There’s a lot of chatter online about AEW and things that are being done that might be driving some fans away. The company has made improvements to the production and there has been an effort to improve on some of the criticisms from fans and other wrestlers. While speaking on the “Extreme Life of Matt Hardy” podcast, Matt explained some of the things that AEW could improve on.
On Rampage being devalued:
“I feel like the Rampage show, when it first started, they really went out of their way to promote Rampage like it was a major show. I think that didn’t happen as much going forward. They made it seem like a secondary show. Whenever Punk showed up and I think on the very first show, if I’m not mistaken, they did the Kenny Omega title change. I feel like as time went on, Rampage became secondary and it probably even became more secondary, or even a third thought after Collision started. I feel like in the very beginning, everything was meant to be the absolute best for Rampage. They wanted to give this explosive, our non-stop, go, go, go, go go and you can’t argue with people for promoting another show if they’re going to make more money.”
Matt Hardy said he would have put the AEW belt on Swerve Strickland at Revolution:
“I would have went with Swerve Strickland in that three-way match at Sting’s last match just because that was such a big audience. I know it did a great number. There were so many people there and I feel like if you were going to crown him as the world champion, that would have been in place to do it. That’s just me. That’s me speaking.”
Hardy on feeling AEW lost some of its goodwill with the wrestling fans:
“AEW earned a lot of goodwill over the first few years, especially during the pandemic and being a different alternative to WWE, whatever else, but I think through some of the stuff with Punk and The Bucks and the fights and the backstage stuff and Jungle Boy all this stuff, this hurt some of that goodwill. I feel like that probably deterred some people from their support of the company at the end of the day. I mean, that’s my honest take on it.”
Matt Hardy on how AEW can get more fans:
“I think that you have to appeal to more casual fans. I mean, I understand your mindset where AEW is built on the context of having great matches and having five star matches and bangers and whatever else since the place is very wrestling heavy. If you love wrestling, where the best wrestle, you know, they’ve even used that as a catchphrase, and I’m okay with that, but I still also think there has to be people that are just casual wrestling fans that are trained in the way like, ‘Oh, well this guy’s a big star. I’d like to see him perform. I would like to see him wrestle. I’d like to see her wrestle. I’d like to see this. I’d like to see that.’ I feel like that would be beneficial. I feel like sometimes AEW plays and caters to too much of a niche audience sometimes and I think they just need to broaden who they play to sometimes.”
Thoughts on AEW airing the footage of Jack Perry – CM Punk backstage fight:
“I wasn’t crazy about the footage and how they how they utilized it. I mean, I get the intent, I guess, but I would have stayed away from it. If I was in charge of AEW and making decisions, I would leave CM Punk in the past where he was and I wouldn’t reference him at all going forward. CM Punk is not at AEW. He’s somewhere else. I would not reference him at all going forward and I would focus on AEW and who is currently at AEW.”
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. Quotes were transcribed by Jim for WrestlingNews.co.
