Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Matt & Jeff Hardy: WILDEST Moments, TLC, Crazy Injuries, Tag Team GOATS, Retirement?

Episode Date: January 29, 2026

Matt Hardy (@MATTHARDYBRAND) and Jeff Hardy (@jeffhardybrand) are professional wrestlers currently signed to TNA. They sit down with Chris Van Vliet in Albuquerque, NM to discuss their legendary careers as individuals and as a tag team, retiring Team 3D at Bound For Glory and if they have thought about winding down their own careers, their most extreme moments, Jeff being attacked with a screwdriver by Randy Orton, Matt suplexing Ric Flair off a ladder, their epic WrestleMania 33 return, crazy Swanton Bombs, Leon Slater's Swanton 450 and more! Please support our sponsors: HELIX SLEEP: Flash sale! Go to https://helixsleep.com/cvv for 20% off sitewide! CAR GURUS: Buy or sell your next car today with Car Gurus: https://cargurus.com HIMS: For simple, online access to personalized and affordable care for Hair Loss, ED, Weight Loss, and more, visit https://hims.com/INSIGHT PURE PLANK: The future of core fitness! Use the code CVV to save 10% on Pure Plank designed by Adam Copeland & Christian: https://gopureplank.com/cvv AMERICAN FINANCING: NMLS 182334, nmlsconsumeraccess.org. APR for rates in the 5s start at 6.196% for well qualified borrowers. Call 866-721-3300 for details about credit costs and terms or visit https://Americanfinancing.net/Chris SEAT GEEK: Use my code for 10% off your next SeatGeek order*: https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/CVV Sponsored by SeatGeek. *Restrictions apply. Max $20 discount NORDVPN: Exclusive deal! https://nordvpn.com/cvv Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee! PRIZEPICKS: Download the PrizePicks app today and use code INSIGHT to get $50 bonus credit in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup! For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://chrisvanvliet.com If you have ever enjoyed any of these episodes, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast or Spotify? 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

How long did the meet and Greek go last night? These meet and greets at the T&A shows are wild. Last night wasn't as bad as it normally is. It was about three hours. Amazing. Man, what a testament to where you guys were at in your career. I got to tell you what, Chris. So Jeff's had this neck issue, right?

And we had our big pay-per-view match at Genesis against the righteous. And I tried to do the majority of the match, and I was in there. I was taking the heat. and the bigger bumps, whatever. We're trying to protect them as much as possible. And the mean greet was massive at the end of that. We sat for like five and a half hours. We got back to the hotel, slept 90 minutes, two hours at the most,

and got in the plane, flew back home. I remember getting out and it was like, oh, my God. I felt like I was crippled at the end. Man. You know, it's wild, man. These meet greets are great, but sometimes they are tough, especially if we don't have the ample time to sleep afterwards.

Sure. Well, it's the meet and greets at the TNA shows. It's also, every time I see. to you guys at a convention. Right. You have the longest line. It's you guys in Sting. Yeah.

The longest line. Yeah. That's a great, great company to be in. Jeff, how's your neck doing? It's better. This past Monday and Tuesday,

it felt really good. Then we flew out here, and I fell asleep a little funky on the plane. And I remember, like, jerking my head up one time, and it hurt. So it was hurting a little more than it did Monday and Tuesday. But overall, man,

it's feeling good. It's definitely better. So this has been a little over three months now. I've been dealing with two bulging discs on the left side of my neck. And this happened when we dropped the titles at the NXT Halloween Havoc Show. It was one of those things, man. You couldn't even tell. It looked completely fine like I landed flat.

But I was on the big guy's shoulders. The one guy jumped off the ladder, clothes lined me off. And the idea was for me to go through the table. But I kind of overshot the table and he just broke the table. And my head just hit the mat. And it was a little whiplash like that. So that's why that stuck. And it felt terrible.

I mean, it definitely felt like a concussion. And I was close to being knocked out. But that's when it happened, man. Two bulging disc on the left side of my neck. But I'm feeling much better. So on a scale like one to ten, how much pain do you think you're in right now? Oh, right now I would say maybe, maybe a five. It's not bad at all.

But your five might be different from the rest of us. Of course, it is. It might be. His five is massively different from a normal person's five. Yes. But it's been rough. And very, you know, naturally, this debut on AMC, man, it was very depressing, knowing that we were getting here, I was, oh, my God, dear Lord, please let me be better. By the time January 15th rolls around for this AMC, you know, debut.

But it was, I wasn't 100%, but yeah, the second week on AMC, I feel much better, and I'm super excited because I feel like I'm finally starting to heal in a very positive way. And we've also just been very cognizant of it, you know, like it's been protect Jeff at all cost, you know what I mean? And so we've done what we've had to do to try and work smart and, you know, not make things worse in his issue. And so far, so good. But you hear a lot of people talk about changing their style as they get older, right? Yeah. The swan ton is always going to be your finisher, right? And that's such a high risk move.

Yeah. And there's back to AMC, it's such a big deal for TNA. But we did a commercial where, you know, we had to go through a table. and Matt was going to do something. I don't know if you saw that. We were the first people that found out it was 100% definitely AMC. We had to go do the shoot with the MC people. And it was like the closer of the commercials.

They as it were going to be. I did a leg drop people today when he did a swan time. And it was his first time doing anything since he knew he had this neck issue. Because not knowing it was AMC, you know, we walked into that studio that day. And I could tell it was something big by the crew that was there and how polite they were being to us. and oh, Mr. Hardy, and you need this about. Mr. Hardy. Yes.

And it was, I mean, they were just incredibly. 40 people for a shoot with the, us two. Yeah, polite and everything. That's not typical? No, not 40 people. And I was going, the whole building up to that, I was going, man, I don't know if I should, this might be one of those times. So I just say, I got to stand my ground.

I can't do that. My neck's hurt, you know, I can't do that. But I knew it was something big. I didn't know it was AMC. So I said, it's kind of like riding a bike. I mean, I've done it so many times. I can do it and I think I'll be all right. I mean, it hurt a little bit doing it, but man, a few days later when we found out officially it was AMC.

I was like, oh, that was totally worth it. But that was a scary morning for me, not knowing exactly. And I hadn't had my MRI done yet. So I think the week after that film, we filmed that, I was when I got the MRI, and that's when I found out it was two bulging disc. And I got the call, and they said, oh, here we are. You got two bulging disc, and the options are neurosurgeon. speak to him or a pain management place. And I was like, oh, I don't know.

I think I'll just deal with the medical team at TNA and maybe they can help guide me through the healing process. And luckily, man, I'm feeling much better. But that was scary on that phone. I was going, oh, my God, this might be the end of my career, the beginning of the end, you know, because, you know, I haven't been hurting, gosh, four or five years. I've been super good since I've been doing the ice baths.

It's the first major injury I've had since doing cold plunges. So, yeah, and I remember telling the dark state guys after that match. I was, oh, it ain't nothing a little cold water won't fix. Man, I got home

the next day and I got in the cold water and when I got out, it's like it's like it made it worse. It's like it hurt more. And I did it in the second day and I was going, oh my God,

maybe I don't need to do the cold water. So my mind was just, I was freaking myself out. So I laid off the ice baths for a while and it seemed to feel better. But yeah, that injury, but now I think I'm back to the points

where I can like rebuild. I've kind of rebuilt my armor and now that I'm healed enough to like get back in the cold water and to hopefully avoid injury from here on out. If you trust, Chris, Chris, do you get your cold plunge in a day? I did not. I cold showered. All right.

I think you can. That counts. Did you cold plunged? Both of you guys cold plunge today? Not yet. I cold plunged. I went out. It's about 8 a.m.

How did you do it here? In the pool. Okay. One thing that I do like about if you're like in Texas, Arizona and New Mexico, a lot of the hotels have outdoor pools and they leave them open during the winter. Yeah. Like if they're chilly. It's cool because we got to do it in Dallas last week.

I was able to do it in New Mexico. And the water, I can tell you, it wasn't as cold as my water at home in North Carolina. Probably in the 50s here, maybe. Probably. But it's still good. I was in there like 10 minutes. 10 minutes? Yeah.

Amazing. Yeah. I cold shower here and kind of like what you're talking about, like when you're, when it's January and you're in a cooler climate, you can feel that water being colder. Yeah. If it's January in Florida, you can put that water as cold as you want. Right. That's not a cold shower.

No, you're swimming in coffee. Cold water, I remember when I, it took me a while. I finally get used to, like, my breathing, controlling it in the cold shower. But, like, getting through, like, washing my hair and everything, I'm finally to where I can control my breathing. But at first, it was, like, the hardest thing. I'd much rather get in the back. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, you're trying to move.

A cold shower, you're, I mean, the breathing, it is a big mental thing, just being able to control, like, you know, trying to relax and just meditate and control your, control your body and your motion. And it's such a big mental thing because, you're, you're, I mean, you're doing your motion. there is not a single day you want to get in that cold water day. Right. And your mind is playing tricks on you, like, ah, you can do this later. Exactly. And I'm up at like 3.30, 4 o'clock every morse.

I'm in there early throughout the summer. It's a breeze to get out there in the cold water before the sun rises. But in the winter, it's different for me. That mental war, I'm like, oh, I just wait until the sun comes up. I just can't. I can't imagine. He does that when it's dark. And it's freezing during the winter.

I mean, it'll be, you know, under 32 degrees. It'll be 30 degrees. It took quite literally free. And he goes out there at 4.30 in the morning and gets in the water in the dark. I was like, God, it sounds crazy. But once you get over that, you win that mental war and you get in the water, even like, for example, on a clear star at night and the moon, and like I'm out there, you know, 3, 34 o'clock. And then the sun has not risen yet. I'm like, oh, I just kind of, oh, my God, I wonder what it feels like on the moon.

This is really cold. But like, what is it? What's it like out there? But, yeah, once you're in, man, it's just getting over that, just making yourself get in. and then you feel so much better when you get out. It is. It's a beautiful war. It is.

And the idea that if you can start your day doing something hard, something you don't want to do, everything else that day feels just a little bit easier. Exactly. Yeah. Bingo. Jeff, when you talk about thinking like this might have been the end with this injury, how much do you guys think about the end of your career?

I try not to think about it, especially with seeing the Sina, the retirement tour, naturally, because we're the same age. He's a little older than me, but 48, and I'm like, oh, man, and AJ, same age. You know, he's talking about maybe retiring soon. I mean, I think about it, but I've, you know, the way my career has went over the years, like the ups and the downs, I just like, yeah, I just hope I can do it for as long as I can. I think that's the way I'm going to do it because after this neck injury,

I feel like my performances are naturally going to get a thousand percent better, you know, because I'm so excited about this whole AMC deal and being in 10. TNA and continuing to evolve. But yeah, I just try not to let the thought of the end enter my consciousness. Wrestling Twitter has been trying to retire us for years now, you know, and they still do. They're trying to book our retirement matches nonstop, you know, but we, we feel good, man. As long as we feel good, we're going to keep going. Do you guys want to continue to do this together as a team?

Like, is the ultimately the dream to retire as the Hardee's? I think so. I just, I feel like, you know, as we're a little old. It's nice when we kind of get to share the workload, you know, as opposed to doing a singles room, which, you know, who knows? I mean, with TNA, maybe that's something they need. And it's funny, you were talking about the whole AMC deal earlier. Like, we both take a lot of pride in that because we were a major factor in this AMC deal happening. And we're both so proud of TNA for getting to this point and being on this major platform. And we really want to lead it into the future. And I want

T&A to be a place that is a stable wrestling company where people can come and make a living. And it is in the conversation with all the other top companies. So, Jeff, you had a match last night, the second show on AMC. And you gave me a hug as you were walking down to the ring. This is going to sound weird. But you smell incredible before a match. Thank you, man. What's the secret here?

Gender to be you. It's an imposter CKB. Yeah. I believe I bought it at Walmart, man. many moons ago. It was a cheap cologne and it's a gender to be you. And oh, let me give that a try. And then Matt and Matt started wearing it back in our early days in WWE, man. It was everybody. That was the deal. Man, you smell them hardy boys. What is that? We have a scent, man. You can smell us from a mile away. You guys might be the best smelling wrestlers. I need all the help I can

get, brother. Because look, you guys have worked with everybody. You know, we're not going to name names here, but you know, there's some people that, you know, you get a little bit sweaty in a match. and you're a little stinky. A little stinky. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's some stinkies out there. Yeah. It happens.

That's not the case with the Hardys, though. Just like you were seeing, too, Chris. I mean, you asked me, you said, which side do you want to set? I'll take this side so that I can look this way at the camera because my nose has been broke seven times? Seven times. So this is your good side? Well, this is my good side.

If you come from this way, it looks a little more normal. So I'll take that, I'll take that CKB. I'll take that gender to be you, man. I need all the hope I can get. What was the most? painful nose break that you've had? Oh my God. The most painful was one with Chris Benoit. There's a time where we're wrestling and we have a match. It was four. It was the U.S. title tournament we were in. And it was like a simple spot where he'd done something. He was

shooting me. I was shooting him into a corner. It was reversal. I hit the turmoil got fed out and he was going to hit me with a forearm. He hit my nose. And it just felt like my whole face exploded whenever he hit me. And I started bleeding. And the look at the very end was amazing because I ended up tapping out to his cross face and like there was blood all over my face and nose and even after he busted my nose we did a thing where I gave him multiple side effects I went up for the headbut and I did the like he you know like he does and uh it looked great because the blood was there and and just it gave a really intense feeling to the match and whatnot but the worst thing about it was following the smack on TV we had to fly to Japan so I got in the air my nose started bleeding and we flew every single

day because it was like a tour of Asia it was the worst my nose didn't get the hill it was in the air and every night it bled. So that, that one was the worst. I've, you know, had many multiple times where I've been punched in those, whatever else, but his was a form and it just felt like it crushed my entire face. Jeff, you've done so many crazy things in the ring. What's been the most painful thing that maybe didn't look that painful? Oh, my gosh. I got a, like recently, what I spoke about earlier when my neck got, got injured. It was that dark state finish when we lost the NXT titles. Is that the worst? It was horrible. Normally, before that, I would have said when I went through a table like vertical against RVD, I went to alpha like a 12 or 14 footer. And I remember

Vince didn't know why I wanted to do it. Why did you want to do it? Just because I'd never seen anybody do it. Yeah. And I said, I just want to like do it. No, I've never seen anybody do it like that and I just want to see how it feels and it rocked my world. I mean, it like just my back, I thought I came close to breaking my back and the table exploded, you know, beautifully. But yeah, before this dark state injury, I would say that. But the feeling in my head after that finished, man, I remember rolling out to Matt and I could tell my neck was starting to hurt and swelling up or something. But I said, man, my bell got wrong on that finish, man. And but then as I went to the back with the trainers, they're like taking me through concussion

protocol and stuff. And I could feel it tightening up, swelling. And I was going, can we just get some ice on this thing? Because I feel it like spreading. And, well, let's just finish these few things. Then we get you some ice on the concussion protocol. And it was things that are hard to do when you're not concussed. It was like remembering all these different things. But by the time I got ice, man, it's like I felt it. The moment I put that ice, it like it took over this complete. It's like it started on this side, but it totally took over my whole neck, the swelling or inflammation, whatever it was. But yeah, I'm going to go with that, man just to watch that and then me knowing exactly how that felt it was terrible did it chris i just

want to say like he did that because he's like oh well people usually don't go through a table that way long ways right is different this guy in t-n-a we were having a match was that with the woes or the dudley or team 3d he wanted to go through a table where the table was upside down you know what i mean where the legs like go through it backwards it's like what do you want to do they said what's done for and he did it and all the frame all the framing was on it do the same. And I went right to it. My first idea was, what if I could do like a cannonball, man? And I said, why do you want to do that? He's just never been number four. Okay. There's probably a reason why. Oh, my God, stupidity. It was just, uh, it was terrible.

Like I had the, it was terrible. Okay, I, I, now I know what that feels like. And I can say this. I did it. Yeah. Nobody else. Man. You've got a, both of you have to have a pretty interesting risk-reward conversation with yourself, right? Because you both have done such crazy things. So you've got to have a conversation with yourself of like, it's risky. Sure. But it'll look really cool. Or the table sandwich.

That's a great example of it, right? Yes, it is. And Matt's the only guy to ever take the table of the human table sandwich. We did at our first, our brother versus brother, WrestleMania, 2025, yeah. As when, you know, Matt was in between two tables. So we're talking about that. Like, you know, we've done, many steps. We did this on the Indies a lot.

If we could get two tables on an indie show, you know, I'd be on the top table He'd do Willow, right, when he wore the mask, and I would wrestle with him as Matt Hardy, Surge, how old he was, whatever it was. And, you know, he would jump from the top rope and put me through two tables. But he's like, what if we had two tables, but, you know, you were on the bottom table where he would break the top table onto me. And we started thinking about it.

I was like, well, you know, the top table is going to come into me, and I really don't want to be impelled. I said, but what if we put a chair over my organs, you know, so that I couldn't be impelled? And he said, I think that would work. And we really wanted to do it at WrestleMania, and we were talking about it, and we did it. So we put me on the bottom table, set the other table on top, and we put a chair to protect my organs and whatnot. And we did it, man.

And it turned out. But he took such great care of me, too. He was so super safe with it. We've done it two or three times. I know we did it in T&A, two in a cage match or something. We've done it twice at least. Maybe three. Yeah.

We've done it twice for sure. It's smooth every time, man. And the main thing is overshooting. your spot a little bit, just overshooting a little bit, enough to where the table still break. But yeah, Matt's the only guy that's agreed to lay there for it. You just got to protect those organs. You know what I mean?

I need my heart. Yeah, I'd say. I need my heart and my loan. Yeah. You know, it's hard to believe that it's already been over a month since John Cena's final match. And I'm grateful to say that I was able to be there in person in D.C. With some amazing tickets from Seekek.

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Jeff, does it hurt more to land a swanton or when the guy rolls out of the way? It's a good question. Yeah, definitely when the guy rolls away overall. But if it's a big guy, man, it can sometimes like big show, for example, man. I've done one to him before and it's like it broke my back. I like arched over him. And I'm one in WWE, gosh, I just lay. I was like just laying there on top.

Like I got knocked out as well. but it like, you know, almost, you know, bends your back to where it actually hurts pretty bad. But, yeah, depending on the size of the, of your opponent. But I would say overall, missing in them is the worst. Yeah, but Big Show is a massive piece of meat. Yes, man. In a perfect world, just the back of your head is hitting them and you're rolling off? As far as safety overall, yeah, yeah, that's the most beautiful swan town.

I used to do so well in my younger 20s, you know, I used to, I had that master. And just like the ninja roll off of the human beings. I got back back. I used to do it my 20s. But then there was a time where his back was hurting and beat up and he's like, well, I don't, you know, I've taken care of people in Swanton's a lot.

They're going to have to eat it a little bit. You know what I mean? And he would like crush him for a while. And that's when I started calling it the crouton for a bit. Which is, yeah. Sometimes you get a crouton. But then once Jeff started cold plunging, man, he got right back into that super safe.

He like reverted back to Jeff Hardy in his 20s, man. The crouton bomb. Yeah, the first night on AMC, they got a crouton bomb, didn't they? against the scholar or was that oh scholar did yeah yeah i couldn't happen to a better guy you know what i mean it was a great hand all crude time make that guy pay his dues Jeff what is the craziest move that matt has ever done craziest move that matt's ever done I would have to say um it's got to be a leg drop off

to the top of the cage you feel like it always comes back to this leg drop off the top of the cage on edge yeah or well you took such great care of him on that too yeah The blind, the big, huge blind bump, though, and one of the TLCs was real sketchy too, man. Which one was in the first TLC? It's where I was climbing the ladder. It was a 12-foot ladder, and Devon picked up the bottom of the ladder

and dumped me backwards, and I fell over the top rope, but it was, I couldn't see there were tables back there. But I had to, like, be able to get over the top rope because if my legs clipped it, then I would fall on my head on the floor. But if I went too far, I would have hit my head on the barricade, which could have broke my neck. So there were two tables.

So, like, timing was timing and the point I was at the height, we like, it kind of measured it out. I knew exactly where I need to be. And it was still very risky, but fortunately, it paid off and worked out. So, Matt, what's the craziest spot that Jeff's ever done? I still think it's that swan time that he did in the impact zone because it is so crazy. There was a, was that a Boundford Warrior, right? Yeah.

Was that the first Belfare? Down for Glory, yeah. He did a swan town, like, it wasn't just off the stage. It was to Abyss, right? Yeah, over the stage. He went up on the, whatever the structure was behind that and jumped, like, over the stage. And, I mean, he just had so many hurdles that felt like that he had to get over. And if he missed, it's like, it would have murdered him if he would have bent off in any capacity.

And he pulled it off to perfection. It was wild. He calls it the sketchiest swanthine. done and it really was it's still crazy i look out it's like jesus christ the like i mean you you make one little mistake on that like you're done yeah that that was very very sketchy and just no padding nothing down there and then after that yeah i think i went into the ring and rano give me a power dropper off the second rope yeah those are the days when the first bound for glory wow back when we were young and invincible it's crazy looking at the highlights and somehow realizing you guys can still

walk. It is, especially after that leg drop. I never walked the same, man. Even to this day, you think? Yeah. No, I's changed. Well, also, too, because like, if 51-year-old me could go back and talk to 23-year-old me when we're just starting, right, I would say, like, first and foremost, I know you guys think it's cool because you guys do that leg drop splash. We caught it Oveno Mega. We did that every single night. And our schedule in the beginning was 10 days on, four days off. It's a bunch of house shows, right? And we would do that every night, whether we're winning or losing. And just like the wear and tear from doing that leg drop over and over, especially it was the real hard rings in.

It's before they made the ring bumping rings. You know what I mean? In WDB, it's when they were built for the big guys for 350, 360 million guys that were earthquake and Typhoon and Hogan and guys that didn't do a lot. So we're doing that legdrop splash every single night. I just get a more simple finish, you know, figure out something that isn't so hard on your body. and like use the leg drop when it counts on a big show, whatever else. That's the first thing I would do. But just I have so much scar tissue in my lower back and pelvis and hips and whatnot.

And that was the time, whenever I did that one off the cage, you just changed it like, I got a change just like to, oh, I'll do elbow to the back of the head from the second rope, you know, I started getting a smartened up. Do you worry that if you do stop, that your bodies are just going to fall apart? Like one of the reasons you guys are so mobile still is because you're continuing to do this, all the time. I think even with this neck injury, man, it seems like when I kind of, like, because the AMC debut and I kind of had to become less fearless to a certain extent, because your

brain, your mind can, you know, be your worst enemy, man, if you allow it to. And I was just freaking myself out, like, oh, my God, this neck injury is going to be, it's going to end my career, just all these negative things. But when I kind of got away from that, because we were live on AMC, this new big deal for TNA, I kind of didn't think about that as much. And then like the next day, I was, oh, maybe I just need to focus more on, I'm going to be okay. This is all going to be okay. I'm going to heal.

See, I think that's a big part of it. But, yeah, we get, you know, calloused up to, you know, bump and taking all these big falls or whatever night after night. And I think our bodies are very used to that, you know, and if we don't do it for a while, mine anyway, does get a little out of whack. And I think what is most important is that we continue to do these cold plunges and get our cardio in. Like we're very stubborn and hardheaded. Like we have to do this stuff every day. Like continue to train, continue to work out. Like as long as we continue doing that, I think we'll be good.

You know, we're going to wrestle. You know, we're going to ride the spiral till it ends. You know, that's kind of how it is. But I do agree with you. Like, us doing this kind of keeps this tough. But like even Jeff having this neck injury, I think in some ways it's going to make him a smarter worker as crazy as ourselves. Because I think even working through this neck injury as he's doing right now, I'll be like, oh, well, maybe I don't have to do this.

Because once he does feel good again, he's like, oh, maybe I don't have to do that. I can, you know, be a little smarter, be a little wiser with everything I'm doing. Longevity, man, we've been so blessed and we're so grateful to have longevity we've had. And it actually inspired a submission of so many submission holes have been created and the human body can only be in a certain amount of positions. We might become the master of submissions before us all. You know, Matt's always had a cool original submission. It's called the Leach.

Yeah. Leach deal. We're going to do 10 more years just being submission with us. I had it's like a double-legged kind of Boston crab or something called the spine line, my first running TNA. And I've used that, you know, from time to time. But I was thinking about the reverse full Nelson. It's like to where my hands are on the guy's chin and the mouth. And I did it last week, the first night on AMC.

And I haven't got a name yet. Got a few options. But, yeah, you get the reverse full Nelson in and then you bridge the guy back on your knee. And it looks pretty sick. The first night I did it, then my hand kept slipping off. but I think I can make it work, man. So it's down to like a friend of ours at T&A had a good idea. He said, does it affect the spine?

I said, yeah, it affects the spine. He said, what about the spinal verdict? And I said, hey, that ain't bad, man, I like that. But then I was checking into like full nelson thing about opposites or whatever. And Nelson, what's Nelson backwards? Nosselin, full Nostlin, just doing, it sounds pretty cool. So I got to work it out, but that's, yeah, I'm super excited from this neck injury. I think I've figured out a Jeff Hardy submission I'm going to be using.

I love the way that your brain works. Like you're so both of you, so artistic, but like especially you, Jeff, with your influence with actual art. Like I know you love painting. It's a huge passion of yours.

Same with music. I feel like that's creeping into what you do in the ring too. For sure, especially now on this last, extreme and most extreme Hardy run. I mean, yeah, naturally,

I still love the craft of pro wrestling so much, man. to dream up these things in your imagination and bringing the life in front of a live audience. So yeah, it's all kind of the music, the painting, the wrestling is all kind of merge as one now, man. It's so fun. It's funny when he was talking about when he was doing that, the spinal verdict, right? Yeah. He called it, a temporary placeholder name.

Whenever we're doing that, he was talking about the comeback, and he comes in, boom, boom, boom, he was bump and stuff. He was doing it with Vinny, right? With Vinny. Yeah, Vincent of the righteous. and by the way I noticed you're all in white today are you not joining them as guys are you?

No but I know they're trying to get into our heads I watched the promo back and the words that came out of their mouths you know kind of slight it made me think a little bit and so you know I don't have nothing to do with why I'm wearing white okay okay I think they're trying to pull broken mat

and brother and they were out of us and they may ultimately get what they want but I don't know anyway we were doing that and Jeff was doing the thing he was just bombing him around And I remember there was conversation like, you know, Jeff does that thing where he holds the legs up and he does the leg drop to the abdominal area. And he calls out the name of the city.

And he decided enough to do that because typically he does that. And then he rolls backwards and then does a drop kick and just to protect his neck. You know what I mean? So we're doing that hold. And we're like, yeah, do that hold like work into it real slow. And like that was like a minute, right? Yeah. You know, when we're doing that.

So it was great. But like the whole procedure of him doing it, Jeff grabbing it and the drama of like getting there and bending the. and bending the guy backwards, slow. It was great. And I think that stuff is going to help him be a smarter worker, that even when he does feel better and these desks get back into the position they need to be in, I think he'll even be a smarter worker. He's like, well, I can do this.

And I don't have to beat my body up as much as I typically do. It's very awkward trying to get into that position. I've got to figure that. It's very awkward getting into the hole. So I've got to kind of work something out as far smoother ways to get into it. But one thing I can tell you is there's a part of him. which goes every single match, he is so driven to entertain his fans.

Like, because Jeff has the most loyal fans, the most, I mean, we call our fans diehardt's, but his fans are the most diehard fans there are. And he does, he wants to entertain him.

He wants to give them, that whisper in the wind, he wants to give them a swan-town bomb. He wants to give everything he has in his body, every performance. But, like, I also say this, too, is we're older and get beat up a little bit.

Like, dude, they're just happy to see Jeff Hardy. You know what I mean? Like, Jeff Hardy can go out there and you can do your stuff, It's not like you're phoning it in, but you don't have to do every single thing, every single night. In some ways, I think going through this neck injury is going to help make him a smarter,

more efficient worker. There is so much history with you guys in Team 3D. What a special moment to be in there with the Dudleys for their final match. Were all of you guys crying in there? I think we were, yeah. It was definitely emotional. So I'll tell you this. This is, I'll be fully transparent.

Like we knew Devon, we just wanted to get him through this last match. And we knew he was retiring. This was it, right? We wanted him to go out in this great match with like career rivals and do it. We had no idea. They were going to both take their boots off. And we definitely didn't know they were going to give him to us. And Jeff had just asked like at the end, he said, hey, is that a thing?

I said, it wasn't, but I think it is now. Yeah, you know what it is now. You know what I mean? Yeah. So that wasn't much. And he said, like, what we're going to do at the end to show you the respect and, like, say you guys, you guys have won this battle. Whoever wins this is the greatest of all time. We have something we're going to do.

But we don't want to tell you. Is that fine? I said, that's great. Let's just doing the ring. Let's get a very authentic, genuine reaction. And that's what that was. And we were just more than anything, we just wanted divan to be okay in that match. We tried to protect him as much as we could.

We, you know, he'd had some serious health issues over the years. And we were going to bust our ass. to work as hard as we could because, you know, those guys haven't been working a lot. Bowley has been working here and there doing some stuff, but, you know, we wanted to bust our ass and we really wanted to, we really wanted to tap into the emotion behind the match. And what was great, even in the beginning, like, we had to start the match so the crowd was stopped chanting, you know what I mean? So the crowd was so involved in it, and they were so emotionally invested, and that's what

made it feel so special. I want you guys to finish this sentence for me. And it's one that I'm sure you hear all the time. Oh, the Hardy Boys. Jeff is the blank one. Matt is the blank one. Hmm. Jeff is the crazy one.

Oh, yeah. Matt is the engineer. Matt is the architect. Oh, the Hardy Boys. Oh, Jeff's the crazy one. Matt's the businessman. Yeah. The business man.

Yeah. Big money, Matt. Yeah. The business guy. Yeah. Like, it's funny, like, if someone is trying to reach out to, like, book us or do something, whatever, like, I'll be the one that gets the text. You know what I mean? They're like, oh, Jeff May or may not hit me back.

I don't know. I've got to give me a calendar, though, and start writing things down. Matt will throw stuff home, and I'm so busy at home, especially if I'm involved in yard work or whatever. But you think you can do this? We're going to be there anyway. But then we might as well go over there and do this and do that. And I'm, yeah, sure, man, that would be fine. I want to get back and finish what I'm doing today.

But then, man, when those weekends come along and say it's some rough schedules, man. What was it? Shout out. Do you know Tony Hunter, though? No. Tony Hunter is the guy that books us for cons. Oh, yes. Yes.

Yeah. Tony, he tries to overbook you sometimes, man. He works as hard. You guys are on the road a lot. Him and Ross, man. Ross, the boss. They overwork us, man. Yeah, and these media, man, we do some media tours of Ross the boss, man.

They are rough. Ross the boss. Thank God for Matt, too, being the businessman. And the more, uh, More ego expressive individual he is. Yeah, yeah. I'm the one that eventually when our characters change into goats and we really end up being the greatest of all time,

I'll be the mouthpiece for you know what I mean. Yeah, but man, going out and doing media naturally is important, man. But those are long days and I reach my talking limit real quick on those days. But yes, it's all for a great cause, man. It's so cool to be a, to be in TNA here in 2026 and the experience this whole evolution, man as far as what's going on. And yeah, we are blessed, man. And to be on AMC back in the great game, you know what I mean,

like literally on a level, you know, as WW is, you know, as AW is, you know, back in the great game. I remember going to Spike, man. We were just doing the pay-per-views, I think every Wednesday or something with TNA, my first run in TNA and then getting the big, you know, deal with Spike. And that was super exciting. And now to be here, man, and just going through this on AMC is, oh, my God, I'm, I can't help but think about the first cinematic match that's going to be on AMC.

I think it's going to be a very, very powerful thing, man. As far as especially, I'm not a big show guy, but shows like The Walking Dead and Breaking Bad, to know those shows were on this, in this place, oh my God, I think that anything's possible when it comes to a cinematic match on AMC. You know, we told AMC we're ready to do this for cinematic match. We only have two requests. in our first cinematic match, whatever it is. We need two cameos in there.

From who? We need Gus Fring. We need Rick Grimes. You know, make it happen, AMC. Make it happen. A few zombies. Here, we want zombies roaming through the woods in the Hardy compound. That can probably actually happen.

It's so cool for me to have both of you guys here for an interview. I don't have to tell you this. I've told you many times. You guys were a huge inspiration when I was growing up for my backyard wrestling character. A lot of sports. swanton bombs, a lot of twist of fates. Yeah. The last time I did an interview with you guys together was nine years ago.

It was Ring of Honor 2017. Oh, yeah. The day before you return, yeah. At WrestleMania 33. And I've heard Matt talk a lot about WrestleMania 33, but Jeff, I've never heard your story behind this. What was WrestleMania 33 like for you in that insane surprise entrance? Right before you start.

I just want to say, Jeff said that day, I'll never forget. we finished we talked to you at ring of ring of honor right and we did a whole bunch of media that day in ring of honor we'd done media before jeff told me at the end of they said holy shit i'm glad this is done and we're starting back at wdb tomorrow i'm sick of lying i'm sick of having a lot he's i know it comes very natural easy to you but like i'm tired of lying man i just want i just want to be honest gosh i remember i was talking about signing with ring of honor like before we you know the rest of many they have i said oh yeah in a couple years you know we're gonna i'm gonna do some concerts will ring of honor you know they just it just all this came out what am i talking about

oh my god uh but no it was it's my when we think about our careers man it's it's number one for me because there was a point when i wrote my song called obsolete that that was a point in my life my second running teenage where i thought i may never go back to wb and that was kind of you know depressing in itself um but yeah that's that's probably number one man it just it was so it felt so good and I was so nervous and Michael Hayes reminded me to breathe, you know, before the match. And that was a great idea. But just to be back and it does feel like home, you know, that's where our dreams came true, our childhood dreams, when we signed with WWE, man.

And just to be back home, it was amazing. And going out there, we hadn't seen the venue for this WrestleMania. And that ramp was so massive. We knew we went up like four stories of stairs. But then out on the ramp, I went to the edge and I started juke. And I was, whoa, it was like 20 feet down. I was like, oh, my God, this is going to see of humanity everywhere. But it was, oh, yeah, it was just my number one, maybe yours.

I'm not sure if it is, you know, but as far as in our careers, that's number one for me. That was huge. So I think the further away we get from that moment, the more important it feels and it becomes. And it really was. Jeff said, like, Jeff said, I'm not sure if I'm ever going to return to WB, you know what I mean? And we went back in such a dramatic. fashion. It was cool because we're living at that time in 2017 where the internet's there and usually spoilers, spoilers are always posted. And nobody knew for certain if we're going to be there or not.

And we'd done a good job at having a red herring appearing at Ring of Honor and being the Ring of Honor tag champs. We'd had a 30-minute ladder war the night before with the bucks of youth. And just showing up there and there's tens of thousands of people going delete, delete, delete in the crowd and they were leaning into this broken mat, brother Nero lore that we had created in TNA, a company that, you know, was about to go to business in some ways, you know, that wasn't doing that great at the time. And we kind of got it hot. There was all this viral stuff going on. And that stuff got over. And to see the WWE universe embrace all that and be so excited, legitimately excited and so emotional with us returning that moment just is so crazy special.

And I was so bummed out when I didn't break both the ladders, man. I got. I threw back on my head a little bit, Shamis and Claudio, and I was like, oh, I can't, but this is a WrestleMania. I didn't break both ladders. So I was real bummed out about that, but it looked pretty cool, like watching it back. Nobody would notice. What are you talking about?

I'm terrible. I've got to stop being apologetic. I'm like, even like, since this neck injury after at these long meet and greets, like hardcore Jeff Hardy fans, I'm so sorry I'm dealing with this neck injury, man. I couldn't give you what I, you know, what you deserve to see. What are you talking about? That's nonsense. Both of you had your very first official match in WWE, May 23rd, 1994.

Yep. Jeff, you were 16 years old, and your first match was against Razor Ramon. Yeah, it was terrifying, man. One guy didn't want to take his finish, Keith Davis. Yes, who's Keith Davis? I was Keith Davis that evening. I became Keith Davis after Keith Davis didn't want to take the Razors' edge, I guess. That's the story?

Yeah. Well, the story was this. I mean, I'll let Jeff finish telling that. But so we went with the Italian stadium. He had 15 guys in a van, took a bunch of extras for enhancement talent. And Keith Davis was going to wrestle Scott Hall, raised Ramon. And they got two, three matches away from him going to the ring. And he said, I can't do it.

I can't do it. I got a bad neck. My neck's hurt. I can't take that finish. If I take that finish, it's going to break my neck. I can't do it. I can't do it. And we're like, why are you here wrestling if you have a legitimate neck injury and a bad

neck? So they pulled him out of the match. And then Staligan said, oh, get this guy. He's like a rubber man. He can take all kinds of bumps. He'll do it. And Jeff, like, walks up to Scott Hall. And he's like, fuck, you know, this guy.

And Scott was frustrated because he had a little match together with this guy, Keith Davis. And now, like, there's another guy coming. He's like, I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. And he was mad already. So going into that match, he was, like, frustrated and a little angry. And I think that made him a little more aggressive with you.

Jeff. And you would never had an official match up to this point? Never. I didn't know what I was doing. And he was 16. No, and also he had a lot about his age because I said, my brother's 16. Can he go there? And he said, Stan said, oh, brother, yeah, it's fine. Just have him, just have your dad write a note. I say it's okay. Yeah, one vivid memory that stands out from walking in the venue that day.

You know, our first ever, like, experience backstage was, I think the bizarre Undertaker was going on. They were doing the fake tattoos on his arm. And I said, oh, this is crazy. We are here. The underfaker. The underfaker, yeah, and I had a pair of yellow tights with a sharpy marker. I used to, like, wrestled this guy called Wolverine, you know, when I was doing my kind of sting thing with the face paint. But, yeah, and I drew, like, graffiti Wolverine down the side, and that's what I wore in that match.

And just being out there in that hard-ass ring. And I didn't know if it was live or it was, they taped like four raws that night or something. But I was on one of the taped ones, and I just didn't know. It was very surreal. But I think it was just a universe kind of guiding me in the exact direction I needed to go by kind of being forced to go or having the opportunity to go out there and taking advantage of it. But it was rough, man. But I got that night, I got the nickname Ice by, you know, the clique. Scott Hall.

I was, oh, him so much, man. He kind of looks like ice. And vanilla ice was big, you know, back in the days. Yeah. And then Xbox said, bump, bump, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum. Yeah, because he was out there bumping like crazy. And the next night, luckily, I wrestled one-two-three kid, and that kind of refilled my soul as far as, you know, similar size.

But you can watch that match with the one-two-three kid. And I got like a rear headlock on or something, but I'm tapping my hand like that. Like, I'm supposed to be locked in, you know, but I'm going like that. And naturally, it was like, what is that? What's this kid doing out there at Walmart? And this night I had a pair of white spandex tights on from Walmart with a borrowed pair of wrestling boots from somebody from Stalions group.

So yeah, that was such a wild experience. But going back home, I was a junior in high school. I'll never forget, man, y'all got to watch Monday Night Raw next week. Man, I get my ass kicked and I get it kicked good. By Razor Ramon, y'all got to watch. I'll never forget when Steyn said, hey, brother, move your birthday back two years. So you're 18, so you appear to be 18. So that same night you wrestled Nikolive-Oilkoff.

Yeah, I wrestled Nikolai Volkov on live TV. And that's your first match ever. Yeah, like in the great game. I mean, we'd wrestle with some independent matches. You know, like it's funny, Jeff was saying that the first match I wrestled with Stey. I had like a tryout where I went with Jason Arndt, the guy who was Joy Abbs of the Me Street Posse. And I went and wrestled and Steyn was looking for more guys to take the W.B as an enhancement talent. And the thing was, he wanted to take as many guys as he could because he would take a 66% booking fee.

And the first guy I wrestled was like his enforcer. His name was Maverick. He was kind of like JBL to a degree. He was the tough guy that would beat up the green kids or whatever else. He's wanted to put you in the ring with this guy. He's experienced. He knows what's going on? We're going to see where you're at.

We're going to test you. And it's like, okay. And I said, what do you want to do out there? Because like any matches I'd had, we'd always kind of talked about. He said, just listen to him out there, kid. I'm going to call in the ring. I'm like, oh, okay, sure. And I'll never forget.

I locked up with this guy. And he said, grab a headlock. and I can't even do it without going to my left now. And he said, he said, hey, kid, he said, grab a headlock. And, you know, like, obviously it's this way. And I was, like, doing it with the right. And I grabbed it and I put it. He said, that's the ride.

He said, what are you a mark? And then he backs suplexed me on my head behind me. And what's funny is because he thought I was going to be, like, all banged up. But I'm young and invincible. I'm like, 18 years old. And I like, get up and I'm selling doing it. He's like, how the hell is he up already for me? And, you know, beating me up.

And he's like, all right, what do you do? I said, okay, stay here. And then I'd do like a springboard moon salt, and I miss a $4.50 for the finish. I did a couple things. And he said, well, you're really athletic, but you need to learn the psychology. You need to learn the terminology, everything else. You need to learn how to work the left, brother. He said, for $3,000, I can teach you all this.

I'm like, well, sorry, I'm a broke kid. I don't have any money. And then he called a little later. And then he asked, you had some other guys. And that's when Jeff and this guy, Jason, aren't Joey Abbs and Marty Garner, first name, sham, last name Payne. We all ended up going and doing extra work for W. That first match with Nicola, I've never forget.

yet Tony Garria was the producer. He was like the agent for our match. He was a job match. He said, all right, kid. He said, I gotta tell you're on live TV. He said, and when you're on live TV, if you go out there and if you fuck up, you'll never come back here again. You'll never come back here again.

So don't fuck up. You have a kid? I said, oh, yes, sir, yes, sir, yes, sir. And Nick Laugh comes up and I go, what'd you like do? He said, oh, don't worry about it. He said, I just, I call it out there. Just listen to me. He said, it's okay.

I fuck up every match. He said, we fuck up. It's no big deal. And I'm like, oh, my God, TV. I'm never going to come back again. You know what I mean? So the pressure was on. I was an 18-year-old kid.

Man. Crazy. Yeah. It's crazy how the universe works, right? Because that sets you up for everything else that you're having and all the great success you've had in your career. Yeah. This is officially the Jeff Hardy beard.

Tell me the story about the first time you shaved your beard like this. Oh, my gosh. I remember, like, before I had facial hair, we were at Myrtle Beach one time. And I was kind of envious of. of somebody's beard I saw or something. I was like, man, whenever I'm able to grow full facial hair, I'm going to have some cool, funky designs, man. And it's going to be called funky facial hair.

And that's what I was telling myself. And I started experiment. The more stuff started growing in, I just played with stuff. But then ultimately, just the two stripes up to my mouth and the one and my jaw kind of became the kind of go-to. This is new. I just posted about this, I think, this morning on Twitter. I hardly ever did anything on Twitter.

but just, I was like, yeah, this was the first post with the infinity beard. So two weeks ago, I tried, I said, man, for this AMC debut, I got to do something totally unique. So I just said, what if I can do like a half infinity symbol somehow? Like on the bottom? Like on your, I grew my, yeah, it's like there's loops there, which I go to my mouth. But if it went straight, if this was just a loop here, it would be two infinity symbols. But it's really hard for me to grow in on this area.

We're not sure when I paint it. So anyway, I tried that the first day. And it was after one of our conventions that I had my beard. It was full. It'd been growing for like three weeks. And so I shaved it out. I was, oh, this might be something to this, but it's super hard to, you know, doing the circles. It's super hard to maintain.

So, yeah, I just always wanted to, from Vanilla Ice, you know, I saw an interview back in like 92. He said he cuts his own hair and he had all the designs. So naturally, I started doing that. And I still, to this day, cut my own hair in the back. Oh, yeah. You got a design in there. Yeah. Even with a bad neck.

Yeah, I've done that the other night. Tows. How do you, how do you shave designs into the back of your head? With a mirror. With a mirror. A mirror and a mirror? Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. It's crazy. And I've been trying to do more things with like my left hand. I'm getting a little better at it. With the neck injury, it's been real tough. But yeah, I just always wanted to, you know, facial hair. I don't want to have just a beard. I want to have more than a beard.

And the only other guy, who's the guy? Riff Raff. Yeah. The rapper, he all. His stuff's always impressive, man. It's another level compared to mine. Chris, keep in mind, this guy cuts his yard. He does all this stuff with a weed eater and puts designs.

He'll flop a drone and, like, shoot it and like, oh, I've got to change this. I've got to change that. You know what I mean? Just his art is just on another level. Man, it is heavenly. Yeah, normally, oh, just by, you know, I never look at it until it's done.

And then, but most of the time, 95%, man, of the time, like, I'm extremely happy with the way it looks. once I get the drone up there. So, yeah, I just recently did the Enigma, my Enigma Cross, for those who might not understand what this cross is, I designed this in TNA. It was after Prince had done the thing. You know, he became the symbol. He said, the artist formerly known as, I thought that was just like the coolest thing ever.

And I said, I got to design me across. It's going to be me when I, when I, the artist formerly known is Jeff Hardy. That checks out. Yeah, so that's where this symbol came from. But with Pinesstraw, at Leaps of Faith, the. The motorcross track, that's pretty much my front yard, I've talked about maybe doing an interview there in the future. Sond me up. But like Pines Straw, I just went for it, and it's huge.

I did this cross. And I didn't get my drone up to see it, but I got on a very tall ladder. And it looks incredible, man. So it's Pines Straw over the grass, and it just turned out so good. I just have this natural talent with nature and what you can do as far as a different medium. And I just, yeah, I love some landscaping. And yard art, man. If I was not a wrestler, I would definitely be like running a landscaping company, I think.

When's the first time you ever juked? The first time ever juked, it had to be sometime on the road with Michael Hayes is when I developed that. Because he used to always, like, do a slow deal and like moonwalk. And it's the freebirds. And I just saw that. And I was like, whoa, there's maybe. And it kind of just developed over time and with the entrance. But it was some time back in there.

It evolved very naturally. But yeah, it started because I think there were times where we were with Michael where we'd both like, I would do that too. You would have high voltage. Yes. And I would do that once in a while. I have voltage, right? Yeah. Yeah.

This was a lightning bolt, guys. I've ever seen that. Yeah. And it was from the, uh, a candy barred bar commercial. Yeah. So the Ferris Bueller song. Yeah.

Boom. Boom. Um, uh, anyway, uh, we, we were doing that because I,

I would do that something and Jeff started doing that, but then just a bomb, I remember Jeff came out and he just started, he started rocking it. Like, it's huge. I mean, like,

people love that now. The juke is such a big thing. There's so many people that come up to them at our post show meet greets or cons. Like, hey, can I do the Jew? Can we get a video? Just doing the Jew girl.

We'll get together. Yeah. Happens all the time. Yeah. So, you know, Matt did develop the delete like the return of WrestleMania. It was so cool to hear people, you know,

And I still want to, like, I'm envious of that because, you know, all the things has been done naturally. Anytime you're a chop, whew! That's, you know, the flare's there. But the yes and the yeet and the deleting, I want to figure me out something. But I do have the juke, man. It's kind of been a pretty big deal over the years. I think one of your matches that doesn't get talked about enough is your match at Backlash

2009, the I Quit match. And the end of that match is crazy. Like, I don't know how you survive that bump, Matt. You're tied to this table. I barely surrepped. It was so real. What's so funny is like, you know, we did a deal. And once again, Jeff was so over at that time, you know,

outrageously over with the champion. There's a saying which people were telling Jeff this over and over and over again, black people specifically. They're going, man, I loved you when you were the champion. Man, you were bigger than Obama, dog. Bigger than Obama. And that has become a thing. Yeah.

And like, BTO, you know, it was like an era, a BTO. And during that time, we're going to WrestleMania 25. And, you know, Vince was saying, well, you know, Jeff's really over. I think we can get Matt over as a hill. He has pretty good heat. And obviously, I won at WrestleMania, which I appreciate Jeff doing that for me. And then we also had a stretcher match, which was great, too. There's the most amazing shot where Jeff does a swan ton, and I move off the stretcher,

and he lands perfectly, which is wild. Do that. And then we're going to have the blow off where it's the I quit match. And I remember we're talking about how we're going to do things. And at the very end with the table, it's like, oh, just time me up where you can do this because I wanted to like get the mic, they'd bring the mic up to me and I'm talking like, Jeff, please don't do it. Our mom wouldn't want you to do this.

Our mom wouldn't want you to do this, please. She's looking down and I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. And Jeff's like, nope, I'm coming anyway. And I go, I quit, I quit, I quit. And then Jeff gets down. It's crazy.

The crowd like booed, boom. And he goes, fuck it. Boom, and jump, goes through. And I'll never forget is we're talking about being tied up so that I was stuck there where I couldn't move so he could do that very easily and I could talk and we could have the interaction. Vince said, well, I don't know. This might be dangerous. If you're all tied up like that, you can't really brace yourself.

You can't protect yourself. Like, you might break something. And I said, we'll be fine. Don't worry about it. Lo and behold, Jeff did that. And my hands were stuck there. And just the way he happened to land, Jeff's ass-kind of land on my hand.

I broke my hand in three places. Wow. So it was like a deal. Like, and I came out with the cast and I wrestled on Raw. And I had a cast and people thought it was like bullshit. And he's like, well, just use that. He said, like, use it as a weapon, but I had a legit broke hand. And I, like, kept working eventually with a broke hand.

And then I had a deal where I got to tear my abdominal wall. And then I took time off afterwards from that. But, like, the I quit match, I really enjoyed it. It was great. I love the finale. I love that Jeff got that deal at the end when he came back through when the match was over. And it still, it gave him like a rugged edge to. I landed so perfectly on my feet, too.

It just looked so easy for me, which I mean, it was. But knowing that he broke his hand. Gosh, brutal. Yeah, all good, man. I mean, you know, it's not ballet. How much did the screwdriver in your ear with Randy Orton hurt? It hurt. It hurt a little bit.

It looks nasty. Yeah, for sure. That's my hell in the cell moment, man. For years after seeing Mick Foley and Mankind and Undertaker, naturally, I was like, man, I want to do something like that. When he went off that first time through the table, I just, I was, I totally get, you know, why he does stuff like that. But then the choke slam when that gave way and he had that was back in that when that ring was super hard as well.

Oh, God. Man, I was like. And the chair lands on his face. On his face. Yeah. And you see his tooth coming out of his nose. Whatever. I was like, oh my God, that's not.

That will never be taught. Yeah. I mean, such respect for Mick, just surviving. That was incredible. I mean, that was some of the most brutal that, that were two of the most brutal spots I've ever seen back to back. Yeah. And actually being in a hell in the cell with Randy. And it was the first one time it had been painted red.

And it was awkward. and strange, but just seeing how big that structure is. And even the splash I missed when I was hanging, it's just such a massive structure. So thank God for that screwdriver and Randy and the twist that he did, because that's my, you know, I consider that my hell in the cell moment that it's kind of hard to forget. How'd you come up with that? You know, somebody else's idea with the screwdriver, I had just had, he had used his fingers and pulled me around by it and I think a chain or a rope, but,

Somebody mentioned that screwdriver. It might have been Michael Hayes or somebody else. But anyway, it was somebody's idea that was out there with us talking about the match. But twisting it like that and just watching back the way it looks how it was turning purple, like it was, it was gruesome, man. Man, that's the essence of pro wrestling. You know what I mean? Those moments that are memorable like that.

So pro wrestling has gone down such a path now where, you know, people are, oh, my God, I've got to get all these spots in. And we've got to get a lot of choreographed. you know, combos that we're going to do, whatever, but those moments are what people remember. You know what I mean? And what are the benefits of having inch gauges, you know, that was like, man, how can I use this? You know, that, oh, yeah, let's do that. And, you know, that's the thing that we're looking to do more and more, you know, especially as we're a little older, we're like, what are the moments we can create that are going to stand out in people's minds?

You know, like, for instance, that, you know, whenever we had the match with the Dudley's, them taking their boots off and giving us their boots was a big, big moment. You know, Jeff doing that swanthine, the divan at the very end, we weren't looking to go out there and have like a six-star match or, you know, whatever it is, a bangor or work rate, whatever, you know, like we were trying to tell a story and get people emotionally invest in what we're doing. And that is the essence of pro wrestling at the end of the day. And we're looking to capture those moments,

even like, you know, the shirt with having this goat thing, as we've talked about, like people were calling us the goats. So we're like, hey, maybe we should put out a shirt like that. Like, I think there's a great idea for us moving forward in TNA. eventually we kind of lean into this like we believe maybe we are the greatest of all time and maybe we get a little big headed and I think we can do some real entertaining content. Who's going to boo you guys? Come on. I don't think we're going to get booed. I think we've become bigger baby phases. You know, I mean, him especially, guys, I'm not going to put myself

or do much, but him especially. I mean, he's like in that John Cena territory where you can't turn him hill. You know what I mean? I mean, he would love to do the Antichristian and go out and try and get booed, but it's just not going to happen. He's on another level now. You know, he's like he's an icon. Yeah. But I think we could lean into this and still make it a baby face that. And I think you could be a great evolution of the heart he's going forward, which would be super entertaining.

To make that work, though, I think we got to, at first, we got to do some badass promos in an actual goat pasture with some goats out there and just some really killer promos. And we've got to maybe AMC and TNA combined can invest and get us a Tesla robot because we have so many championships. I mean, it's hard to carry. So we have one of those things, carry out. all our championships, man, because I'm sure we're going to win more here in 2026. And let's start there, maybe. That's it. When you talk about moments, the whisper in the wind off the cage to

Umaga, that's a scary spot because you don't really know where you're going to be landing on that. Yeah, for sure. And I think that's when I had the neon fishnet shirt and I took it off and it was like still on my hand. You could see it like hanging from it. But just one of those things, it's just go time. and you just go for it and hopefully you get up from it. God, man. Yeah, I live for those moments, man. It's just so exciting. And luckily, I'm still here and still okay.

But, yeah, I don't do as many of them as I used to. But there's still several that I would like to pull off before it's all said and done. Umaga, man, was so damn good. So good, man. It's crazy. It's him and Jeff, like, and Jeff says this all the time. Like, that's probably his favorite rival all the time that he worked with. They had so many years.

You know that moment where Jeff slides down the railing of the stairs? The coolest, it is the coolest line. That is the coolest thing ever, right? Coolest clothesline of all time. I mean, it's just the epitome of cool-ass Jeff Hardy. Did you plan that out? I did. It was a willow spot in my altar, Nero, Willow.

I used to do things like that. And I might have done it in TNA. I think I did it to you. I slid on one big thing right before, in the match, before you became broken mat. Yeah. I slid down and did something. But it's just hard to keep that balance and make it.

But yeah, as a willow spot I used to do on the Indies, whenever I would see a nice railing on the stairwell. But yeah, it's cool now, too, to see Zilla thriving and just doing so good, man, super exciting to see where he's going to end up. It's cool that we have a good bond with him like we did with Umaga, man. Like, we loved Umaga. We all hung out and had such great times together. And it's cool that we're doing that with Zola.

Yeah, for sure. I don't know if I hailed him when he was a newborn baby, but I know I met him when he was a newborn baby, which is wild. I'll tell you this, Chris, like my oldest son, Maxwell, King Maxwell, which seems like he was a baby just the other day in TNA, but he's going to be 11 in June, right? I'll never forget, Umaga told that story.

He said, nah, man, he said, I'll tell you, man, my son, he was getting bigger. And one time I said, hey, come over here. I want you to cuddle with me. He said, nah, dad, I'm too big. They said, nah, boy, you get over here. You're going to cuddle with your daddy. You're going to cuddle with your dad.

Come over here. And I'll do that to my kids all the time now. As long as you can. Yeah, I said, now you ain't too old, man. get over here, you and cuddle. I'll be grabbing them when they're like 18. Now you come over here and cuddle with your daddy. I love doing Omaha.

I told me that story. I told Zella, I said, man, that inspired me. How do you balance it? Because you guys are on the road a lot. And you both are fathers. Right. You're so committed to family life and being fathers and being there with your family. Right.

But you're also so committed to the work you do in the ring and your fans. Where's the balance? It's tricky. I mean, I think for me, the best thing I ever do, was get a really crystal clear separation between like Matt Hardy, the performer, and then like Matt Hardy, the human being. You know what I mean? That's tough because they have the same name.

It is. And, well, you know, there's a lot of people, because in wrestling, like, back in the 90s, when they come and say, no, you've got to live the gimmick. Always be who you are. Always be who you are. And it's easy to get sucked into that. I mean, you know, like, I love Rick Flair. Rick Flair's amazing.

And it's cool that we're, like, buddies with them. And we know them very well, stay in contact with him and stuff. But, you know, Rick Flair is Rick Flair. You know, I don't think there's a clear separation. You know, whenever he's out, he's always Rick Flair. He has to spend money. He has to be the nature boy, whatever else. It is where it is.

I mean, he has lived the gimmick. But, like, you know, there's a part of me when I go home and I'm with my kids and my wife and my family, you know, I just cut off the wrestling bullshit. I'm just mad hardy, regular dude and I here to be a good father and trying to be the best family man I can. Yeah, and that's what I need. As long as I get three or, I'm great, like three or four full days at home every week. and then like three days, you know, working or whatever.

But it's, yeah, back in our schedules used to be so much, you know, we would only have those two days off, depending if you were on Raw or Smackdown, whatever brand you were on, you would just have those two days off. But, man, I need that, like I need blood and airs, just those three or four full days off, just to be a dad and be a husband and do all the projects I got going on at home. And just, and recharge. It's just to be able to recharge, too, man. And recharge, yeah, for sure, because that just go, go, go, no days off is

fool. I cannot cut that anymore. That spot at WrestleMania 22 with Rick Flair, when you suplex him off the ladder. He's wild. And I love that they're reiterating. He's 57 years old. So he specifically asked you to do that spot. Yeah. So they needed a spot. They weren't a spot where Rick was going to say was hurt and be carried out of the match. And he was going to come back in the end. And he said, I have an idea. And he said, Matt. And he said, hey, I trust you. I don't. know you're one of the creators of this ladder match.

Will you suplex me off? He said, I'll be honest. You're the only person I trusted doing this match. And he also told Adam, edge that whenever they had the match. He said, you're the only person I trust to have this match with because I know you're in the hearties. You created this ladder match nonsense. And I said, sure.

I said, that's cool. And I remember we talked about the spot and like we had like a rung. Rick was going to be on. And I was going to suplex them off. And I remember we'd get to that rung as we were fighting. And I said, all right, you ready? He said, no, higher, higher, higher. And I was like, okay.

We went up one more, man. And he took that bump like a champ and got him over. He was safe and sound. And he said it was great. He said it was an easy bump. And, you know, he would always do that. He would do the deal where he would flip over the corner, run to the other side coming off. And they would, you know, press the limer was up.

He said, oh, if I can do that every night, this shouldn't be that bad off the ladder. And he afterwards, he said, it was easy. Thank you. He said, you got in one of those rough, like that corner rings. Yeah. It was the corner. He said, yeah, it was good. Thank you.

He said, you took care of me. He made sure I got over. I didn't learn on my head, and that's all I wanted. That is wild. He said, you're the only person in this match I trust to do it with. He was 57. You said when he did it? Fifty-seven.

You think you could take a bump like that in 10 years? Of course you could. Of course I can. Nine years. Nine years. Nine years, brother. Wow. You know, it's funny, man.

We're 51 to 48, but I think internally we feel 21 and 18. You know what I mean? It's funny how there are some people, you know, that really, you know, man, we've been watching you from our. childhood. You guys are. You're the greatest of all the time. You're the greatest Sact team member. And we just, I mean, still at the end of the day, we're like two kids that just, we're very

passionate about pro wrestling and we want to do it. This was our dream and we were able to attain it and do it as long as we had. We're just still happy to be doing this, man. Since the neck injury, I haven't felt like that at all. I felt pretty bad internally. But before that, well, inside.

Before the neck you're doing. I know what you're saying. 30 plus years in, are you able to take a step back and realize the importance you guys have had to this industry and the changes that you guys have helped to make in the industry? I think so. I think it would, I think it will probably set in more, like once we're done and finished. I think we do, but I think we're also so active and we try and be very present. And I think we're both very good at that now in life, because we're both very aware. Like, we've been around so many people that have been in this business that

we've been close with that have died or passed away earlier. You know what I mean? So we're like, and you never know like that the the the j briscoe thing that happened where he was in that rig like we both love j briscoe like he was great we didn't get to know him super well but we did and we had some great moments with him it's just like you never know man and it's for all of us we're all human beings right and and nothing is guaranteed we could be any of us could be on a plane tomorrow and it could crash you know i mean you know we take every day uh we take every day as as a precious priceless day you know what i mean like tomorrow it's not promised to anyone so we are both very active and we're both very present and we try to be very active every single day.

And I don't think we always reflect back like that. You know, maybe like once we're done with this and we kind of are checked out, we'll look back and go, wow, we really were impactful or whatever else. I think we do realize it, but I don't think we don't let it, we don't put as much weight in it as we would if we weren't doing this anymore. Because we're still trying to be present and current in the moment. And I totally, the movement that we were a part of, for example, like the only ladder match that the pro wrestling world knew of before our tag team ladder match at No Mercy in 99 was Sean Michaels and Raz Ramon. You know, we studied that match and watched it, recreated those spots over and over again on the in the Indies, at fairgrounds, whatever. But then to kind of watch that match and then watch what we did with that first ever tag team ladder match, I don't think until the last couple years, I've really noticed how big of a. jump into the future that was or whatever, the level change that it was when it comes to what's

possible, you know, in pro wrestling with the ladder match, but then the tables and the chairs came in too, and I don't even know if this makes sense, but I kind of see as far as tag team wrestling, like, starting with, for me, as a very young, young boy, the Rocker Roll Express, and, like, digging them and Ricky Morton just the way he would sell and always go for the tag. And then the Rockers, you know, Shaw Michaels, Marty Genetti, and oh, my God, that's, you know, I want to be like that. We can be like that. But then I kind of see it was, you know, myself and Matt, you know,

the Hardy is here breaking in in 98, 99. But then the Young Bucks, man, I kind of, after us is like the Young Bus. They just change the game. And still this, one of my favorite shirts of all time is one of theirs from back in the day that says, killing the business. Oh, my God. I loved it. I still got to get me one.

I've been saying that for years, but I need one of those shirts. Yeah, the Young Bucks. And then it's just like, yeah, it's super. Oh my God, I'm so blessed to just have so much passion still for the craft of pro wrestling and just to be healthy and to be as active as we are. It's just such a blessing. Yeah, the young bucks are definitely, I think, the most recent evolution in that, you know, heartthrob young babyface tag team, you know, whatever, Rock and Roll Express,

and then we're the Rockers, then the Hardy Boys, you know, and now there's the Young Bucks. And, man, we love Matt and Nick. They're both great guys. And they really are. They were, they changed the business in so many ways, especially with everything they did with AEW. So we love those guys, man. Lots of love to met in it for sure.

You also were such an inspiration for Leon Slater. Do you remember seeing the Swanton 450 for the first time? Yeah, and I couldn't believe it. I sent you a clip of it. Yeah, how is that even possible? I mean, how is it even possible? I don't know. Man, he can jump.

That's all I know. Like, it's just, God, and meeting him for the first time, after that show when I came back this last time to TNA and saved Matt, and I didn't try to juke on the way of the ring. You learned your lesson. I did. With a painted chair and just tried to be cool. But meeting him for the first time and I said, man, just seeing your finish in person,

it's just so otherworldly, man. It's just incredible. Yeah, that's wild. Guys, you are absolute legends. It's always such a pleasure to say with you guys. Thank you on behalf of all wrestling fans for what you. you guys have done to your body. Thank you for continuing to do this too in the ring. One thing before I forget, like we were talking about the end earlier, I just, I got to get Matt

on board, hopefully T&A on board, but as far as ideas and things left to do, I've mentioned it Matt briefly, but I have this version of the final deletion and the idea would be the match would be called the final recovery, but it was like, it's the opposite of the final deletion. And I've got this written down. I don't have it perfected yet, but I get everybody on board, man, that's something I want to do before it's all over. And it would be my version of the final deletion, which would be called the final recovery. And it's more of like an enlightened Jeff Hardy versus maybe broken Matt or maybe regular Matt Hardy. But some really big ideas, man, I'm looking forward to bringing into life.

Is the enlightened Jeff Hardy egotistical? No. Yeah? No, no. Modest? He's modest. He has no ego. And it won't no ego.

And no, what's the other word? Yeah, and no, he's not attracted. He's very humble? He's very humble. Yeah, yeah, no attachments. He has no attachments to this. Just trying to pick your brain, man. This life here on planet, are no attachments.

So he's good in any dimension. But being that we're here in this dimension, this huge dimension, and it's you and it's me, I just wanted to say that the final recovery coming before 2030. Well, Jeff, I'll say this, man. If we end up leaning into this whole goats thing and get a little arrogant and we really stand on 10 toes, like we're the greatest of all time, I'll be the asshole. All right. You know what I mean? I'll talk all the trash.

All right. We'll leave enlightened Jeff Hardy. He can be humble. You get it then. Just be you. I'll end this with, I've asked you guys this question before separately, but not together. What are three things that you're grateful for today as we sit here right now? Matt, I'll start with you.

my health, my family, especially my children, and the fact that I have a brother that is so amazing and that we've been able to share this dream and life together. Pretty amazing that you guys did this as brothers the whole time. Like sibling rivalry is a real thing. I'm sure there were times when maybe you didn't like each other as much. I'm sure you loved each other the whole time. I threw a recliner on him when he was a kid, you know. It was the worst fight I never got into.

I ran out and cried out. And that's where it all kind of started, I guess. Tables, ladders and reclining. There's a different kind of chair. TLR. Yeah, for sure. My health, health is number one. It's so key and so important.

My health, my family, and professional wrestling. I love it. Thank you, man. Thank you, man. All right. It's an honor, CVV. Appreciate you guys. Digging the shoes, man.

Nice, Jordans. Oh, thank you. Very sweet. 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. Get up in here. The Jim Rome Show podcast. What's your beef? Follow and listen on your favorite platform. warned.