AEW star Wardlow was interviewed on “The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy” podcast this week.
Wardlow said he was a huge fan of The Hardys while growing up as a kid:
“He and his brother are probably two of the biggest reasons I’m sitting here today. I was so inspired by Matt and Jeff Hardy. I mean, obsessed. I have books, still, of every magazine that they were in. I would cut pictures of you guys out and I made a collage when I was a kid. I have art pictures painted and drawn of them. I mean, I was obsessed with the Hardy Boys. They were the reason I woke up happy. They were the reason I went to school because during breaks, I could go on the computer and look up pictures and videos. They were the reason I was excited to get home so I could get on my trampoline or my neighbor’s trampoline, because I couldn’t afford one. Thank God my neighbor let me and my friends jump on their trampoline so I can practice doing swanton bombs. I would go home and play with my action figures then play video games. I mean, the Hardy Boys were such a big part of my life. I’ve always said professional wrestlers have taught me the two most important lessons in life. ‘Don’t trust anybody’, Stone Cold, and Matt Hardy, ‘To achieve you have to believe.’”
Wardlow talking about his past drug and alcohol issues and now being clean and working in the same company as The Hardys:
“That still is mind blowing to me. I mean, how much wrestling I watched growing up and how much I obsessed with it, and how far off track I got after high school, and for a while seemingly ruined my life and my dreams. I mean, I went down a really bad path for a while with drugs and alcohol and depression and sort of finally make it into finally being in this company, not AEW company, but the company of the likes of Matt and Jeff. It is a beautiful thing. It’s overwhelming. It’s overwhelming on a daily basis, how much damage I did to my life and to be able to get it all back and fight for it back and be here and be sitting next to this man.”
Wardlow said he would like to get a movie role so he can be a mainstream star and making wrestling cool again:
“That’s something I’ve really thought about recently is like something to pitch to Tony. Rather than pitching, ‘Hey, I have this wrestling idea’, but rather, ‘Would it be beneficial for me to get like a movie or a TV role?’ I want AEW to be successful, so if I am able to do a movie role, which would just be another dream come true for me, it can be also beneficial to this company and get a whole new set of eyes on us.”
“I said this from day one. One of my main goals in pro wrestling was to make wrestling cool again, or to be one of the people that helped make wrestling cool again. Growing up, everybody was talking about pro wrestling. Adults were coming over. We were having full blown pay-per-view parties. Kids at school we’re talking about it. Teachers we’re talking about it. Pro wrestling was cool. It was part of the mainstream media. I want to get back to that. I want kids to think it’s cool again and to know it’s cool. I want kids to be talking about it at school. I want kids to be inspired by me. I want wrestling to be the Rock Star show it once was and I truly believe that if I could go and it pull some some other people from different audiences to us, I truly feel I’m capable of doing that. I truly feel like I am the guy to do it. So yeah, maybe that’s the conversation I need to have with Tony.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit AdFreeShows.com with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
Mr. Mayhem @RealWardlow shared his love for the Hardy's, but opened out a lot about his journey to stardom. Get ready for the new episode this Friday! #AEW #AEWDynamite
Catch the #ECW episode at https://t.co/dUMNuxKEYD! pic.twitter.com/E70WYzjO9O
— The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy (@matthardypod) September 15, 2022
