Matt Hardy addressed the much-talked-about high-risk spot performed by Leon Slater at TNA Rebellion, where Slater executed a Swanton 450 off a high truss onto a group of wrestlers below. Speaking on “Extreme Life,” Hardy expressed relief Slater wasn’t seriously hurt while offering constructive feedback.
“He’s our guy,” Hardy affirmed, mentioning Slater called himself a “Hardy Boy” after the landing. “…Those spots are tricky. That thing was so high; it was outrageously high… for him to go down and hit as hard as he did, it really was a miracle that he didn’t get injured… I know he was beat up, he was super sore.”
Hardy analyzed the difficulty of catching such a dive with multiple people involved. “…Sometimes when a guy’s coming, people don’t want to hit someone else… That is tricky… those things are just tough because guys are trying not to run into each other, and you don’t really designate who is going to spot the person.”
He suggested a safer approach: “If I would have been in that scenario, I would have probably suggested, ‘Look, two strongest guys here are AJ Francis and Moose. Let’s put these guys down… aim towards them. Everybody else kind of be around… let those two be together as a wall and stop his momentum…'” Hardy also wished the setup looked less telegraphed.
Despite the critiques on execution, Hardy acknowledged the impact: “But at the end of the day, I’m just happy that no one got hurt. And that spot made Leon a bigger star because everybody was talking about it… Even though it wasn’t picture perfect… still that spot resonated… Leon Slater’s name is going to be on the tips of many more people’s tongues because the spot and this insanity happened.”
Matt Hardy’s podcast drops every Friday at ExtremeHardy.com. If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit ExtremeHardy.com with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
