Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Matt Hardy's opinion on cinematic matches, his AEW debut, Broken Matt, Sammy Guevara chairshot

Episode Date: September 1, 2020

Matt Hardy chats with Chris Van Vliet from Jacksonville, FL. He talks about leaving WWE and deciding to sign with AEW, why he feels the Broken Matt Hardy character works better with a crowd, the vicious chairshot to the face from Sammy Guevara, his favorite TLC match, how he created Broken Matt Hardy and the catchphrase "delete", his thoughts on cinematic matches after coming up with "The Final Deletion", wanting to work with Darby Allin and much more!Listen to me as a guest on the WWE Podcast here:https://wwepodcast.com/special-interview-with-chris-van-vliet-hall-of-fame-broadcaster/  Support The CVV Show by supporting our sponsors!DOOR DASH - Get $5 and zero delivery fees on your first order of $15 or more when you download the Door Dash app and use the promo code BLUEWIRE DIRECTV NFL SUNDAY TICKET- Use the promo code BLUEWIRE to get 15% off your subscription this season at https://NFLSundayTicket.tv BETONLINE- Head to https://betonline.ag and use the promo code BLUEWIRE for your free welcome bonus! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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With the powerful questions. This is the Chris Van Vleecho. Chris Van Vleecho. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Vleet! Oh, thank you so much, Justin Roberts, for that lovely introduction. And welcome back to another installment of the Chris Van Vleet Show. This episode is brought to you by DoorDash, NFL Sunday ticket, and bet online.

And I've only had the pleasure of speaking with Matt Hardy once before. It was actually at Ring of Honor's Super Cardovan. in 2017. It was the day before the Hardy Boys returned at WrestleMania 33. But he was fully in his broken Matt Hardy gimmick. If you haven't seen this interview, take a few minutes at some point today or this week to check this out. I mean, it's just so brilliant. How deep he was into that character and how quickly he was able to think on his feet, no matter what I asked him. He had just an amazing answer to it. But with that said, it was. so good to be able to have this conversation with the man behind Broken Matt Hardy.

To actually chat with Matt Hardy himself, you're going to love this. Speaking of chatting, I've been on the other side of the mic quite a bit recently. I've been interviewed as a guest on quite a few podcasts. It's been so cool being invited to do these. I had a drink with the bububub boys on the latest episode of Talkin Shop, which we was great. I drank my mid-boot cocktail. You know, I legit drank vodka for this whole interview. I don't know if the other guys were or not. I think Machine Gunn, Carl Anderson, was like just pretending to drink vodka, but you'll see. It's a great chat. I was also invited to be a guest

on the WWE podcast. Yeah, that's the name of it. The WWE podcast, Matt, who's the host of it, does such a great job of breaking down the current storylines, the characters in both AEW and WW. And I just had a blast chatting about SummerSlam, about the Thunderdome, about AEW bringing back fans, a whole bunch of stuff here. And I don't usually, you know, I don't talk about that stuff a lot on my show. Even though this is the Chris Van Fleet Show, I'm very aware that you're not here to listen to me.

You're here to listen to my guests. So it was cool to like open up about. my thoughts on the product that's out there. So I put a link in the description. You can check out my interview on the WWE podcast. He does such a great job on the WWE podcast. And it was such an honor to be on there. So check it out. And look, I'm just really grateful for any opportunity to do this. I'm blown away every time I get these emails or messages asking me if I can be a guest on one of these shows. It's, yeah, it's just so much fun. I'm also blown away every time I see these new reviews. And we had a pile of new reviews this week. So thank you so much for that. Yeah, maybe because there's been so many, maybe I should read two on every episode. Nah, you know, that would be, that's a lot. We'll just read one. We'll get to the interview quicker if we just read one. So thank you for continuing to leave these. I will continue to read one on every single episode like this one. Heavy metal redhead says six stars. Wow. Six stars for me for one of the best podcasts ever.

It's my top five, sending love from Nova Scotia Canada. Well, I'm sending love right back to you. Heavy metal redhead. I hope everything's good there on the East Coast in Nova Scotia. And I've got nothing but love for you, listening to this right now, for taking your time out of your day. There's a ton of podcasts out there. So thank you for taking the time to listen to this one. And I've got nothing but love for Matt Hardy, who you'll hear here.

You'll hear it. He, like, super inspired me growing up. I was a 16-year-old backyard wrestler, and I was throwing twist of fates and swanton bombs. So we get into who inspired Matt and Jeff Hardy growing up, because think about it, there weren't really a lot of people that were doing their style of wrestling when they were coming up. We also talk about the many different faces of Matt Hardy and why he felt that he needs to save broken Matt for when the crowd returns. He also lists off some of his opponents that he'd like to work with in AEW, including Darby

Allen, which I think would be fantastic. And Matt also, like, digs in deep to, like, what he thinks of the cinematic matches we've seen in WW. I mean, a lot of people have credited Matt and Jeff and Broken Brilliance and Ultimate Deletion, everything that went on there for kind of creating the idea of the cinematic match. So it's really interesting to hear his thoughts on the cinematic cinematic matches that we've seen. So, ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together. It's Matt Hardy. It's such a pleasure to be joined by Matt Hardy. Matt, thank you so much for making this happen. Thank you, man. I'm very excited to actually be doing your show. It's a very famous and well-respected show, so thanks for having me on. Well, that's very kind. I've been able to speak with you a few years

ago that I spoke with you. It was actually right before you made the big return to WWE, but I didn't speak to this version of you. I spoke to the broken version of you. Yeah, it's interesting. I'm a very complicated, complex person, as you can see. I have many different, many different layers, many different faces. And right now, currently on A.A.W. television, I am Matthew Hardy, which more or less is just me. It's the family man who is a husband, a father of three young boys, and also a 28-year vet, who's very deep in this journey and very deep in this game, professional wrestling. But you also have the ability to turn on all of these other gimmicks at the drop of a hat, if you want. Yeah, I think even, you know, maybe even that chair shot from Sammy, actually maybe a little bit of a malfunction with the gimmick.

Sometimes they just kind of spread out on their own. They just kind of cut loose. How is your face doing after that? That looked brutal. It's still numb. It's still sore. I had really bad headaches the first few days, which were very annoying. And I'm really lucky that I wasn't concussed badly.

I was able to hit the chair a little bit and slow it down. If I haven't slowed it down, I'm sure it would have just not completely unconscious. But, you know, the chair, I knocked it down and slowed it down and it still split me open, 13 stitches. And it, like, did a bunch of damage to the back of my neck. Also, where, like, whiplash my neck. My neck was banged up for a couple weeks. So a couple weeks off, but now I'm back at him and ready to go again.

And wow, Sammy's going to have plenty of receipts to repay. You and Jeff, you know, are known for taking risks. So in your 28-year career, where does this, you know, the 13-stis, stitches, where does this rank in the list of injuries you've had? Oh, gosh. I don't know. Maybe this is somewhere like middle of the road, I guess, because, like, I wasn't out for that long.

So that was the fortunate part, but the unfortunate part, I guess, was just that it was my face and it was more scarring there. I mean, I lost my modeling contract a long time ago, so it's all good. You know, so I try and keep as much stuff away from my face as I can, though. or I'm like not beat it up anymore. I need all the help I can get. So when you were making the decision, you know, of where to go next, why did AEW make the most sense to you?

For me, AEW made the most sense because like I could see that Vince and WWE, they already had it in their mind. Like in Vince's mind, he was ready to move me on from being a talent into working backstage and, you know, being a producer helping give back and, and teach other guys behind the scenes. And I'm very happy to do that, but a little later on. Like these last few years that I have to do this physically, I want to do it to the highest level where I can.

I want to enjoy it because the whole reason I got into pro wrestling in the first place was because I love the idea of performing and being a pro wrestler. So it's like, I don't want to give that up right now. And then even though they offered to do other things after I expressed that was my concern, I know in my head they'd already made up their mind how they see me as. So I just knew I needed to go somewhere else. And like AAW was like the best case scenario for me. I mean, because the young bucks, I'm great friends with those guys.

And here there's just such a, such a refreshing creative liberty and also like a creator freedom where you have input and you really have a hand in the direction that your career goes in. So I've been to join this and this is a great place. And on top of still being able to perform and still do what I want to do, you know, in my last few years, I also still get to help back and help you on time as well. Yeah, you were doing some like mentoring with private party both on air and off there. So when you take someone like that under your wing, you know, what kind of guidance do you give someone like that? I mean, I think with private party, I very much gave them the same sort of guidance like Michael Hayes did to myself and Jeff. And I think the first lesson those guys really need to, you know, to work on. And a thing that always can be a work in progress for these first few years is that they need to remember like they can.

do all these amazing, cool high spots and tag team maneuvers, but they have to let fans know, like, no, we are gritty athletes who can fight and we can scrap and we're tough. And that's kind of like what you have to show people. You know, you have to show them, you have that vicious streak or that, that mean streak. You have to let them know that you can fight. The fan that is sitting in the front row, when there were fans, they used to come to shows, the fans that are sitting in the front row, they have to like look in the ring, go, like, you know, This guy can do some really amazing flips and he's quite the gymnast,

but I wouldn't want to get in a fight with him because I'm afraid to kick my ass. So that's the mindset and that's kind of the thing I've been trying to implement and have private party work on. Two years ago, you kind of broke your character. It sounded like you were making an announcement that you were retiring. Kind of. You didn't say those words exactly. But what was the plan behind that video?

What was the idea there? I don't know exactly what the reasons were. but Bray was being taken off TV and given some time off for whatever reasons they were. And because we were like the other as a tag team, I was also going to be taking some time off. And I had some issues that were bothering me, but they weren't career threatening or they weren't going to be major

to shut me down. Just stuff I had to work through as you do as you're an older athlete. So like I just kind of announced those and I let that be my reasoning for leaving. And then once again, like once people thought I was going to retire, you know because like they are legitimate like nagging injuries that I have stuff that I was going to deal with and address you know I just put like time to go home because I was going to be off for a couple months and then like I just kind of I never said the word retire one time and then

I'll just let people read that into it and it's something we kind of kept people talking about me during that time off the TV. Is retirement something that you think about now? No, it's not something that I think about but it's realistically something I know that's obviously coming. I mean, just because, you know, something I say all the time, I'm not 25 anymore. You know, just my body feels different. And I'm very mentally aware of my physical state and kind of what I can do and what I can do. You know, so obviously, you know, I have a few, a few years, a little chunk of time left in front of me, not like a long piece like that is behind me, you know, so I'm aware it's coming one of these days. And I'll be happy. I just want

to try and accomplish as much as I can before I get to that point. The broken Matt Hardy character might have been the best thing to come along at that stage in your career because you weren't forced to do some of the stuff that you had done earlier in your career. Well, I mean, that's why the whole Broken Man Hardy character was created in the first place. You know, because like thinking back and looking at the landscape of things, all these young guys that are, you know, 25 to 35 that are in super top shape and super athletic and super healthy in so many ways. And they'll have like their body covered with scar tissue like mine is.

You know, when I was thinking about those characters, I said, what if I could do a throwback to the days of Pabashango, the days of the undertaker, try to create a character that's like somewhat magical or somewhat over the top? And that was the whole mindset. And also, I asked Jeff to do the whole Brother Nero thing and got him on board with that idea because I, like, was literally trying to get Jeff to, like, slow down and conserve his body a little more because he's just like so passionate. And he so much feels like every time he's in the ring, you know, the fans want to see me do a swine time. They want to see a whisper in the wind. You know, he feel so committed and so loyal to the audience. He wants to do that every time. But I'm like, you're Jeff Hardy. At this point, you can kind of pick and choose. You don't have to do everything. You don't have to beat your body of every single match. You know, the fans are excited when they see Jeff Hardy. You know, come out and do the dance, do the juke and get to the ring and do your thing, man, you're a star. You've kind of earned this over all the years of taking bumps and gone off ladders through tables and whatnot. So that was part of the whole mindset behind the original broken mat in Brother Nero. And it was very cool.

we did that and Jeff was brother Nero and I wouldn't let him jump off the top rope or anything else. He kind of dug it and got into it. He was like into kind of more of a character mindset, which is very rare for him, very different for him. But he did enjoy it while we did it. I would assume that when you and Jeff went back to WWE that you guys were signed to the same contract,

was that obviously not the case? No, we were under the exact same contract. So you were able to leave and Jeff is staying there? Is that the plan? No, what happens in WV, whenever you're injured, Jeff had two major surgeries during this deal. He had a shoulder surgery, and then he had the knee surgery. And then he had also some personal time off he had to take off.

And I think all together was about a year and eight months. And like once that happens at WB, if they still continue to pay you, they can freeze your contract. And they froze his contract. So now he's still, he had a year and eight months tacked on to his deal, as opposed to my deal. I worked all the way through without ever being injured at all. So that is why.

Jeff is still working there now. Well, you talk about, you know, working in AEW and not having fans there right now, but fans are returning. In a small capacity, fans are returning. Are you excited to be performing for the first time in AEW in front of actual people? Yeah, I mean, like, it's made it so, like, abundantly clear how important fans are. You know, the lack of fans has really showed how fans are so much of the magic of a wrestling match. So yeah, it is going to be nice to have like a very small amount, but, you know,

have like some background noise and have a legitimate gauge of like what is working and what's not because like the fans are really what let us as performers know, like, this is working, this is good, this is over, or this isn't great or whatever. And like, we just haven't had that. The business hasn't had that for months. So it's really hard to like have a good barometer of what is working and what it's not. So it's going to be nice to have some fans back to have like legitimate, genuine voices out there. Quick time out from this chat to thank our sponsors because they make this awesome as possible. You've counted on restaurants and now they are counting on you.

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DoorDash one. Make it easy for you. Blue Wire. Use that at checkout and you will get 50 15% off your subscription. Visit NFL Sundayticket.tv and use that promo code, Blue Wire. So right now, you go, you call a match, you work a match, and you do what you and your opponent think works best because you don't have the crowd telling you what's working and what's not working. Yeah, I mean, it's just, that's kind of been the weird thing about this whole empty arena pandemic era.

It's just like, we're doing the things that we think. think in our mind that are going to work, that a crowd would react to, that they're going to be entertained by. But the only crowd that is watching and really gauging it is the crowd at home, the TV audience. And you don't get that instant feedback. So it's a very strange, difficult scenario. And especially the first couple of shows we did, like where I went out and did that first promo with Chris Jericho one-on-one as Broken Matt and Chris Jericho. I mean, there were no fans. There was nobody in this big-ass stadium. And it was just me and him in the ring. It was the weirdest, wildest thing, you know, and it's just like you have no idea. Like if there had been

fans there, like with Broken Matt, the catchphrases and the little nuances and gimmicks of the character, I mean, with a lot of crowd, I mean, that's like something just created and built to, like, pop an audience and entertain them and be fun. But it's weird, like, when you think about now, it's just translating to the TV audience. And that's part of the whole reason I've decided, like, hold off on Broken Matt and like go back to being more of, of a character based in reality. And it's the right call, especially because who knows how long we're going to be focusing our product to the TV audience, to the TV viewer.

Did you instantly know that Delete had gotten over? No. I realized Delete got over. That wasn't my initial term I was going to build around with the broken. I was going to broken and was going to be the thing I was going to build around initially. But like whenever we did the fire deletion and I shot the fireworks across the ring and Jeff like had a trash can lid and was holding it and blocking these fireworks I was firing at them. And you know, I was going delete, delete, delete.

I mean, that is like a moment that people kept talking about and they kept using that word over and over and over again. And delete happened to be like a word that was like kind of cool in lexicon currently in some ways. Like to delete your account or delete this. So the delete word worked and people picked up on immediately, and it actually became kind of like the centerpiece and nucleus of the whole broken character. Well, you know, it's interesting you talk about final deletion because you've been given a lot of credit for what we're calling now the cinematic matches. With what you did in TNA with the final deletion,

how do you compare that to what we've seen with WWE and their cinematic matches? I haven't seen all this stuff. the barnyard match. I thought it was great. I thought it was done really well. And I think that was one of the smartest usages of Taker that they've had in a long, long time. And because Bray and our buddies, I watched the Park Club on House. I thought it was super interesting. For me, considering the way my mind thinks and the way logic is, I thought it was very cool. I could see where some dire wrestling bands could also get lost in that as well. You know, but I mean, I did this stuff they're doing, oh, the bar fight that my brother just did with

Seamus. I thought it was awesome. I thought it was done very, very well also. And I think it's one of the things wrestling fans should be like also very appreciative that they are getting these matches like this because we are doing all this during a pandemic era in front of no fans. And it's like it's very hard on us, a performer to go out there and like work in front of little to no crowd, you know, just some of our peers out there cheering us on like we're doing.

you know, our first indie show in the Armory in 1993. That sort of feels like sometimes. You know, so I think the fact, like, if you're a diehard wrestling Twitter fan and like you're over-the-top critical of, like, cinematic matches, I think that's asking a little much, especially in this empty arena era of the pandemic. I said, because, like, I really feel like these are things

where guys are trying to, like, paint something different, and they're really trying to give you something good in an era where it's really tough to do great to amazing, stuff because there's no crowds involved. Yeah, what do you think the legacy is going to be from this era? When we look back on this era, five and ten and twenty years from now, what do you think the legacy is going to be? I think people are going to look back on the empty arena era and go like, oh my God, I can't

believe shows continue to run. I can't believe there were all these incredible matches. Like, this is insane. Like, the only thing that ran, first and foremost, more than anything else was professional wrestling, you know, and we still went out. And like in front of a crowd had a lot of really great amazing matches. You know, like you don't get the reaction for it. It almost goes against everything the professional wrestling is.

It is such a performance art of going out and athletically putting on a contest or performance where you elicit cheers and booze. And now you're taking out that whole point of being able to elicit the cheers and booze. Because that's not there because the crowd is gone. There's no crowd at all. So you're just doing it for the television, you're at home, which makes it so much harder for the performer. And also, you really, you don't know what's working and you don't know what's not working in so many ways. So I think we're going to look back to this era and we're going to go like, oh, my God, there was so much incredible stuff that happened in front of no crowd,

and just only peers sitting out in the front row. Like, this is unbelievable that this era actually exists and happen. I mean, we're going to look back and go like, this is incredible. This has happened, I think. There's no question you guys are making the absolute best of a situation that certainly isn't that good. Now, Matt, I got to tell you, I was a huge Hardy Boys fan growing up. I was a backyard wrestler. I was doing Twist of Fates and Swan Tom bombs.

So I was able to look up to you guys and emulate what you were doing. But when you guys were growing up, there wasn't really anybody that was doing what you did. So who did you guys look up to? I mean, the first guy that I became a fan of was the macho man, Randy Savage, and that happened at WrestleMania 4 when he won the tournament for the WWE World Title. And I think the reason I was such a big fan of his was because he was an over-the-top character. He talked in this crazy boys who were these extravagant outfits. And his finisher was a flying elbow, boom, off the top rope, you know? So that was like an exciting move for me, because it was like a hop-line move from a big, legitimate main event guy.

And then as time went on, I was a big fan of Brett Hart. I love like his work rate. I think he's one of the best workers of all the time, so believable in so many ways. And then obviously, Sean Michaels, he was a big influence on myself and my brother, the rockers all the way, you know, through to his singles run as Sean Michaels. And obviously the Sean and Razor Ramon Ladder match was a big inspiration for us. But you basically took everything from those people and then turned this up to like 11. And you've been such an inspiration for so many people that are coming up now.

I mean, we try. And that's pretty amazing to hear over and over. And it's still crazy in some ways, but it's also super humbling and flattering. I don't think I realize it as much because I'm trying to keep my mind active in the game. Like I'm still like a young, a hungry wrestler trying to do new things. I feel like that's the mentality you kind of have to keep. Like you can't really sit back in one. Like, well, back in the day, we could.

created the tag team ladder match and we created the first ever tables match and we created the TLC match and we paved the way and because of the outfits my brother and I wore, then anybody could just wear baggy pants and a tight shirt and they wore a wrestler, you know, but I just still try and like stay focused on evolving and doing different things and trying to come up with ways that I can utilize myself as a character and still be as smart performer as I'm older in ways that still are compelling to the audience. So that's that's kind of my. mindset right now. I don't try to look back at like we're these hugely influential characters, but that's always very cool. It's very humbling when people say that and I hope we all remember

that way. Do you feel like, I mean, you had so much success being broken Matt Hardy, do you feel like you always had this in you, but you maybe didn't have the opportunity to do this when you were with WWE? I think so. I mean, with WWB is kind of like, you know, once in a while you'll come up with an idea and they might roll with it, but if it's not done their way, it's just like if you know exactly, if you really feel like in your gut, there's something you can do

and it's going to work and it's good, it's going to connect with people, you don't always get the chance to do it there. Here in A&W, you'll pretty legitimately get a chance, you know, especially if Tony, you know, sees you believe in that vision and you want to try it,

you want to attempt it, he'll, you know, they'll give it an attempt and they'll let it work. And I think one of the coolest, things just as of recent is the dark order deal because i know there were a lot of people that believed in the dark order and if you watch bt ee they've been like a featured act on being the elite the young bucks have really thought like these guys it's going to work we just had to give us some time we got to stay focused on them and continue continue the the given path and now it worked with that

big match where brodie lee killed cody the other day and became the tn t-t champion and then you know running parallel to their super entertaining bits on being the elite, like the dark order, that act has worked. And that's like something I feel like in WB, if that act would have had an opportunity to be on screen, that would have been given up on a long time ago. Sometimes the course isn't always direct. You know, you kind of go to the right, you go to the left,

but like you have to like stay focused on ultimately where you want to get to and just continue to keep on track. I'm just really fascinated with everything that you did as broken Matt Hardy because, you know, we mentioned off the top, the last interview I did with you, you were in character, and you remained in character, like 100% of the time. How difficult was that for you to be able to do that? I mean, it really wasn't super difficult. I mean, I was very committed, so I was able to do it okay.

And I feel like that was part of the magic. That's why I broke him at work so much because, like, every interview I did, like, I remember at one point someone from TNA or Impact had sent me, and said, oh, well, we've got you. doing Wrestling Observer with Dave Meltzer. And I was like, okay, well, I'm going to be doing the gimmick. I'm broken mat. Like, if I'm dedicated to something, you got to go all the way. And I feel like that's why that works so much.

And even it made it hard for Broken Matt to be as special because in WWE, they really don't commit to characters all the way, especially off screen. You know, it's kind of like people understand your character on screen and then offscreen you're not. And I think whenever I did it in TNA and Impact, I was so committed to it. people were like unsure, like, it's not really being a character as like, is he snout. You know, that was like part of the magic behind it.

Yeah. I'm very happy it was received so well and people enjoyed it and were very entertained by by character. And it's still like, I know diehard wrestling fans and A.A.W. Their fan base is a little more like sports league based or sports base. They want a little bit more of a serious product in ring. And I'm cool with that. I get that.

I respect that. But anytime like my cameo interviews are, instance, my 95% of the people, I say like on my came here, I say, do you want broken mat or do you want like regular mat? Let me know. It's always broken mat. They want to hear words pronounced funny and they want to, you know, seem to be over the top. So I'm glad people enjoy the broken mad hearty character. Which word do you enjoy saying the most, you know, because the way you, the way that broken mat says stuff, it's, it's ridiculous. It's great. Yeah. Maybe even a Primition.

Promenition is one of people's favorites. The only other person I can really think of that is all in on their character right now is MJF. He's basically doing the same type of thing that you were doing. He's MJF all the time. What's it been like for you to watch that character? He's great. I'm a big fan of what he does. And I think it reminds me a big.

money mat a lot even like when ever we did the double turn with big money with with Matt Hardy and EC3 and I turned into big money Matt which was the iconic Matt Hardy from the Ring of Honor days coming in you know that you're the big star in the history of the business and you know all these rookies that are just stepping in the ring or lucky to share a ring with you I mean it it reminds me of that especially his level of commitment you know so I give him props on those because he's totally committed to what he does he does a great job with and he's also he's oozing

with confidence. And on top of everything, he's just excellent at everything he does. So, you know, he's great. I definitely think down the road, I could see something with big money Matt in MJF in some capacity, either like together as a team or versus one another. Yeah, who are some of the people? I mean, the options seem endless now in AEW. Who are some of the people that now that you're there, you can't wait to work with? Darby Allen is someone I'd be excited to work with. I think Darby Allen and I could do some really interesting stuff. And he really does. He reminds me a lot of my brother. Just, you know, the character on screen is so many ways and also just the person, the way he acts. He's very,

very reminiscent of my brother in many ways. M.JF obviously stands out as someone. I think the Jungle Boy has got a very great future. I love the Jurassic Express thing they're doing as well. I would love to do more with the Young Box coming up. And I would actually love to do something with Kenny Omega at some point. I'm a big, a big Kenny Omega fan. What do you think is the biggest, I mean, you're almost 30 years in your career, which is mind-blowing to think about. What do you think the biggest thing that this version of you could go back and maybe tell, you know, the 90s version or even version one of you? I think if I could go back in time and talk to young Matt Hardy, you know, from the late 90s, I would, the first thing I would say is like, be very smart about where you play stuff. I would say don't do a leg drop every single night on a house show, especially when you're doing 10 days on and 4 days off.

You know, just all that stuff that catches up to you so much, I would have tried to convince myself to be so much smarter in the way I work. Like, pull the trigger when it's a big match and people care and it's going to be remembered in history. When you're out doing smaller events, make sure to entertain them and always, you know, work hard, work smart, but don't kill yourself every single night. this version would tell young Matt Hardy. Did you ever have a moment where Jeff said, you know what, I'm going to jump off a 20-foot ladder. I'm going to do this or that. And you went, I think you've done some crazy stuff, man, but I think that that might be pushing it. Oh, yeah, all the time. I mean, that was our relationship. I was always kind of the guy who would tell him like, this might be a little too much. Like,

let's slow it down just a little bit. You don't need to do this. I was always kind of like his his governor when it came to those things. Like I would like say, yeah, this might be a little too much. It's like, as opposed to like going off this 20 foot ladder here, let's just do the 8 foot ladder. I had Bubba Ray Dudley on recently, and he was talking about the TLC matches and how special they were. He listed his favorite TLC match,

and I'm curious to hear what your favorite is. I would say my favorite TLC match is the one from WrestleMania 17, which was the, TLC2, I guess, is what I was going to say. That was my favorite. Yeah. Which one did Bobbster? He said, obviously, the first one was so special because it had never been done before,

but then he said two was considered the greatest match on what could possibly be the greatest WrestleMania of all time. So he's like, I'm not saying it's the greatest match of all time, but if it's the greatest match on possibly the greatest WrestleMania, than maybe. Right. So. Yeah,

that, I just feel like from a storytelling standpoint, like obviously the first one special, the first WrestleMania 16 moment where we had the triple threat ladder match, which in a lot of ways, it's kind of viewed as the blueprint and outline of the TLC matches. That was a really special scenario,

just because all six of us young guys went out there and they're like, don't worry about time. Just do whatever you need to do. We know you have a lot of crazy stuff you're going to do. Don't worry about time. And to think about that in this day and age, six young guys went out and said,

don't worry about time on WrestleMania. That's unprecedented. Like, that's not heard of. And then the first TLC match, technically at SummerSlam, really enjoyed it, but I just feel like the storytelling and everything kind of came together

and just everyone was just so perfect in their roles at the WrestleMania 17 TLC match. So that was the best, I think, of the bunch. So while we're talking about WrestleMania's, and before we wrap this up, I was there when you guys returned to possibly the loud, pop ever in Orlando.

How did you guys keep this a secret? For me, it wasn't hard. We had that had that in our pockets for almost four weeks, almost a month. For Jeff, it was very tough, especially doing media. Jeff's like, God, I'm just tired of lying. I don't want to lie anymore. You know, you felt real guilty about it. It was, I think the most important thing that kept that under wraps was there was just such a small

group of people that know about it. You know, like, less than 10 people knew that we were returning then. That's, like, legitimately knew, like, these guys were said, they're, they resign, they're returning. This match has happened. You know, even the way they drove us in,

they kayfabed us in to talk to our opponents, you know, right before the day of the match. You know, they didn't even know we were in the match until they, like, we got added to it. And our opponents, they thought it was a three-way tag, you know, until, like, you know, hours before. So it was done really well as far as being kept on the download. And that's almost how you have to do things in this same age.

And I love stuff like that. We need more of that in 2020. Corey Graves' reaction sounded like genuine. Like, was he not in on this? Whose reaction? The announcers, Corey Graves. Michael Cole was the only one who knew. Wow.

Yeah. Michael Cole had that broken line in his pocket. He was ready to go. Michael Cole was the only one who knew. Lori legitimately told me after that, he had no idea. Wow. As we wrap this up, do you think you can give us a Matt fact? Yes.

A matter of fact, Matt is going to kick Sammy's ass and give him lots of receipts tonight in our tables match. There it is. Matt Hardy, this has been such a pleasure. Thank you so much for taking the time to do this. Yeah, man, no, I'm glad I've finally got to do it. I love the interviews you do. You're a great interviewer and keep doing what you're doing, man. Enjoy your stuff.

That's very kind. And thank you for inspiring me early in my career. And thank you for being an inspiration to so many people. Man, to all the people that are out there, if I have inspired them, thank you for watching and supporting me because without you, there would be no me. I'm very grateful. Matt, thank you so much. This was fantastic.

You got it. Thanks, man. Well, those are some very kind and comments. complimentary words from Matt Hardy towards the end there. So a big thank you to him for that. Big thank you to him for hanging out for this conversation. And an even bigger thank you to you for hanging out for this conversation. How brilliant is Matt Hardy in any of his incarnations, in any of his characters, he's just so brilliant, so good at reinventing himself. Take a screenshot. Let us know what you thought of this one. I'm at Chris Van Vleet. He is at Matt Hardy brand.

And also take a second to subscribe on whatever platform it is that you're listening on because we have a ton of amazing interviews coming up. Jake the Snake Roberts is the next one. That was a live interview, by the way. Not just live in person, but live in front of a crowd at the Independent Wrestling Expo. I was there in Texas this last weekend. Great show. Great show put on by Fighting Words promotions.

So good. So Jake the Snake Roberts, jazz, gangrel, Daniel Puter. Billy Kay and the current UFC heavyweight champion and the greatest heavyweight champion of all time in UFC. Steepamy Oaches, so a ton of interviews subscribe now so you don't miss them. So I'm very curious whether Jeff Hardy will end up joining Matt Hardy in AEW when his contract with WW is up. Also, it's so crazy to think that the Hardy Boys are one of the greatest tag teams of all time and they've spent so much time apart. Like they have Hall of Fame careers on their own as singles competitors.

That's just how good they are. Wow. So you could check out the podcast that I did with the WWE podcast. I mentioned off the top of the show. The link is down below in the show description. This quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson sums up Matt Hardy to a T. To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.

Hmm. How good is that? And before we go, did somebody say playoffs? Oh, the NBA and NHL are playing for the gold and our partners at Bet Online have got you covered. Get in on all the action, including a new NBA bracket contest with plenty of chances to win.

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That's betonline.org. The promo code is Blue Wire. Bet online, your online sports book experts. Hope you have a great week. Be great. Be grateful. And we'll see you soon. 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 it, 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.