Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Matt Hardy's Broken Brilliance and Will We See A Hardy Boyz Reunion in AEW?

Episode Date: February 15, 2022

Matt Hardy (@matthardybrand) is a professional wrestler currently signed to AEW. He is known in his career for being part of the Hardy Boyz tag team with his brother Jeff Hardy in WWE and TNA Impact Wrestling. He joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about his new podcast with co-host Jon Alba called "The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy", his real life feud with Edge, why he decided to sign with AEW, he gives an update on Jeff Hardy after he was recently released from WWE, what his plans are to celebrate his 30th anniversary in wrestling, his favorite matches, competing in the first TLC match, how he created his "Big Money" Matt Hardy character and much more! For more information about CVV 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

All systems are gathered. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Bleas! Oh, yeah. Welcome back to another audio adventure here on Insight. Or should I say, oh yeah! I'm CBV, Chris Van Fleet. Thank you so much for being with us on this one. Such a pleasure to have Matt Hardy back on the show.

He has a new podcast, by the way. And look, I know better than anybody that there's a lot of podcasts. out there, especially wrestling podcasts. But the way that Matt Hardy is so open with everything on his podcast, it's just amazing. It's called The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy. He co-hosts it with my good friend, John Alba, and they just do such a great job of diving into the things that you'd want to know about Matt Hardy. You've got questions.

He's got answers. And that's a lot of what this conversation is all about. I've had the great honor, the great privilege of interviewing him. the third time now. So buckle up. This is a good one. And when you're done with this episode, give his podcast a listen wherever you're listening to this right now. Again, it's called the extreme life of Matt Hardy. And also subscribe to Insight. If this is your first time here and you haven't subscribed yet, please take a second to do that right now. Take a screenshot as well. Let us know that you're on this journey with us. Tag us both. Matt is at Matt Hardy Brand. I'm at Chris

fan fleet. And our fan of the week is Ben is jamming in Canada who says, love the episodes, great guests and uplifting positivity. Then a few clapping emojis, three of them, one, two, three. So thank you, Ben is jamming for leaving that review. Shout on to Canada. My homeland. My home and native land. So thank you for leaving the review. I read one on every single episode from Apple Podcast. So if you have an iPhone, take a second. Leave a few words, leave an emoji, whatever, and I'll shout you out on the show here for free, of course. And if you're listening on Spotify, I've said this before, but Spotify now has a rating system, which is so quick. It's like right there on the homepage. On the left, you'll see the stars there.

We now have over 400 five-star ratings on there, all thanks to you. So I appreciate you for that. All right, there's a lot to dive into with this one, and it sure sounds like we're going to see Jeff Hardy in AEW, but you tell me what you think he's saying here. Please welcome the legend himself, Matt Hardy. Yes. Yes. Oh, there it is. So good to see you.

Thank you for making the time to do this. Yeah, man. It's great to share with you again. You know, we got to start off with the hard-hitting questions, too. How often do you listen to the song Matt Hardy 999? Not a ton of times. People reference it to me all the time, but I have listened to it and I do know the line where I'm specifically mentioned in it. And this is, I don't want to curse myself, but something might come out of this a little later on down the road. Oh, wow. So when they make a song like this, do they reach out to you first? Well, it's funny. My wife is very much a, no, no, they didn't reach out to me first whenever they made it.

But apparently there are a lot of people that are in the current rap scene, obviously, you know, all the SoundCloud stuff that were like big hearty voice fans as they were growing up. You know, we were from their generation. But my wife, who was like really working hard on being like a social media influencer with her TikTok and she's got a whole bunch of stuff going on. And she's really dedicated time to like your TikTok and Twitch and whatnot. But like some of, um, some of, there are people reached out to her and so we spoke a little bit so we'll see if something ends up happening so this song just gets this song just gets put out and your name is in the title and you didn't even know this was happening i didn't i mean not until like people started buzzing me on it no i mean it's there's like if you search like soundclad sound cloud soundclad soundclad soundclad soundclod raps and whatnot there's probably 10 or 12 songs i have like mad hardy or

jeff hardy or hardy boys in the title like there's just random references in it you know whatever whatever it may be one of the first songs uh one of the first songs that my wife uh fell in love with which she thought it was hysterical whenever she heard this line said you know i'll pull him out hardy like swanthine into that p u sss y i don't know what you can say here but she thought that was the funniest shit ever and she was like you know do this one time you know so they just mixed and matched a little bit there uh it's so good and i think the thing you know that we respond to whatever whether you call me jeff or matt i'll respond to either one the moral of the story here is like everybody is a wrestling fan on some level, whether you're a diehard fan or you're just aware

of the product. Everybody's a wrestling fan. Yeah, yeah, secretly. Everyone has a little bit of of wrestling in their life. Well, congrats on the new podcast, Extreme Life of Matt Hardy. You guys are crushing it. Thank you, man. Thank you. It's been a lot of fun. You know, I, uh, each episode we do, I feel more comfortable with each one. And John is a great host and he really steers the ship well and does a good job. I like to go into a lot of details. He does a real good job, but like keeping me on the right path. So it's a lot of fun. You go into like an extreme amount of detail, pun intended, like you pull back the curtain a lot. I think that fans really appreciate that. I mean, I just kind of feel like that's the stage that I'm at right now. You know, I am obviously

getting towards the end of my in-ring career. And I'm at that point, I think, where I can make the transition into doing podcasting and doing other things. And I'm, I think it's almost time for me, especially things that are 20, 25 years old to try and share all my secrets with the wrestling fans. Is anything going to be off limits? I'm going to be pretty much open for business when it comes into everything. I mean, there's some things, I guess, that if I don't go into, we just won't address at all. But if there's a subject that I'm dedicated to talking about, I'm going to go into great length and detail about it. Because I feel like fans are just wondering, like, when is the edge?

episode. Yeah, I'm sure we will talk about Edge. You know, it's one of those things. We probably won't get into great depth with the lead of stuff. Just out of respect for my wife, you know, I just kind of just don't go into that. I don't talk about that. Yeah, but like I think that that's, especially because it all culminated with a match. And I remember buying that pay-per-view and I was, I don't know how old I was 17 or 18.

I legitimately thought you were going to murder Edge. Was that the SummerSlam pay-per-view or the Unforgiven paper view? It was unforgiven. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I, you know, it went through my mind, you know, but I tried to be a professional at the end of the day. That's kind of my gimmick. I try and I try and rein everything in and control my emotions. I've learned that lesson over my lifetime.

I distinctly remember buying that and being like, this is going to be like, we're going to see something really bad here. Right. It was, you know, looking back at it, we were both, we both had a really good relationship at that time whenever myself and Adam were working with one another. And it is funny because like that the story just had leaked and it became something much larger than it was, especially to the fans, you know. So it was like something that we really had substance to sink our teeth into and really work hard and like tell a story where people legitimately thought we wanted to murder each other and we tried to take advantage of it. So when you talk about, you know, coming towards. the end of your career. Do you have a timeline in mind of how much longer you want to do this? No, I don't. I literally am just playing it by ear. Maybe that's a southern expression,

but I am just filling it as I go. And I'm just going to see how my body holds up. I mean, that's more or less what it comes down to now. I mean, it's amazing when you look at you and Christopher Daniels and Chris Jericho and Sting. You guys are ageless in AEW. Sting is so amazing and I'm so happy to see Sting getting this run that he's currently getting right now because obviously he was a generation like ahead of myself and Chris Jericho, you know, and for him to still be able to go out and be, you know, be the, the mega star that he is and get the proper spotlight shine on him and it's just so rewarding to see. And I'm so happy for him because he's like the best dude in existence too.

And Chris Jericho, once again, it's amazing. His body has lasted as long as it has because, you know, me and him, we were on that grind of WWE doing those 10 days on, four days off forever, you know, on house shows. I mean, we worked and worked and worked and worked and worked. And same thing goes for Sting. Sting had an insane schedule back in the, you know, late 80s and 90s. So it really is amazing. And it's a real credit to, I think, everyone's longevity and just their toughness to still

be working, you know, in 2022. And Jericho just celebrated 30 years in the ring. This is your 30-year anniversary this year. Yes. What kind of big plans do we have for? for you. Maybe I'll have a cheat day. I'm trying to, I'm trying to die real hard now. I'm trying to get back into the best shape that I possibly can. So maybe I'll have a cheat day for my 30, 30 year. Oh, that's amazing, Matt. Amazing. No, but do you have a, do you have a match in mind that you want to

have for that? I don't know. I'd say maybe a perfect scenario. Maybe we do something where my brother, He's kind of on that same timeline where his 30th year anniversary would also be in October of 2020. You know, maybe something where the Hardy Boys have some sort of marquee match. I think that'd be a special way to celebrate it. So you're saying with him by your side, not with him against, you know, on the other side of the ring of you. Yeah, I think at this point in our career, I think it's we're about one another side. We have each other's back. I think the days of Man Jeff Hardy going head to head, I think they're probably done.

I think now we're teammates. We're not opponents. It really just feels like it's a matter of when, not a matter of if Jeff Hardy is coming to AEW, especially with a lot of things you've been saying over the last few weeks. Well, I mean, we have like 12, 12 appearances booked. I think we have a couple more in the works as far as doing some matches on independence. We have a ton of signings and whatnot. So we're doing all that right now.

And that's basically all I'm playing to. I was just talking to some guys earlier. And I'm like, oh my God, are you just saying Jeff's coming to AAW? I said, no, I haven't said that one time at all. I haven't referenced that because nothing has been done. Nothing has been decided. He's still technically under contract to Debbie and Mek Mahan right now. You know, so we're excited to do these indie dates and all these conventions and signings and special shops that we're going to be doing these appearances at because it's just going to be fun.

It's almost going to be like the old days. We kind of feel like, you know, doing these matches on the indies and doing these signings, although we're obviously. very established in this day and age. It's almost like the beginning of our careers when we were just working together, you know, doing, you know, not a major TV gig or a major company that was a global brand. We're doing, you know, the grassroots companies and signing deal. So those are going to be a lot of fun to do. The United States Soccer Federation presents the U.S. soccer podcast.

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but we're just really excited just as the people are. The U.S. Soccer Podcast, presented by Henko. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. People really ran with that story when you said like, hey, you know, Jeff's 90 days aren't up yet, but Tony Kahn's got a lot of money. Who knows what might happen? I mean, that's my job.

As a wrestler, and as a self-promoters, my job to keep you guessing. You know, the best wrestling is wrestling that is unpredictable, you know, when you're not sure what's going to happen next. I mean, and that's really, you know, that's kind of telling of the time that we're in right now. Because, yeah, I feel like we, everybody thinks that there's no K-Fabe anymore, but then little things happen along the way where it's like, wait a second, is this real or not?

Yeah. Well, K-Fa-Faib has evolved. I mean, it really has. It has just changed over the year. It like takes on a different definition because, you know, KFabe in the 80s or early 90s just basically meant that like people didn't understand what the wrestlers in the ring were doing or what this angle or what this storyline was. Now, you know, people have an idea. I swear to God, if you go online on social media, they'll swear up and down their experts. And they know what would work better than anybody else in the world.

But, you know, now that we have that power of them. thinking they know what's going to happen. It's a lot easier to manipulate things in a different way to keep them guessing and make things unpredictable. So that's that's the new K-Fabe. Meet the new K-Fabe, different from the old K-Fabe. 30 years in with everything that you've done in the ring, when you step out of bed in the morning, what hurts?

I mean, I mean, obviously with my body, especially if you know, there's leg drops for the there's 14, 15 years. Nothing hurts. I don't have like major, like I don't get up and I'm in major pain, but just like my lower back and like my hips, they're beat up and there's so much scar tissue on them in that area. You know, just like flexibility. That's my biggest issue and hindrance in this day and age.

And I'm doing what I can to try and alleviate as much of that as I can. And I'm going to try and optimize, you know, my shape and condition them in. As I said, I was on that diet. Just trying to do a lot more, a lot more stretching, a lot more yoga type movements, which will help me, you know, help me have as much flexibility as possible at this age and with all the bump cards I've filled over the years. Yeah, I've heard a lot of people talk about those moves

where you land on your ass and like how bad that is for your back. When did you start feeling that? I mean, I started feeling it in the early 2000s. Whenever I did the leg drop off the cage in the match you'd referenced earlier, Unforgiven to Edge, that's, I mean, at the time, it didn't hurt at all. But then the next few weeks after that is like I couldn't walk straight for a while. And like my back started catching. And that's actually the point where I changed the second rope leg drop where I'd go,

oh, and do the leg dropped into the very exciting elbow to the back of the guy's neck sometimes. So I wouldn't have to land on my, you know, compact my spine and my vertebrae every single night. You know, because once again, even at that time, you know, we were working. You know, if we were doing both brands, well, we were doing that quite a bit as a hearties when we worked with one another as a team, myself and Jeff when he came back, you know, but we're still doing five nights a week. So it was a busy time. So it was much easier to jump off and land on your feet and fall through with the elbow as opposed to like, you know, compacting your spine. When we go back, what do you think was the match that really put the Hardy Boys on the map? It was definitely the tag team ladder

match against Edge and Christian. That was the match that took us from being WB wrestlers to becoming WB superstars. We really turned the corner in that match. And you could tell like, a huge change and just like the reactions we got in at, you know, at live events. And we were just viewed differently by wrestling fans because we had done something that had never been done before. With like, you know, Jeff had the crazy hair and he was doing the swan ton bomb. I feel like there was a lot of focus on him. And then there was a point where it kind of shifted.

People went, oh, Matt Hardy's really good too. Yeah. I mean, I feel like that's kind of like our synergy in some ways. That's kind of the dynamic between us where he goes out and he does the flashier moves and he's like the rock star. He does. He has this undeniable like, you know, this, this charisma and this presence. You just can't create. You can't manufacture it.

It just is. It just is who he is. But with that being said, when it came to doing the fundamental stuff or the more basic stuff or making sure we're telling us a solid story or someone to be like the team captain who like, you know, puts together this great game plan, that was always my role. So like we are at our best when we're together. And we help kind of, we help, I feel like we help add and contribute to the other person's weaker areas. And just together we're so much stronger than we are individually. Did you guys grow up going? We are going to be tag team wrestlers when we grow up.

Once we get to the point where we fell in love with pro wrestling, that was our goal. The only thing we aspired to do was be the tag team champions, the world tag team champions. the world tag team champions of the WWE, the WWF at the time, just one time. And if we did that, we achieved everything. We're good. You can pack it up and call it a day. But obviously we exceeded that many times over. So, yeah, we're very happy and very blessed to have had the careers that we've had thus far,

just achieve all the success that we have. Well, look, if that's your goal to become WWF tag team champions, and then you do it and you're holding those belts, like then what? Then what's the next thought for you guys? I mean, that's how it was. Then, like, we wanted to, you know, we wanted to break new ground. We wanted to be, you know, do things that were, be trailblazers in the tag team division.

And then I feel like we were able to do that with the tag team ladder match and the tag team table match. And ultimately, the whole TLC staple was something that, you know, kind of started through us because the original tag team ladder match was came from us, our idea. That was something we did on the independence against each other all the time. And I was the first one that pitched for the tag team tables match against the Dudley's. You know, so just all those things rolled together and then the whole TLC staple, which I feel like all three teams were obviously heavily influential in it. You know, but if you look at the guys who took the risk in those matches, the majority of them were going to be Jeff, you know, but the hardies were typically the risk takers in the match. Christian would always be down for some months. You know, Bubba and Devon, they were just kind of like the solid fundamental hills who really like kicked ass.

You know, it's so funny even like the time that Devon was upholding the ring where the title was. was with Jeff and he was he was afraid of heights like we literally we had to force him into doing that spot when they both hang hung off the ring when myself and when my brother and divan were hanging on the ring in that TLC one I want to say it was and there was a point where my brother was like he didn't care because he was fearless and he's insane and crazy and erratic and unpredictable but he's just like kicking Devin hard and you can see like he's walking up his body kicking him and he was like stop kicking me stop kicking me stop kicking me like we could almost hear that you know we could audibly hear that down underneath him and then

even took a bump and then once he bumped he like took a totally flat back bump and totally committed it was very impressive but he promised after that he would never ever take a bump from that high again he would never ever find himself in that predicament we really did all five members had to convince him to do that because the way the match was structured the way everyone was bumping and being taken out that was just like his time to go it fit with him better than anybody else but he hated doing it but I'll give it to him. Props to Devon. That was a heck of a bump.

It was. It was very impressive. Do you remember the first time that a new wrestler, an indie wrestler, or someone knew in the locker room would come up to you and say, I watched you growing up, you inspired me? I do. Yeah. I do remember hearing that. The first few times it happened and now it's something that is, it happens very regularly

now, which is very strange. And like people say, you know, like, oh, my God, I grew up watching, you know, as a kid and I did this, oh, I'm sorry, I don't mean to make you feel bad. I remember there was one time I told Undertaker that whenever I, you know, had the pleasure to work with him. Somebody's like, hey, he's either kid, you know, hey, stop that, you know, you're going to try and make you feel old, what are you doing? But I just take it as like the greatest compliment, you know, that someone grew up

and they, you know, envied you and they actually aspire to be a performer like you or wanting to get into this crazy insane business because of the stuff you did. So it's cool. It's very, very cool. Do you remember how old you were when that first happened to you? Yeah. It was earlier on, 2010-ish. One of the first people that said it was like Drew McIntyre. Drew McIntyre, actually, and I was working with him. You know, it was 2009 or so when he first came ever to America and he was new. And I did a little program with him when they had very high hopes for him. And he was the chosen one in his first run. he used to dress up like the Hardy Boys and do stuff on his trampoline.

Like he was very inspired by, you know, they would jump off ladders and they would create these makeshift tables and whatnot. You know, so like that was one of the first people that I remember say, oh man, I really want to do this because I love the Hardy Boys. Wow. So it's been a while. Looking back, that was 13 years ago. But look, as great as the Hardy Boys are, I think the people forget how great that

Matt Hardy's career has been and how great Jeff Hardy's career have been. independently of the Hardy Boys. I mean, yeah, there's a lot of great stuff we've done. I mean, Jeff has really had a very impressive career as a singles wrestler. And I've done a lot of stuff too. I mean, most guys that you look at that are perceived as like successful singles wrestlers, I mean, I've had a better career than a lot of those guys, you know, which is crazy. But like, we're just so beloved together as the Hardy Boys.

You know, that will always be where we're at our strongest. You know, so I'm very excited about, you know, we're getting very close to that point, just a few more weeks and then we'll get back to, you know, get the band back together. A few more weeks. There it is. I do, I do really feel that like on our own, we have both been very, very successful and we've done very well for ourselves as singles wrestlers. How is Jeff doing?

Because I think this video at The House show, I think made a lot of people really nervous. Yeah, he's good. I think he's good. It was basically when he wants to share this story, he will, I'm sure. But, I mean, he ended up being exhausted after driving on. night. He was on late in the dark, dark dark at Smackdown the last match. And they had a 300 miles plus drive and he got in very early in the morning. And then he had a family of urgency. And he was up early and just, I think he was just exhausted and shot probably beat up at the same

time. And he was also very stressed out from his deputy B job as well. You know, and I think even, I think for him sometimes he kind of gets in his own head, especially if he's alone, like on the road and whatnot. So just, I think it's better with me. there too. I just think he feels a little more comfortable. Sometimes he really can't get in his own head. And I feel like it's one of those things. And he was stressed because he had some stuff going on in his wife's life and a death in the family. And he just, he hadn't slept at all that night. And then he kind of went into work exhausted. And you know, what happened is what happened. And people and people, and people, and then the drug test came back and he's fine. Right. Yeah. I mean,

that that was one of the things too. I mean, I have heard from a couple of people, too, that Debbie feel like they did jump the gun in making this very rash decision. You know, they said like, you know, he had, you know, erratic behavior because he jumped over the guardrail. I mean, the honestly God truth was that was his last spot in the match. He wasn't doing anything else in the match. He was technically done and he just felt like at that point. And this is one of those things about Jeff just being strange and different and peculiar in his

own way, which makes him so unique, but he was just like, I'm done. And he just jumped over the card round, like, took pictures with fans or whatever. And it's just so funny. It doesn't even seem extremely crazy. to me when it comes to Jeff because he just does weird things like that constantly. That's kind of, that kind of makes him who he is. And I just, I think that it seems like WWE is afraid to release people because they're going to show up on ADW now.

Yeah. I mean, that, that could, that could be a thing, you know, for sure. Because, I mean, AW, obviously, we have a long ways to go before we ever would catch up to the global enterprise that is WDB. There's no doubts about that. I mean, they're huge. They just made their biggest profit ever over a million dollars, you know. So I think AEW is just offering an alternative and we're taking a different approach to the way we present wrestling.

And it really has a diehard audience. And that's something that I think in the big scheme of things is going to be good for WWE and Vince McMahon. And company because it's going to force them to freshen up their product and do new things as well. You've wrestled in a lot of different organizations. And I'm so curious, is AEW like anywhere that you've worked before? No, I mean, I could compare AAW to, you know, like a TNA when I was there doing the broken mat stuff where, you know, you really have a lot of input on what you're doing or even the Ring of Honor runs I had as well. Like I would kind of be given a general idea and I would kind of fill in the details. And that's kind of how Tony, Tony Kahn does it.

He kind of lets the guys paint their own picture, you know, make their own music. He has like a presentation of like a story. this is kind of what I'm thinking for the story and you fill in the blanks, you know, where I feel like WDB has gone a little too specific where they want to like tell every single part of this story. But sometimes if a person is is performing a persona and it's not really true to them and they don't feel comfortable doing it, I think that shows sometimes that that comes across the television screen, you know, and you can tell that they just don't seem authentic, so to say. So I feel like when you kind of give the the performers a little bit of a say and what they're doing, it's going to come off a lot more genuine.

What was it specifically that made you go, yes, AEW is going to be my next move? I just knew. I know in Vince's head, he saw me being a producer already and that's where he was. He just was going to use my mental abilities to help produce matches and be an agent or coach or whatever. You're brilliance. And yes. And I just still wanted to wrestle the last few years that I could. So that that was the opportunity that is allotted to me at AW. So that's why I chose AW. So there's a lot of photos of me in like my high school days and college days posing for photos like this, version one. I want to talk to you about that theme song because it might be one of the best theme songs in all of pro wrestling. I can't even say, oh, yeah, without going, oh, yeah. Right.

Yeah, it is super catchy, man. And I love that song. I remember when I first heard it. I wasn't sure. I was certainly unsure when I first heard it. But then after four or five weeks of having that as my music, special on live events and how shows, I dug it. And I loved it.

It became a jam. You can slap a tornado. I can dry up a sea. So if that was. version one. We've seen so many different versions of you. What version number is sitting in front of me right now? What comes after Z in the alphabet? We're pretty far down the line. I don't know. We've done several. With all the different versions of you that you've created, how do you know when something's going to work? I mean, you don't. I mean, there's been stuff I've done

that hasn't always worked. And it's a lot of trial and error. And I feel like sometimes, you start doing something and then you just change it or you kind of you know you evolve it or morph it into something else and and you just have to fill the crowd and your audience and obviously what works for them you know i'm still kind of in a process the whole while i was doing big money mat because the a wmobile audience truly is a lot younger than like the wb demographic that's something that i can 100% tell and fill and they are more into a more sports centric type presentation of their wrestling where I was much more I'm much more into the over the top larger than life characters and and I dig that stuff so I was trying to like kind of reel it back

and be a little more subtle and the things I was doing and just kind of been a work in progress and and my gig hasn't as big money might now has just kind of been more or less to help younger guys and and not even like I'm always helping them on the screen in their story but just even backstage so to say you know just get them ready for the next time around like private party for instance I'm so proud at how much they've learned and how much they've grown and like whenever they get the chance, whenever they pull the trigger on them and they have a chance to like work as a top tag team and be the champs or whatever they're going to be ready for it this time around. People forget how young those guys are.

Yeah. They always do. I mean, the audience has no, you know, they have no patience in the stay and age, you know. They won't everything now. They want everything instantly. They can never be happy. You know, it's a very tough crowd that we play to at AWW. but that's uh that's part of the fun and part of the challenge of it so with big money mat for example

what's the genesis look like like where where does the first idea of this character come from it's interesting you even say that because uh if we're playing this we're going to be talking about the big money big money mad character and the whole evolution of big money matt on the extreme life of matt hardy coming up that will be very very soon uh it that whole thing started where i i took it started in ring of honor initially and i started and i started in ring of honor initially and i started that persona because I was just like, you know, these other guys, these ring of honor guys that they're working. A lot of the guys have like regular jobs. And sure, they're wrestling on TV and they're, you know, wrestling superstars. But like, I'm legitimately rich and I've made

millions of dollars in this business. And I can talk about all these, you know, trailblazing and groundbreaking matches I've had, you know, tag team ladder matches, tag team tables matches, cage matches, the TLC staple that I created. I can brag about all this stuff and legitimately be rich on top of it. So that's why I'm big money mad. And the first person, who really coined that name was Jay Briscoe because I started off as the iconic Matt Hardy. And I was just saying they're like, you know, they're lucky to be there with me, like rubbing shoulders with me, even sharing an arena with me. Like you really don't deserve that, you know, because I'm like an actual, an actual legend. I'm an actual iconic figure in pro wrestling. So you really don't deserve

to be here. You're just kind of a ham and egg or just weekend warrior. So that that was kind of like the original beginning in Genesis and Big Money, Matt. If we put all of your characters in some sort of a battle royal match. Who do you think wins? It depends on which audience you have. If you have a, if you have a diehard audience, it would probably be the extreme, unkillable Matt Hardy, one half of the Hardy boys, who's just more straight ahead, legit wrestler and daredevil. If you put it in front of a casual audience that likes to do sing-along and theatrics and whatnot, it'd be broken Matt Hardy. I feel like broken Matt Hardy would be very difficult to defeat. He would be. He's a very unorthodox.

Not speaking as big money, Matt here, but as Matt Hardy, what was the first big purchase you made after signing one of your contracts? Probably, probably buying a car, but the first big purchase that I made was my house because I just paid cash for it. You know? It's like it's a compound. It's not a house. Well, I mean, yeah, I've just continued to add on.

You know, I just, I said, I want a big ass mansion. So I'm going to put money in a certain account. I'm going to make sure I save enough money. And then once I got to $400,000, I said, okay, I'm going to buy this house now. And I had to build from scratch. How many acres is it? Well, the hearty compound that myself and my brother live on is about 90 acres. 90 acres and a house was $400,000.

Yeah. And I also have another house on that property. And then also have the don't deletion that's behind me, 6,000 square foot property. I have another property, too. I mean, you know, some of the big money, Matt, and being this mogul is real, you know, as far as buying multiple properties and whatnot. Yeah. And when you talk about like life after wrestling, sure, that's going to be podcasted, but what else is it going to be? I mean, I'm sure that there will definitely be other things. Like, as far as broken mat has a very, very dear place in my heart. Like, I would love to do a silly ass broken mat series, you know, whatever it may be. And I'm sure Jeff would be down for it, too.

He loves that nonsense as well. You know, and I think he could be really fun. You know, maybe one of these days we'll, you know, get Jeremy Brash back over and we'll just, we'll take J.B. And we'll do some more broken universe content. I mean, if it wasn't for you guys, cinematic matches may not exist. Well, thank you. It's true. Like, and that was like kind of the savior in this, quote unquote, pandemic era of wrestling.

Right. Yeah. I mean, it's so crazy that we were ahead of this pandemic doing that. And the whole reason I wanted to do that was like do something that was an orthodox and out of the ordinary and just something that would give us a different avenue to tell a story. You know, something that would be very strange, like the whole broken man Hardy. I wanted to be a throwback to like the early 90s crazy characters of the Papa Shong goes in the Undertaker when he first started and whatnot. You've spent most of your life on the road. But if anyone follows you on social media, you are such a great dad.

And you're always posting about your kids. And I wonder for you, where is the. balance here between work and family. That is something that I worked very hard to find. And it is something that is very important to me. Like my kids are the best. Like I love being home. I do enjoy the getaways.

But like to have kids, you know, especially my first was Maxwell. And then there was Wolfie and then Barty and out. We finally got ahead of girl, which is ever hardy. But just to have these little beings that you created and considering wrestlers have egos and their celebrities and they get recognized and people want pictures and take autographs. Like to have a being that you created that is more important than you and you would be ready to give your life in an instant for this being. I mean, it means the world. I mean, they are everything. They give me reasons to want to live forever. Like, and I said, I say this

all the time. We actually just had a very scary incident where there were a herd of deer in the road and we actually hit a deer yesterday. And luckily, it didn't go through the windshield. It actually didn't do terrible damage to the car, but it could have been a really bad incident. I just told my wife where, you know, like we have such a blessed life, especially me. I was like, you know, I'm 47 now, but like I have done everything I ever imagined I wanted to do in life. So like if I did die tomorrow, I would feel complete. Like I feel like I've lived a very, very complete life. And I'm very happy about that. But my children, we have to see them through. They make me want to live forever. So I'm doing everything that I can to tap into that fountain of youth and be as immortal as possible.

How many of your four kids do you think are going to be pro wrestlers? I don't know. My joke constantly that I tell my wife's. I just can't wait until I'm retired. No more bumping for me. I just want to be the will man for the baby Hardy boys. I'm just driving around, brother. I hope to make the towns, you know, and I'll be there booking agent.

I'll just be outside the ring. I'll maybe carry a cane like Michael Hayes does. Hopefully I'll have all brand new knees and hips at that point. You know, I'll just be the will man. I'll just drop them down to town. I can teach him how to do this business the right way. They won't have to have to learn like Jeff and I did. They'll have a head start. I feel like Broken Mac could be the manager of this faction of

Hardy kids that you have. It could be. It could be. And it's so funny that just how I do different characters. They're like they just think wrestling is at to them now. And they love doing, oh, yeah, we're just different versions. You know, like the other day, Wuffy just said, oh, I want to do a broken Wuffy version. We do a video with me, Dada, and like we actually just, my wife did that just yesterday we did that. And it's funny. And Maxwell said, oh, this is the big money maxill version data you know so they all have like the different characters that they perform and do and sometimes they just want to be the crazy hearty boys and jump off ladders it's so funny that they kind of interpret what i have done like that i love it and i mean you can tell how proud you are

to be a father too yeah i extremely proud i mean nothing i am not proud i'm not more proud of anything else in the world than than my kids how what's the most proud moment in your professional career. You know, that's, it's hard because there has been so many things that have been like, you know, really huge, like landmarks, so to say. Like winning the tag team titles, the very first time, that was a huge deal because that was the first thing that we truly set out to do. And achieving that was like huge. You know, we achieved a dream. And then like just all the TLC craze, all those matches are so famous and we just still hear about them all the time. And like, they will live on in infamy, you know, for infinity, which is so cool. So, so that's a really

honorable thing. And there's just like big moments you had, like whether it be the leg drop I did off the cage to edge, which people talk about all the time. It was. It's still a very memorable moment that will always be replayed in wrestling history, you know, or a program with MVP where we had these crazy competitions and it's something that we kind of, you know, took from like our real life competitive nature of being friends and it kind of translated to the ring and then we made it work you know so just so many things that the whole broken universe because it became like a viral sensation even though t-n-a and impact wasn't a high wrestling program at that time those insane matches and characters and stories like became like viral sensations you know they're like

we're everywhere and and i remember for the longest time after leaving the w-db you know in 2010 in 2011, people would say, oh, my God, like, when are you going to do another TOC? When are you going to do another TLC? The final deletion was so popular. No one had ever done this before with anything else had done in our career. They'd say, when are you going to do another final deletion? When are you going to do another final deletion? That was crazy, man.

That was wild. You know, so it was like very impactful. And that was stuff that was truly like the brainchild of, you know, myself and Jeremy Warash, you know, and Jeff. And I can't wait to hear all of these episodes on the show with you and John Alba. You guys are doing such an amazing job. And I mean, the most exciting thing is you're just getting started with this too. Yeah.

Thank you. Yeah, it is. We're just, we're really just, it's the tip of the iceberg. We really are just getting started. Our chemistry gets better. I get better at this gig. You know, it's a new thing for me, especially talking a long form. And I'm getting better and I'm getting more confident every episode we do.

And I enjoy it. It's a lot of fun to do. One of the great thing is when you're going to be 20 episodes in, then you're going to be 120 episodes in, then 220 and so on. People are going to find your show somewhere along the line and they're going to go, oh, my God, I got to go listen to all 120 episodes right now. Right. Yeah, that is cool. That's one of the great things about, you know, how entertainment lives on in the same age because everything is, you know, so much media that you can, like, go out and procure.

You know, one of the funnest things I have done since, you know, the last couple years where I've had a little more time on my hands is like go back and watch shows. I'm a big TV series drama show guy. you know and just i got to go back and watch the sopranos for the first time ever and the wire for the first time ever you know the shield and all that stuff was just so enjoyable to go back and you can find that stuff you know from from years back and i remember hearing about it when it was going on but i was like working like a maniac nonstop so that's uh hopefully how this podcast ends up as well like you know someone will hear an episode and come across and they'll go oh my god they've done 140 episodes of this like i've got to go back and hear the first 139 yeah you know so

That is very cool that that's how media kind of exist in this day and age. It's always such a pleasure to talk to you, Matt. So thank you so much for making the time. I know it's been a long day for you, so I appreciate you carving out some time to do this. Yeah, thanks, man. Thanks for having us and thanks for promoting the extreme life of Matt Hardy. We're very excited about this project and putting a lot of blood,

sweat, and tears in it and a lot of passion. It's really a labor of love, and we enjoy it. I end every conversation with the same question because I love gratitude. And I wake up every day and I say out loud three things that I'm grateful for. So what are three things that you Matt Hardy are grateful for? I am grateful for my children. I am grateful for my family. And I am grateful for my health.

Love it. Matt Hardy. Thank you so much. Thank you. Well, there we go. Big thank you to Big Money, Matt, for joining us for this. He had just flown into Atlantic City for dynamite, then drove to the hotel and then did the interview right when he checked in at like, I know, 10 p.m. So I really appreciate him making the time.

I appreciate you making the time and letting us hang out with you. You can find Matt's podcast with his co-host and my friend, John Alba. Wherever you're listening to this right now, it's called The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy. Go ahead and binge all those episodes. You will not be disappointed. And I'm sure you know somebody who's a Hardy Boys fan, so please share this episode with them. Take a screenshot. Tag us so that we know you're listening. Matt is at Matt Hardy Brand. I'm at Chris Van Fleet. And we'll leave you with the words of Robin Roberts, who says, life is not so much what you accomplish as what you overcome. I love that. Be great. Be grateful. Have an amazing week. We'll see you on the next one for some more insight.

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