with your podcast.

Thank you. Anybody who's listening to this, go check out the podcast. broken life, not harder. Very cool. Thank you so much. Thank you so. Thanks, Chris. Big, big thank you to Matt for doing this interview for sitting down with us. So good to catch up with him. He had such a long day. If you follow him on Twitter, he was talking about how he woke up early, got a workout in, then went to the airport, then flew from North Carolina to Indianapolis for this convention, then signed all day with Jeff. And then after all of that still took the time to come to my room to do this interview at like 10 p.m.

So huge thank you to Matt for that. Go check out his podcast, The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy, wherever you're listening to this one. And if you're not already following Insight, please click that follow button on Insight, click that follow button on the Extreme Life of Matt Hardy, and go check out their live shows this Friday in Philly,

Matt Hardy Live.com to check out the one at RussellCon and then email John Albu. John Alba, SFC at gmail.com for all of the info about the one at the Monster Factory on Friday at 9 p.m. Where will we see the Hardy Boys pop up next? Where, what is going to happen here? Will we see them in AEW? Will we see them at WrestleMania 40? A lot of rumors that they're going to be in this WrestleMania ladder match, especially now that

Grayson Wola, that's how I like to say his name, Grayson Wola, Grayson Wola, Grayson Waller and Austin Theory have been removed from this match, if we're to believe the rumors. So it certainly does leave an opening there. We'll see what happens. I think there's going to be a lot of things that happen during WrestleMania this weekend that are going to make us go, what? I just keep thinking about the start of WrestleMania 30.

Hulk Hogan's out there. I don't know where the glass shatters. Stone cold, stone cold. We didn't expect him to be here. I don't know where if you smell. What the rock hasn't been. in wrestling in so long. I think we're going to have a moment kind of like that. It's just my thinking. I don't know. I think there's going to be some other moments too, but the Hardy Boys coming out.

Could be one of them. I don't know. Anything could happen in wrestling. So we'll see. Snap a screenshot. Let us know you'll listen to this episode and tag us so we can share it as well. He's at Matt Hardy brand. I'm at Chris Van Fleet and I'll leave you with this from TD Jakes. I think this is going to definitely speak to someone. Maybe you. Maybe you as you're listening to this. If you always do what you've always done, you'll always be where you've always been. Be great. Be grateful. We will see you on the next one for some more insight. Kelly Kelly's back on the show on Thursday. We'll see you then. Jim Rome takes on sports. Why? Because I have a job to do with rapid fire takes. So I don't want to hear from you lava pigs on this.

notion today. No idea what you're talking about. You're complaining more than you like to breathe air. It's like you get up in the morning only to complain and cry and moan on social media about things that you don't even understand. He's the spitfire of sports smack. Take advantage of but get up in here. The Jim Rome show podcast. What's your beef? Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You've been warned.