Matt Hardy says over a thousand people queued from eight at night until two in the morning to meet him and Jeff after Lockdown, and that anyone at TNA would tell you who drives ticket sales.
He described the weekend on the Extreme Life of Matt Hardy.
“It’s all about selling more tickets. You ask anyone at TNA who is the driving force for selling tickets and making stuff happen. It’s going to be us.”
The signing after Lockdown ran six hours.
“That six-hour line was so outrageous, and we were burning through it as much as we could. It’s crazy. There were over 1000 people that waited from 8 pm to two in the morning to meet us.”
“That still says there is a demand for you.”
He had somebody film it, and they could not get the whole thing in shot.
“I had someone go back and shoot it. They didn’t even shoot the whole line, because they were like, oh, I didn’t want to take your phone away from you that long, because the line was so long.”
They had also run two Hardy Party events that weekend, one in Milwaukee on the Friday and one in Chicago on the Saturday, which drew over 300 paid attendees.
Lockdown itself drew around 5,400 people.
The part of the answer that goes beyond ticket sales is about his brother. Jeff Hardy has been publicly open about his history with alcohol, and Matt described what the change has been like from the inside.
“I love the fact that Jeff is working a lot smarter nowadays, especially even with his neck, and he’s still feeling pretty good when it’s all sitting down.”
“It’s funny, man. Just sober Jeff is such a different animal, because before, he would never really stress. But now he has just like sober stress, which will hit him, especially when he can’t sleep and everything else, which is so funny. And dealing with him is a different kind of animal.”
“But I love to see it. I can’t tell you how proud I am of him and the place that he’s in in life.”
The two of them have been in TNA since 2024 and are among the company’s most visible names, with Matt also working behind the scenes.
They lost the TNA World Tag Team Championship to the Nemeths at Lockdown, in a match Matt has explained at length was compressed because the show ran long.
He said the loss serves a purpose, and named the two people it is meant to elevate.
“I think right now there’s going to be a lot of spotlight put on Nic Nemeth to really make him this hill that you want to see Leon Slater overcome, and follow Leon Slater’s journey.”
Slater is 22 and one of the youngest wrestlers on the roster.
“We’re hoping to make Leon Slater, when it’s all said and done, the youngest TNA world champion of all time.”
Matt was also complimentary about the International Championship match on the same show, which he said produced injuries.
“There were a few injuries coming out of that match, but those guys busted their a**, no doubt about it. Ali is so good at what he’s doing. He truly is. I think he’s in his prime right now, and he’s doing the best work of his career, no doubt about it, and the way he has built stories for all of the Order Four guys, and he’s been very hands-on.”
“Jason Hotch is a great athlete, great dude. I see big things for him in the future too.”
Matt Hardy is 51. He worked for WWE across two lengthy runs, then AEW between 2020 and 2023, and joined TNA in 2024.
