On the latest “Extreme Life of Matt Hardy” podcast, Matt and Jeff talked about their future, Jeff’s health, and their status with AEW.
Jeff Hardy gave an update on how he’s been doing since his eye surgery:
“My biggest challenge has been the eye surgery I had back in March with the double vision. So that’s still my biggest fear. I can see where I need to see, like the double vision still there, and like, for example, leaning back in the bed trying to watch TV and even looking at the camera now, it’s doubled up on me a little bit. But to the left, where it all started, it’s pretty much gone. So I can see where I need to in the wrestling ring and I just need to do more matches, more matches like tonight where I’m actually excited to go out there and perform. So yeah, as long as we keep having nights like we had tonight, I’m super excited about the future of the Hardys doing something we’ve never done before, if you know what I mean.”
Matt Hardy talking about how he is being utilized in AEW:
“I think it’s very important just to state that I feel like there’s such a great spot for us at AEW if we’re just utilized in the correct way. We just got to get there. At WrestleCade we had this week, they said it was the biggest house they ever had for WrestleCade. We had such an insane line at the meet and greet. There’s still a huge fan base that wants to see us and we’re beloved. We’re not Matt and Jeff Hardy of 1999 and 2000, but like there’s so much we can do to help young guys continue to come up and also give our rub off to these young guys, but we just need to be utilized in the right way, and we hope we can get there. We feel like we’re taking steps in the correct direction.”
Matt went on to say, “I mean, just creatively, like just the way we’ve been utilized like the last four months, it’s been very frustrating. We’ve been very patient, but there has been a lot of frustration, things we’ve done and kind of how we’ve been utilized in some ways. So I feel like the natural thing to play off of is like channel that frustration and kind of put it into what we’re doing, and to those people that I call malcontents, you know, those people if they hate us, we will give them a reason to hate us. There’s something we can do there to evolve our characters and once again reinvent into something we’ve never done because there’s never been really like an aggressive, take by any means necessary, like cheat if you have to, or break the rules if you have to, or be bad Hardy Boyz version of the Hardys. We’ve done stuff as Broken Matt and Brother Nero. There was a time when he was the Antichrist and obviously, I’ve been a heel because I was like, you know, more of the heel because he was historically the more popular the two of us, you know, but I think the two of us together in a new role, I think it would be very refreshing. I think it’s something that we could use to kind of like, get back to where we want to be.”
Matt went on to say, “I just feel like because we are considered one of the most iconic tag teams, one of the greatest tag teams of all time, you know with all of our achievements and you know, all the groundwork we’ve broken and all the trails we blazed, I felt like we would be in some sort of circulation where we come in, we have some wins here and there, we get some momentum going, then we go into a big issue with a younger guy, and then we make this younger guy look good, but we haven’t really got the opportunity to do that, and that’s what I want. I mean, even you know, there’s a time today after our match was over, I went back to the boss and said, ‘Hey, we want to talk to you, you know, going forward we’re going to do that’, or whatever. But I feel like there’s a way to get to that where you can still keep us in the mix as a team that is a threat and that is relevant and current, but then you can still help build younger teams as well, and I think that’s where we need to be right now.”
Jeff said, “When I first came back, it was pretty exciting. I didn’t know what was going to be happening in the near future. I think the last time I was in this, you know, Extreme Dimension of your podcast, I said in WWE, I felt like I was a ghost just walking around backstage and honestly man, I kind of still feel like that at AEW, just because not being involved in something, you know, cool, and I feel like there’s something so special that we have within us to really bring out and that brings me to ego. Like for example. I’m in a place now in my life that wearing this Jeff Hardy, I feel like a goofy goober for wearing my own shirt. I’m like, why does it feel so goofy to wear your own shirt? My thing has always been there’s not much difference between the in-ring performer Jeff Hardy and the reality in this human world performer Jeff Hardy, but ego, even at the show the other night at the concert I talked about ego and this lady who’s another wrestler said, ‘You’ve you’ve never had an ego’, but I think I need to I need to bring my ego back, you know, 10 times more intense than it was when I was the Antichrist of professional wrestling.”
Matt Hardy on the AEW wrestling product:
“I would like to say I greatly appreciate everyone at AEW because they really do legitimately busy their asses, like it is such a hard working locker room. They’ve set the standards so high for matches. It gets harder and harder and tougher and tougher to top those things. I mean, it almost takes me back to the old days when we had the first tag team ladder match, and then the table match ,and the triple triangle ladder match, and then it ended up being the TLC matches, and it really was like a burden on us. It really weighed on us to try and top it each and every time. I think these guys are having such great matches week in and week out. I think it’s tough to try to top all this stuff over and over. I would like to see a little more story and entertainment based stuff into characters and whatnot in AEW just like, you know, to continue to draw more casual fans in, you know, not just hardcore wrestling fans. I feel like they’re there and the wrestling is always going to be there. I mean, that’s what Tony loves. He’s a huge fan of great, great wrestling matches and I don’t think that’s gonna go away at all, but I’m a huge fan of the Christian Cage – Adam Copeland storyline. It has been tremendous. I love what they’re doing. I want us to kind of like get into that territory where we have a very interesting journey like, what are these two living legends going through right now making them act this way? Why are they being like this? What frustrations drove them to act like this? I think there’s something that is very intriguing that we could really capitalize on.
Jeff added, “I think that’s where my best performing will come from is just in the acting, you know, like leading up to the matches, not just in the ring during the matches, but like showing people another side of you me loving my ego and myself more than I love, you know, jumping off ladders for the the people. That’s the kind of thing I’m thinking about. I think that can really lead to something extremely special, especially when it comes to just the little things you do, you know, in between the matches, and backstage. or whatever, the vignette stuff I’ve always loved. I mean, we can do some incredible things like that. I think our future kind of lies within the Shakespeare of professional wrestling.”
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.
