WWE Unreal revealed this week that the company had planned for Bron Breakker to win the Royal Rumble before changing course, in part out of concern about pushing him too hard, too soon. Matt Hardy has not seen the clip, but he does not agree with the thinking behind it.
Speaking on The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy, Hardy said he understood who WWE was likely trying to avoid provoking.
“The most vocal critics are the most diehard that are online, and that’s probably the people they were trying to avoid, being hateful of Bron Breakker getting too much too soon or whatever,” Hardy said.
His answer was that you commit anyway.
“There are times where you just, if you have a guy you want to build, f*ck it, you got to build a guy,” Hardy said. “Not everybody’s going to like it. Not everybody’s going to like it.”
He said Breakker’s tools are not in question.
“I do think Bron Breakker is talented enough, and because he’s an athletic freak, that he could carry his own weight there,” Hardy said. “I have no idea how he is as far as promos or mentally how he thinks. I don’t know how he processes stuff, how he puts stuff together. But physically, he’s incredible. He’s an incredible specimen. So physically, he is ready for that role, to be in that spot.”
Told that the crowd was red hot for Breakker when he ousted Seth Rollins from The Vision and carried the championship out the following week, Hardy said that is exactly the moment you act on.
“I don’t agree with that personally, because you did have that, and it was organic, and the people were behind him, like, oh, it’s a new face, we have some new blood bleeding into the main event scene,” Hardy said. “Roll with it. When you have those moments, sometimes you have to roll the dice and just take the chance and hope things work out.”
He added that nothing is permanent.
“You can always course correct and change direction if need be, but you got to continue to make younger, newer guys and make new top guys,” Hardy said.
Hardy did allow that the caution likely traces back to what happened with Roman Reigns a decade ago, when fans rejected a similar push. He said Reigns had everything WWE wanted at the time.
“He was definitely a Vince guy. He had the look of a Greek god, the chiseled, handsome guy, super athletic, just an amazing, unique look, and just cool as s*it in real life too,” Hardy said. “He was that guy. They’re like, all right, let’s put the rocket on this guy and let’s move him to the top.”
That history, he said, is probably what made WWE hesitate.
“I can see where some of those fears of what happened with Roman could run a parallel and almost be a reason for them trying to pull back on Bron Breakker,” Hardy said. “But sometimes you just got to push forward. You’re never going to get 100 percent of any crowd to support everything you do.”
