Matt Hardy has explained the Lockdown spot that drew criticism online, and says the decision that people objected to was not his.
The moment came in the TNA World Tag Team Championship match. Ryan Nemeth took a Twist of Fate, got back to his feet, walked, and then collapsed onto a table. Clips of it circulated afterwards with people comparing it unfavorably to AEW and pointing out that Hardy talks publicly about selling.
Speaking on the Extreme Life of Matt Hardy, he set out what had happened to the timing before any of it.
“We had lost six minutes going out there, and this is something I even wanted to address, because I saw this clip floating around, which was so funny.”
He had asked in advance exactly how much room he had.
“I said, what time are we off air? What time do we drop? What time does it go black, fully black? And there was a little business after the match with Leon Slater, which was going to be about three minutes, but we had four to five minutes before it all went totally black that we were going to play around with.”
That is what he was working to when the referee started counting him down.
“I remember they said, okay, we’ve got one minute, and I know we still had some stuff left to do. I said, well, it’s going to go a little heavy. I know we’ve got a couple minutes to play around with. We’re going to be fine. They’ll get the Leon and Nick stuff in.”
“So the ref who was in there was saying, there’s one minute, there’s one minute, you got to go. I said, well, we’ve got more content than one minute left, so it’s going to go a little heavier.”
Hardy says he then told Nemeth what he wanted.
“I remember telling Ryan, I said, Ryan, when I give you this twist, pop up to your knees so I can quickly get you on the table.”
What happened instead is the clip.
“Ryan took it and popped up and stood and walked and fell on the table, because I think he was tore up about the fact we were going to go heavy. And he did that, and people were like, what is this? They said, it’s like an AEW.”
He was direct about where responsibility sits.
“That was not my call. It is what it is. It happened.”
He was forgiving about it.
“I think he was, once again, he is the least experienced of everyone that was in that match, and we were just like, screw it, because we have a little wiggle room, we can go over a little bit before we’re going to go off air. And he ended up doing that and collapsing on the table, which is so funny.”
“I know he meant well, but it is what it is. I saw a lot of people were critical of that. Like, what is going on over in TNA? Matt Hardy says we tell stories and we sell, whatever. Which was great.”
The finish came shortly afterwards. Hardy dropped an elbow off the cage, and was in the process of covering when Nic Nemeth caught him.
“I’m rolling them over to cover them, and before I can do it, wham, Nic Nemeth catches me with this finish, and actually catches a one, two, three, and they become the tag champs.”
The time problem had already affected the match before that. Hardy put the lost time at six minutes in one answer and four in another, and said the group made a decision in a huddle about how to handle it.
“We dealt with the hand we were played. We lost four minutes going out, so we had to move through it a lot quicker. That was the group huddle that we decided upon. We’re like, okay, let’s just get this done. We’ll probably not sell as much as we should. If we get in trouble, we get in trouble. But it is what it is.”
He noted that running over should not happen to the people in that position on the card.
Hardy’s wider view of the show was positive, and he singled out the restraint on one point.
“I thought Lockdown was a good show. One thing I thought was good, it wasn’t overdone with blood.”
The loss is designed to build somebody else. Hardy said the spotlight now goes on Nic Nemeth in order to set up Leon Slater, who is 22, and who TNA hopes to make the youngest world champion in company history.
