Kenny Omega taking the AEW World Championship from MJF at Beach Break was, in Matt Hardy’s view, a great match that closed off the one he actually wanted to see.
Speaking on The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy, Hardy had nothing but good things to say about the match itself.
“I actually sat back and watched them. They had a killer match, and the crowd was into it, and they went all out. They really lived up to it as far as that match goes,” Hardy said. “Huge fan of Kenny Omega. I like him personally and professionally, and it was cool that he did win the title. It was a killer match. It was awesome.”
The plan he had in his head was different.
“MJF, he was the guy I was hoping would go one on one with Ospreay and have a real s*itheel in there for Ospreay to climb to the top of the mountain,” Hardy said. “But it’s gonna be real interesting to see what they do.”
With Omega now expected to defend against Will Ospreay at All In at Wembley Stadium on August 30, and MJF seemingly out of that picture, Hardy is not going to campaign about it, but he made his case.
“If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. It is what it is. I just feel like that is the match that would sell the most tickets. I feel like that is the match that would sell the most pay-per-views,” Hardy said. “But it is what it is. It’s Tony Khan’s company. Obviously Tony Khan’s going to do what he wants to do, and Tony Khan loves great wrestling, and it is what it is.”
On MJF himself, Hardy had no reservations.
“He’s killing it right now. He’s at the best he’s ever been, no doubt,” Hardy said.
Hardy also praised the presentation of the show, which was held outdoors in Clearwater, Florida.
“It was a very solid show, and I thought the venue looked amazing. The venue was really cool. It was nice how it was outside. I dug that a lot,” Hardy said.
His one real criticism was the Jon Moxley and Ospreay tag match against the Workhorsemen.
“The thing I feel like I was probably most critical about was I thought the Jon Moxley, Will Ospreay versus the Workhorsemen, I just thought that match was too long,” Hardy said. “I understand it’s good, and Tony likes having great wrestling matches on there. But I feel like Jon Moxley and Will Ospreay shouldn’t have taken them that long to beat those guys. And nothing against them, nothing personal.”
His reasoning was about protecting the two stars, not knocking Anthony Henry and JD Drake.
“Jon Moxley, maybe the biggest star in AEW, and Will Ospreay, they’re pushing to make him the biggest star. When you have two big stars like that, they have to look dominant,” Hardy said. “There are times you have to go out and look dominant, and it always doesn’t have to be a 50-50 match. It can be one sided to a degree, and I think that is probably what they needed in that environment, especially with where everyone’s going.”
Hardy said he did not watch this week’s Dynamite but heard about the reaction to the Death Riders being cheered a week after being booed, and it fed into a criticism he has made before.
“I heard a lot of criticism from the show last night. I didn’t get to watch it, but I heard they were like babyfaces one week, and then heels the next,” Hardy said.
Pointing to the storyline about whether Omega was too old to get back to the top being dropped almost as soon as he won, Hardy said it is a pattern.
“That’s one of the things that I’d said as a criticism before. Even the thing you’d said with the Death Riders, just the consistency and the continuity of characters and their arcs in AEW,” Hardy said. “Sometimes they kind of move all over the place.”
