Matt Hardy believes Pat McAfee’s promo on SmackDown contained a hidden shot at AEW. Speaking on the latest episode of the Extreme Life of Matt Hardy, Hardy and host Jon Alba discussed McAfee’s return, in which he aligned with Randy Orton and criticized the current state of professional wrestling by referencing five-foot-five guys having 45-minute Iron Man matches on WWE TV. While Alba argued McAfee was specifically referencing WWE, Hardy was not convinced.
“I 100% (think) it was a shot at AEW. He put the veil over it and just said, ” Oh, blah, blah, blah. I turned this on, and this is what I see. Pro wrestling is going to shit now. It’s not Attitude Era. No, I know I did (say WWE), but I think it was a valid shot in AEW….I think a lot of that was like, they’re saying wrestling is different now and not what it’s supposed to be, Attitude Era-esque. And I think a lot of that was related to AEW. I think that was kind of the underlying narrative.”
Hardy also pushed back on comparisons between the McAfee angle and Travis Scott’s involvement in last year’s WrestleMania main event, arguing the two situations are fundamentally different.
“I feel like with the way they kicked it off. If they do it right, it will not detract it will add to it. I feel like saying Travis Scott and Pat McAfee, they’re in two different hemispheres. Travis Scott doesn’t know wrestling. He’s never been in that role. McAfee does know wrestling, and he knows it really well, because he’s a longtime fan and he’s followed and supported it his whole life, and he’s worked at the company. He knows the inner workings. They are, to a degree, but I feel like, as opposed to just being a celebrity, he feels more like a WWE home.
WWE is his home more than anything else. It doesn’t feel like he’s an outside celebrity coming in. He’s featured on commentary for how long? How long do you do commentary for? He’s a very established and known WWE character, you know. So, yeah, they didn’t just, like, you know, put the hook around the stack and pull them in off the streets. I mean, he’s a very established WWE character and personality, and they gave him just something very interesting. He was just saying, like, you know, all these other little guys who out there flipping around whatever styles change, 5’5, having these 10 matches, Ironman matches, and you have 6’5 Randy Orton, you know, the legend killer, the real deal. This is what wrestling is like. We’re missing out from the Attitude Era and how things used to be. I mean, there were a lot of things in there that were pretty compelling. You know that, especially, I think, I think this was dictated to the smarter audience. Is because they, I mean, they’re always going to continue to grow and get bigger and bigger and bigger, but they’re also going to be the most vocal.”
Orton challenges Rhodes for the Undisputed WWE Championship in the night one main event of WrestleMania 42 on April 18. Punk defends the World Heavyweight Championship against Reigns on night two on April 19.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit Extreme Life of Matt Hardy with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
