My Mom's Basement - EPISODE 436 - MATT AND JEFF HARDY

Episode Date: June 25, 2025

Matt and Jeff Hardy join Robbie Fox in the Basement to announce their Slammiversary 2025 match - as well as discuss their return to TNA, most underrated matches, favorite rivalries, best advice they got from legends, and more! AUDIO NOTE: We unfortunately lost the audio from our mics in the first 3:28 of this interview, so we used an AI enhancer to make the camera audio work until it resolves! Thanks for your patience and sorry about that!You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/mymomsbasement

Hey My Mom's Basement listeners, you can find our episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube, and Prime members can listen ad free on Amazon Music. Alright, welcome back to My Mom's Basement ladies and gentlemen, it is Robbie Fox and I'm here with my number one tag team of all time. We actually did a draft recently, a parcel of the best tag teams of all time, and the Hardy Boys were my number one pick. There was no tag team I looked up to more as a kid. There was no tag team that was cooler as a kid. So thank you guys for coming in. This is an honor for me. I thank you.

Yeah. Thank you for having us. I'm really curious. How do we do overall? You work. So I had the second overall pick and you were my second overall. Okay. Number one pick was the new age outlaws because this guy KFC is just in love with their entrance

You know that the whole spiel had to be been it. I'll call somebody but for my money It's the Hardy boys the very first tag team that me and my friend and we would pick up the new video game Whatever year it was we would go home and we would pick Matt and Jeff Hardy and think whatever tag team It was that we would face but you guys were the ones that we always wanted to be You know ruined a couple of recliners trying to hit the certain moves off the top. But it is what it is. That's growing up already was. You would not believe how many kids had told us like, oh my god, we had so much trouble

because you know, because we broke couches and beds and refiners. But we had a great childhood. So we said, yeah, sorry, sorry, we had your trouble. But you guys had a great childhood. So we said, yeah, sorry we got your trouble, but you guys had a great childhood. And we're here to talk TNA's Slammiversary July 20th UBS Arena. It's going to be a huge slammiversary. Obviously, they put a great time for TNA in general recently. I feel like this current era of TNA is in full swing.

And I know you guys have raved about the current locker room. You've seen a few different iterations of that locker room. Well, I've heard you raving on Busted Open about Carlos Silva and the way he's running things. Do you feel it's a completely different environment? I feel like it is a very special environment for sure. Everyone there that is working on the roster is there for the greater good. You know, there's no one that is selfish and really just putting first and foremost their priorities. The whole promotion is working for TNA and we're all

trying to bring everybody up. And it's just been great. Carlos, Carlos is so driven. He's so motivated. He's learning about wrestling on the fly. He's, uh, been involved in a lot of things, but this is his first time doing wrestling, but he is so passionate. It's so driven, which, uh, which is something if it's, it's great to have

that in the leader, someone who's passionate and someone who's driven and they really want to make things better. He really has. Yeah. Yeah. TNA locker has always been good for me. I think this is my third run here overall, man. It's been great.

Even it was exciting for me after coming back. I had no idea Matt was going back to TNA. Then after he returned, you know, the next morning, my wife said, did you know that we'll move back to CNA? And I was like, no, I did not. So anyway, it all worked out just right to where I could I could show up after my AEW contract ran out. And after I made my return, I said, yeah, TNA is my new heaven.

And the lottery was great. And even seeing Elijah Elias or whatever, yeah, I am come in from, you know, working with him and David Avee was like super excited Yeah, and UBS arena a great venue for wrestling I know it's a new arena But I've been to a few shows there already and it's a cool building everything kind of on top of each other a cool way You guys enjoy wrestling in New York in general I know back in the day you guys used to shop at like trash and vaudeville through your gear and stuff

Yeah Back in the day you guys used to shop at like Trash and Fall Outville for your gear and stuff Yeah, we did a photo shoot for a big magazine We're doing it which was just exclusively team extreme and we did a whole big photo shoot there Oh, we had a blast and there's times where we went back because they had a lot of really cool and hip things and UBS is a really cool arena. I've been there a couple times. I was there with AW a couple times So really excited for TNA to go there And I think it's probably gonna be the biggest house TNA's had in a very very long Time there's gonna be probably the biggest show of the year Yeah, slammer grocery coming up in a few weeks and actually my forty third ladder match, man

I'm pretty sure your forty third ladder Wow When did you like have you always kept count or did you like have to go back recently and be like, okay That was like my 40th or so the last ladder match I had with moose Somebody told me how many man Yeah, I'd had so yeah, wow the last one was the Jackie Robinson you hit the 42 number on them Yeah, that's awesome super cool and from what I understand we can maybe announce the Hardy Boys slam anniversary match today Yes, so this is an exclusive that we're just breaking I think it's gonna be announced in a couple days from now But we are going to be getting our rematch for the tag team titles.

And it's not going to be an average ordinary match. It is going to be the match that we made famous. It is going to be the Nemeth's Nick and Ryan Nemeth defending the eight, the, uh, the TNA world tag team titles against myself and my brother against first class and also, uh, against the Rascals. And it is going to be a four way ladder match. Wow, I mean that is right there. If you're in New York City and you don't want to be in UBS Arena for that, you're out of your mind. That's a must see match. And it's one of those things too,

we've really been moving forward very fast. We've been doing a bit of a program on TV where we're doubting ourselves a little bit. The next couple weeks of TNA television is really good. Leon Slater, we hype him up about winning this exhibition title and being motivated. He's like one of our kids, you know what I mean? So we're excited for him. He's taking on moves for the exhibition title and he has an opportunity to become the youngest

exhibition champion in TNA history. And then he turns around and he kinda hypes us up and he reminds us of who we are. So we're gonna be going into this match super hyped and super excited to go out there and kill it. Yeah, do you feel any self doubt still in your wrestling career? Is there any inkling of truth in the storyline or no?

No, right now I don't think so. I don't know, how do you feel, Jeff? I don't know. It was super interesting when Leon was kind of motivating us. We were kind of filming the future. But yeah, because we are, this is kind of like our last run. So we got to be honest with ourselves and make it the best we possibly can. But yeah, there's a bit of sadness, a bit of extreme happiness that we've made it this far

and still want to accomplish more. So yeah, I don't know, it's kind of right in the middle for me. You guys take things kind of one day at a time or do you think about that consciously if this is our last run, we gotta make this special and we gotta maybe do this one last time, this one last time?

Yeah, one last time. Is that on your mind a lot? I match it a time for me. Yeah, I'm very much a one day at a time type person and I don't try to look too far into the future to overwhelm myself. But one thing I can say with great confidence, if you put myself and Jeff out there,

we're a legacy act. There's different generations, like parents and kids, they know us, they're fans of us because we've been doing this for 33 years. We've been on TV literally for 27 years straight, which is wild. We've had some great TV exposure, especially coming up in the Attitude era. If you let us go out and do what we do best, and we go out there and rock the show, we

can still perform at a very high level. You know what I mean? We go out there and there's a... Jeff said this, the energy changes when we step into the ring. When we come out, that music hits, the energy changes in the whole arena. And there really is something to that because there's a different feel to every Hardee's match than any other match on the show, every single night that we go and we wrestle for TNA.

Do you feel that when you guys came back at WrestleMania 33, obviously, we look back at one of the biggest pops in wrestling history. I was lucky enough to be there. The energy in that stadium was off the charts. Do you feel that catapulted, almost this next wave of hearty appreciation of people going back and watching all the classic matches and really being like, oh my God,

we gotta give this team their flowers because they're still at the top of their game, doing ladder matches, getting out there with young tag teams, the different generations of tag team wrestling. Do you think that was the catapult for the next generation of this? Yeah, that moment's the number one moment for me because there was a time, my second run in TNA, I was going, man, I'll probably never go back to WWE.

But then it all worked out with that expedition to gold. It still amazes me how that all worked out and ended there in 2017. So yeah, it was just unreal to be back there. And now that TNA has kind of got a working relationship with WWE since very excited as an NXT to imagine the possibilities moving forward. Yeah, I had the expedition of gold all laid out with Triple H. He knew we were going to be back. No, what is so cool is that we went to TNA.

We started something new with the broken universe and like broken Matt wouldn't have worked as well as it did if it wasn't for Brother Neero committing to his his bit too. And and it was a great stick. And the thing that was so humbling and also so satisfying is whenever we returned to WrestleMania, we got that incredible reaction. People were shocked. Only a handful of people legitimately knew we were gonna be back. Some people speculate, but nobody really knew.

And we'd done a six hour signing earlier that day, so a lot of people doubted we would be there. And new day, big props to them. They were great, how they changed into their gear as opposed to wearing their host outfits, and they acted like they might possibly be in the match and then announced us out and did the whole deal. But that moment, I think the further we get away from it, the more important it becomes to me and also the higher it moves of our list of like greatest moments because it really

did. That was such a special moment. There's a lot of people who say like, oh my God, I have so many great memories of you guys. Like I remember TLC too, when you guys did this. You and Bubba crashed through the tables. Jeff got speared off where the belts were. It was crazy and it was just the greatest match ever. Or oh my God, I loved the first ever Tag Team Ladder match.

But probably what we hear more than anything else is just like, oh man, I was there at WrestleMania 33 and I got to feel that energy in that moment. Or I was at home watching and I could feel it through the TV screen. It was just such a special moment. And it moves higher and higher up my list of great moments and best moments of my career as time goes on. What's it like getting backstage after that? Like seeing everybody after the match?

Is that like an unbelievable feeling? Like I'm in a kind of a jokey band here at Pop Punk, at a bar stool called Pop Punk. And when we get backstage and see all of our friends after the show, that's almost as good as the show itself, like the feeling of that. Do you feel the same way getting backstage after a great match like that?

It was, it was a great feeling to come back and be back home, you know, and that is something they emphasized on and it's something we said, especially on that date. But it was great, I mean there's so many people, I can't believe you guys were gonna be here and you knew it and you came fame, yeah. I mean we heard that from so many of the guys.

Like brothers, all right, we're here in this moment, it's great, it's an organic moment, it's real, it's a moment and it's just the way I want this moment to feel. So it was, everybody was surprised but everybody was happy, it was a truly, truly great moment. I remember when we saw Jericho for the first time I don't know if you remember this in the catering area, and he was talking all men what a pop that was such a loud reaction

I said yeah, man coming out to that old ass Hardy Boys music still people love to hear When we talk about classic Hardy Boys matches I'm sure guys are constantly coming up to you and bringing up the matches like TLC and stuff like that. Is there a match for maybe each of you, whether singles or tag team, that doesn't get the credit that you wish maybe got brought up more? One of your favorites that you're really proud of? I think my most underrated match that doesn't get the love

and the credit it deserves is the match where I won the TNA World title, and it was against EC3. It was the last man standing match and we did a double turn. The double turn was executed flawlessly and it was done really, really well. Also TNA was on our network, which a lot of people didn't see at that time and that's where it was trying to build some momentum and it started building momentum I think once the whole broken universe started. 100%.

Yeah. What about you, Jeff? Yeah. I think once the whole broken universe started. 100% yeah. What about you Jeff? I think it was here in New York City it was a match with Bobby Lashley and it was the first time I ever missed the Swanton on the stairs. Oh my god yeah. Right at the Manhattan Center right? Yeah. It's Bobby Lashley and he's just such a beast but yeah oh man I've had so many good moments in TNA and at first I was like don't know, should I stay with AEW and just do a singles thing?

But then I was like, I had so many incredible moments and memories in TNA. So, uh... You'd with Abyss, I look back on like that was a very early, formative like wrestling years for me, where I was starting to experiment, oh, there's more than just WWE. And you go over to TNA and watch Jeff and Abyss, watch you. And the entire Deletion story was like,

it took over wrestling in a way that like, I don't know if people could even understand it, if you weren't there to experience it, it took over wrestling in this crazy way. People were trying to replicate the stuff you guys were doing on the compound. Yeah, I mean, I told Jeff, I wanna try something really different.

I said, you know, I'm going to really step outside the box and then I'm going to take three more steps, you know? And everyone was so young and athletic and acrobatics were being incorporated more in wrestling matches. I was like, man, you know, obviously we're older. Our bodies are beat up a little bit. I was like, I wonder if I could do a throwback

to like the Papa Shango days or to the Undertaker days and create a character, you know, I wonder if I could do a throwback to like the Papa Shango days or to the Undertaker days and create a character which maybe is perceived as supernatural and if it doesn't get over as being supernatural, at least they can sound crazy and I think I'm supernatural, whatever. And that was kind of the goal and it ended up half-ass working, which was pretty cool.

And the funny thing was I knew we were onto something when we did that first ever initial contract signing at the Hardy compound Everything was so different. I Even remember talking to Jeremy war rashes like I don't think things have to be that serious like let's have this be fun You know we can have serious moments in or whatever else, but there were people said oh my god This is such a throwback to old-school wrestling like it's the greatest thing I've ever seen in my life when we did that. I put him through a table, which was a round table.

It had just one center pillar in the middle and we broke it on the counter. It was insane. But we did all these things. I wanted everything to look different. There were some people, like I said, this is the greatest stuff ever. It's amazing, it's a throwback to old wrestling.

And then there's some people that were saying, this is the worst shit I've ever seen. It's awful. It's terrible. What is going on? What are they doing? But it got so many comments. It got so much feedback and it was so polarizing. And I was just like, if we can kind of just still hold the course and kind of keep doing what we're doing,

I think people will catch on to it. I remember that. I remember the first few days of it, people being like, this is crazy. Matt Hardy doesn't know what he's doing, this gimmick is ridiculous. And then quickly it became the number one most over thing in wrestling to the point when you guys returned, the whole crowd's doing the delete.

Everyone's doing it. You had tens of thousands of people and they're doing the delete sign. They were doing our whole shtick that we did on TNA, which people said, oh, that's a company that nobody's even watching them now. And everybody knew the act. Yeah. I wanted to ask you about a specific finish

that I've always loved. I wanted to ask you guys both about a couple finishes. One is the cage match you had against John Morrison, Johnny Nitro, it was New Year's Revolution 07. And the finishes, he goes to escape the cage, you kick the door out from under him, and he as he drops get crouched on the door and you run out Do you remember coming up with that or who came up with that finish? I always thought it was so creative for a cage match

Yeah, very vividly the first person I ever saw do it was a Xbox if you remember like he did it and I do that Was the coolest most innovative thing I'd ever seen. But yeah, Xbox has got the credit for that when that's where that came from. That's awesome, yeah. I also wanted to ask you guys about the finish to your match against each other. There's Backlash 09, the I Quit match, where you tie Matt up on the table,

and your hands are kind of tied up straight, and there's a leg drop finish. Is that the spot you broke your wrist on? Yes, it broke my hand in three places. Could you tell in the moment, because watching it back knowing that, you cringe because you're like, oh my God, your hands were straight up.

Was there a thought in the moment of like, oh no, he's gonna come down right on my hands? I didn't think about it necessarily in the moment. I'll be honest, Vince was very concerned about it. Vince didn't think we should do it. Thought it could be dangerous. He said, oh, I think it'll be okay. I think I'll be honest, Vince was very concerned about it. Vince didn't think we should do it. Thought it could be dangerous. He said, oh, I think it'll be okay. I think it'll be all right.

Oh, did you feel like going back to him afterwards, like, oh, you were right? I don't even think I had to. I think I could just tell by his face afterwards. But it's one of those things. You know, it's wrestling. It's risky business. It was a calculated risk and on that day

the calculation did not pay off. Yeah, did you have? I landed right on my feet so just smooth and fluidly but we had no idea that he could possibly break his hand. Yeah, we were talking about like great moments getting backstage after a match like getting back to Gorilla and it's elation. Did you have moments the opposite

if the match wasn't what your producer, whoever was necessarily looking for? Is that like an immediately addressed in Guerrilla thing when you get back or is that like, we'll talk later? I think usually that's just usually met with silence more than anything, you know, just nothing's really said if that happens. And it's usually addressed later about what should have been different or what you could have done to correct it or whatever else. But I don't know, we haven't had a lot of those.

Yeah, pretty great for a career to not have many of those. Another moment I'd love to ask you about and just feud in general is your feud with MVP in 07. This was completely like another one that kind of took over my imagination as a kid. I went to SummerSlam 07 right here, it was in New Jersey, and that was the beer drinking contest

where you had a substitute and brought out Stone Cold. Do you have like a favorite moment from that feud? Because I feel like people still look back at the MVP Matt Hardy feud very fondly. I mean, just, that was a, I was real fond of that whole time because me and MVP we were boys in real life and it's funny we were like after the shows if we were hanging out we were being competitive you know through and through. I was single Matt and single MVP so we were going nuts during that time and we'd be out

at bars and restaurants we were just going nuts. We had the time of our life though, and we were competitive in every capacity. We would do it on screen, and it was funny, we would always have, if we slept or we'd party too hard, we had two versions of matches we would do. We would do like the, have your working boots on match, or we would do the entertainment match, where we'd incorporate a lot of the I'm better than you.

We'd do pushups and then knock the guys' hands out or whatever else. But we definitely, we really dialed in on what we were doing and it was so much fun. And it was so cool because Vince told us during that time, he said this is the most amazing thing it's carrying SmackDown right now. He said if there's a line in front of my office

you just come straight in. Just cut the line and walk right in. Because you have open door with me. Wow, what a compliment that is. Yeah you have open door with me. Wow. What a compliment that is. Yeah, that was nice. That's amazing. And around the same time, you had a feud with Umaga

that, again, people absolutely love. They always post the clip of the clothesline sliding down the railing and everything. What was it like working with Umaga? He was by far my favorite feud I've ever been a part of. And we just got along so well man He's the reason I discovered posca markers to start painting my face But yeah, it was just so special to work with him and that false count anywhere matches

It's one of my favorites for sure is the like underdog working against a big monster heel Would you say that was your favorite like singles style? big monster heel, would you say that was your favorite like singles style dynamic to work? For sure, and with me it's always been, a lot of times even on the road at house shows, live events, I was always the type of person to like get straight into the heat, man. Just, you know, I shine when I say all these people

are gonna be with me, they're gonna, you know, there's gonna be sympathy, empathy, and all that good stuff, and they're gonna wanna see me blow a big comeback and ultimately win. So yeah, that's kind be sympathy empathy and all that good stuff and they're gonna want to see me blow a big comeback and Ultimately win. So yeah, that's kind of been my claim to fame. Yeah, not that is a very defining line for him He shines when he sells. Yeah, cuz he is one of the the best sellers to ever do it in the game So he of course, yeah. Yeah climb that ladder kid make yourself famous I'm sure that's brought up constantly and it is the perfect example of that I feel it is and that was an amazing match to taker was taking so much pride

He wanted that match to live up to his expectations, you know Like I remember they were going over their match They were talking about things and I was ringside and I was kind of throwing out ideas even a taker do but it was Very important to take her he knew that Jeff Hardy could obviously do a lot of matches great But he it was very important to him to make that louder matches great. It could be for his legacy. That's awesome.

That's like cool to hear about, obviously, someone that didn't necessarily need to do that, but went out of their way to do that. Do you have any other stories of legends that have gone out of their way to kind of help you guys out in that way? I know whenever we, first we did a thing where we worked with the Two Man Power Trip

with Triple H and Stone Cold for a few weeks, and Jeff ended up winning the No Title from Triple H. There was a point where Steve Austin, after we worked with him a little bit, I think he liked us a lot more, and he kept giving us advice and doing this. He said, I know sometimes you come in on comebacks and you have punches and they look good or whatever.

He said, but maybe just try and do a close on. It's a little more vicious and more violent, like do that as opposed to just the punch. And he would give us tidbits of information, and really in this industry, the only way you learn and improve is by working with people better than you. And once we got to work with that top echelon,

I was blessed to work with The Undertaker a lot too. Jeff obviously had, we were still in cold triple A. I mean, we ended up working with everybody when it was all said and done. And it was very cool because that's when you improve, especially when you work with the tippy-top guys. Yeah, that's cool to hear from Austin, the clothesline over punches, like very practical advice

that you could immediately apply and filter in. Do you guys have a favorite match against each other? A favorite one-on-one match against each other? Do you think you guys would agree or you think you guys have different answers? I think we would agree. We would agree on the WrestleMania brother versus brother. WrestleMania 25, that was just also a huge dream of ours too.

When we were young, we had two goals. One was to be the World Tag Team Champions one time, which obviously we've exceeded that many times over, and then another one was to wrestle one another on a WrestleMania and a marquee match, and we were able to do both of those. Yeah. I got to do the human sandwich spot for the first time.

Yeah, the double table. Yeah. And the leg drop spot at the end of that match is crazy too. You get out of the way of that leg drop with like, it's like an Indiana Jones spot where it's like, this much room is left, and then the twist of fate on the chair, it's like an Indiana Jones spot where it's like, this much room is left. And then the twist of fate on the chair, it's a great finish.

Yeah, the twist of hate with the chair on his neck. Yeah. And it was so funny, you know, we, they had cut our time a little bit for that match, and the ref was yelling after he did the leg drop, and he was like, just pin him, just pin him, just pin him after the leg drop. Oh really?

What'd you end up saying, Joe? I said, fuck that. Ha ha ha ha ha. We're doing the twist of hate. That's awesome, I love that. Yeah, I was so excited to do that twist of hate. I mean that was our WrestleMania moment and we weren't gonna let that slide. Yeah, you're not gonna end the match

on the missed leg drop. That's crazy, yeah. You gotta throw that twist of hate. I landed like kinda awkwardly. It killed my lower thigh. On that top ladder. It was a terrible landing. I'm sure that, it had to be killed my lord on that top ladder. Yeah, it was a terrible landing I'm sure that it had to be brutal. You know that feeling. Yeah. Yeah

Do you have a worst leg drop you ever took that sticks out in your mind? Yeah, the probably the worst one I've ever done just because at this point I've been doing them for you know ten Eleven years twelve years was the leg drop off the cage to edge at Unforgiven 2005. Five, yeah. And that one was, you know, for six weeks I walked pretty funny, and people ask me about my gymmy legs, I mean I do have a condition,

my pelvis is actually anatomically wider than most human beings, so I'm a half-assed mutant, I guess. But with that being a little wider, and then doing those leg drops over and over and over and over and like when we first started our finish, which this is us being young and dumb and just trying to make a name for ourselves, was the event Omega.

It was the leg drop of one side and Jeff would do the splash off the other side and we would do that every single night. And we would do 10 days on, four days off, 10 days on, four days off all year. And we were doing that every single night. So you know, I'd been beat up a lot. do 10 days on, 4 days off, 10 days on, 4 days off all year. And we were doing that every single night. So I'd been beat up a lot.

I had scar tissue. And just after that leg drop against Adam, against Edge, which I protected him really well and he always, he put that over and praised me. He's like, he took such good care of me, whatever else. But just my landing there just kind of changed things. And then I always came off the second if I did it going forward, and I also ended up changing it overall where I do, ho, and I jump up and drop an elbow to the back of the neck and land on my feet,

which is the most boring yet exciting because of the taunt move in all pro wrestling. Yeah. You were actually in the very first WrestleMania match I ever watched live. It was WrestleMania 19 against Rey Mysterio. And seeing that match was a big, also for me, kind of a smaller kid, I was like, oh,

I think I was three or four years old, of like, okay, not every wrestler has to be the biggest macho six foot seven guy in the world. I was like, I like these guys way more. And that was, again, a very formative wrestling memory for me. And then, just being a Hardy Boys fan, I think everyone stops listening to the please don't try this at home message.

It's just like, okay, we're jumping off recliners. I had almost my Christmas story moment where it's like I shot my eye out. I did a Swanton Bomb off my couch and coming down caught my heel on a table like that. And I had a moment where I was like, I think I gotta call my mom down here and tell her I broke my foot. And that was like, and I didn't, thank God. But I had that, I shot my eye out moment. I was like, oh no, I did exactly what I wasn't supposed to do

and it came back to bite me in the ass. I have a few rapid fire questions I'd like to toss out for you guys. The strongest wrestler you think you've ever been in the ring with. Brock Lesnar. Mark Henry. The funniest wrestler you've ever met.

Road Dogg. Road Dogg. Oh, easy, double answer on Road Dogg, wow. The stiffest wrestler you've ever been in the ring with. Rachel. Brock Lesnar. Before I even got the question out. The best technical wrestler you've ever been

in the ring with? Eddie Guerrero. Dean Malenko. Two great answers. And then the most painful finisher to take? The F5 on the stage. Oh gosh. Oh, without a doubt, oh my gosh, Yoko Zunas,

whatever that move was called. Oh, the splat. I was like, the Banzai Splat. Banzai Splat, yeah. When he took his hands off the ropes, man. Oh my gosh, Yokozuna's whatever that move When he took his hands off the roads man, and Jeff was a child I was like 17 and it was Incredibly, there's a few videos of him giving that to local talent and you're like, oh my god I don't know if he was taking care of them. I think that was complete weight Yeah, yeah, let go of the ropes the weight. Oh my god. It was it was wild I saw take Mick Foley has said that he believes the choke slam is one of the most painful because you can't Necessarily always predict where you're gonna land or how you're gonna land on it

I also saw he just said today He believes that if the the hell in a cell spot where he gets thrown off the hell in a cell happened nowadays It would be forgotten in a few years. He's like social media age, things move on so quick, I think that would be forgotten. Do you guys feel that's maybe accurate, that it was good not to have social media, let things breathe back then? Yeah, I mean, it just, it waters down so many things,

it just saturates so many things. I think too in pro wrestling now, It waters down so many things. It just you know saturates. Yeah, he thinks I think too and pro wrestling now there's So many people that are just like living for the pop in so many ways like oh my god Let me do these crazy moves get pops pops pops pops I think now for mileage it has to be like a moment and and when you look at mixing there never been any scenario like that Being thrown off the cage through the table and then comes back and gets choked slammed through the cage into the ring. I mean, those are two massive moments. And I feel like they're, I feel like they are viewed more as moments, even like moves in the big scheme of things. Because like at the end of the day, pro wrestling

isn't even necessarily about the moves and the match. It's about the moments that you create in there. And the key to becoming a star, the key to making money, the key to selling tickets, the key to getting people to care about you is to have people emotionally invested in you. And that comes from making moments, not moves. Yeah. You know, a lot of people, man, forget, but that was back before they went to the Plank Ring, too.

So that ring was the hard WWE ring. Do you remember how hard that ring was? The ring during the Hell in the Cell match was also harder than the modern ring. Yeah, still the old ring. Man, that just, it's, oh my god, it's the number one most extreme, in my opinion, like, and I don't think it would ever be top, to get thrown off to the floor, throw a table, and then to do that choke slamming. And then to come out later that night for the main event and make a run in. Superhuman. Insane. What about the TNA six-sided ring?

Was that as tricky and painful as people say? No, I remember the first time I went to TNA to wrestle AJ Styles and walked out behind the curtain with Jeff Jarrett. The people were coming in, I just looked out the ring and he said, what do you think about it, man? I said, it looks like the future, man. This is crazy. It was. I mean, it gave it like a great, at that time it was like, oh, this is a true,

like a different look, alternative product. And like, I always liked it, but I've always heard that wrestlers didn't love it as much as the fans. It was good for TNA's identity, I think. Just having a different ring that was head six sides. It was trickier in the capacity, if someone's taking you in your special, you're in just the moment in the match

and someone's like shooting you into the ropes to do something and maybe they're calling it, it's just something happening on the fly. It was just a little different with those because sometimes they'd shoot you towards a rope and the ropes are so short, you're not sure which side you're on. So it can be a little trickier in that capacity.

That's something that was much different than wrestling in a square ring. Yeah, and where do you guys stand on, let's say like the percentage of a match that should be called in the back versus in the ring? Do you have any kind of like old school mentality of at least something should be called in the ring and not everything should be called in the back?

I would love for you to take that one. I wanna hear your answer first. I think that's, yeah, I think that's a great idea and would be a good thing to kinda, to make happen, you know, especially every now and then with these young guys, cause that's what, what's the word I'm looking for? These young guys and all these combos.

It's not spontaneous, but just, what's it called? Ad liven when you're just making up when you're out there. Improvin'? Improvin'. Yeah, just a little bit of improvin' within every match. Because I see a lot of criticism nowadays for like over-choreographed sequences or something like that. I agree 100%.

I mean, I think pro wrestling is over-choreographed in 2025. And I think part of the magic of this is being able to be out in the ring and listen to your crowd and give the crowd what they want. Eddie Guerrero, I got to work with him a whole lot too. There was a time where I had been Matt Hardy version one and I was a bad guy. He was a bad guy at that time and we were working house shows and he just said, oh, let's just go in the ring and we'll just talk about it. We'll see who they cheer. You know, if they cheer you, then we'll make you the good guy if they cheer me then I'll be the babyface whatever And he totally listened to the crowd and he would do different stuff every single night and one of the best pieces Of advice that he gave me. I remember it was the first night. We were working. We're both hills

I'd done some sort of big move to him I'd almost pinned him one two kick out and he was like grab a hold grab a hold and it was just a basic Chin lock and I was down I was going up and down and it's two hills there where. And he was like, grab a hold, grab a hold. And it was just a basic chin lock and I was down, I was going up and down. And it's two hills there where there's not a Jeff Hardy who shines when he sells, who's got a whole bunch of sympathy. And I remember like saying, Eddie, should we get up?

Should we get out of this hole? He's like, no. He's like, to hell with these people. He said, we're gonna sit here and we're gonna wait till they come. They will come, trust me, they will come. And they did, they eventually came. We did the thing, we ended up changing the whole course of the match into where he was the baby

face now, calling a comeback. And we just called it all as we went, which was very cool. And then once we got into the back, Eddie said, something I feel like I just want to stress, sometimes you need to bore the crowd. Because if you give them some great moments and they get excited and they pop like, yeah, woo, yeah, and they're so excited, you can't keep them at that level the whole time. He said you have to like reset and like let the people catch their breath. You have to let the people like, you know,

chill and relax for a second so they can get excited for that next peak. Abs and flows, yeah. Yeah, you know. Make it match a roller coaster. It's just like a, it's a cosine curve, you know, until you get to that comeback and you're going boom, boom, boom, and then you're dropping bombs or whatever.

But the way he said that, sometimes you have to bore the crowd. I mean, it was just said so perfectly and it hit me so hard, and it's something that I've always taken to heart, and I utilize that a lot. Yeah, in my younger 20s, I worked with Steven Rego on the road a lot, and he was great. I mean, he would call everything in the ring, and I would just listen, and I utilize that a lot. Yeah. In my younger twenties, I worked with Steven Regal on the road a lot and he was great.

He would call everything in the ring and I would just listen and I learned so much from that experience with him on the road. He was great at that as well. Fit Finley, same case, worked with Fit a lot. Fit wouldn't want to call anything. He said, okay, well, I'll see you out there. That'd be it. He wouldn't determine anything. That is an important trait to have. I know we do that when we're working with newer guys or younger guys, we will put together some of the critical points of the match. But there's still stuff where we want to see how the crowd is reacting to us. And we will play off that and do things.

And I'll say, just listen, you know, I promise, just listen. I will talk to you. I'll take care of you. We've been doing this long enough. We should be able to do this, and we can. And I think that is nice when it feels organic and not choreographed and it feels real. There's a feeling of real to it. Even when things are a little messy.

Like Jeff, Jeff would do this spot where he would stop himself sometimes or he would run up the ropes and slip on purpose. And there's times where people say, oh my God, Jeff's gotta stop doing this whisper and he just can't do, where he would run up the ropes and slip on purpose. And there's times where people say, oh my God, Jeff's gotta stop doing this whisper on the wind, he just can't do it like he used to. Which, and they think they're the smartest fans, which he had done that intentionally,

which also the internet and social media sometimes has made it easier to work, those people who think they're so smart and that they're in the know and they know everything. Yeah, I saw people even bringing up, you had a really good exchange with RVD that a lot of people reposted recently where they said, this is the perfect example

of a back and forth reversal for a reversal exchange that doesn't feel over choreographed. It felt like in every shot, you're actually trying to hit the other person. It actually feels like you're trying to take RVD's head off with a closed line or a leg sweep or something like that. You're actually jumping over that. And I just thought it was something that I wanted to talk to you guys about because it's

such a common criticism of modern wrestling that I'm sure you guys also faced in your heyday from let's say old timers, but there's obviously a balance that has to be stricken at some point. Yeah, for sure. You want to? Since we were working with RBD, it was another example of like God back when we were just the nobodies, you know, working the superstars and Mr. Monday night, you know, Raul came and I got to work with him out there.

But then when I became a superstar and actually worked with him, it was just it was we got we're so like minded and have a lot of the same ideas. So so yeah, that was always fun. Yeah. And you guys also have like such a unique style, I feel, that also your style fit your characters so well. And sometimes nowadays you see everyone just has like a,

even if they have an amazing moveset, it doesn't necessarily click with their character as much. Where you're like, oh, they're an amazing wrestler, but it doesn't click like the Hardys. It's like, oh, they're North Carolina, like straight up backwood woods, like wrestling, like all of that where it's like RVD martial artists, very like traditional martial arts.

It's just the styles don't always clash like they did in let's say your heyday. And also him and RVD, they're both enigmas. They both marched to the beat of their own drum, right? So they always worked well together just because they kind of shared those same in factors. Well, it was a blast getting a pick of your guys' brains about wrestling.

Again, I've been a lifelong fan. I've disobeyed the please do not try this at home because of the Hardy boys. I've tried to be the Hardy boys. We were told we were the reason that went up. I'm sure. Because our backstory was our home videos, and we was wrestling on the trampoline.

Omega. Yeah. The whole deal. I was buying the cargo pants, buying the arm sleeves, trying to be you guys. Again, thank you, I'm looking forward to seeing you guys do your thing again at Slammiversary July 20th. Yes sir, thank you.

Thank you very much, and we are super excited about this ladder match. I think this is gonna be one of the Hardys' greatest performances. And we are looking to reclaim the TNA World Tag Team titles and become champions for the 14th time. I can't wait. Awesome. Thanks guys. Thank you man. Really appreciate it.