Matt Hardy sat down this week on “The Extreme Life Of Matt Hardy” to discuss Michael “P.S.” Hayes and the impact he has had on the Hardyz career from being a manager, legitimizing them, and how it benefitted Edge and Christian.
Matt Hardy said he feels that around the time Hayes joined up with The Hardy Boyz was when WWE started putting a lot of emphasis on the tag team division:
“I felt like at that time, the Stone Colds, the Rocks, The Mick Foleys, and the DXs were so over, and those angles were clicking on all levels, I feel like they actually decided to spend more time on the undercard, and that included the tag team division,” Matt said.
“I think that’s why they ended up trying to do more stories with everyone else. One thing I will always give Vince Russo credit for, Vince Russo really worked his a** off to make sure everyone was in some sort of storyline. I felt like that was something that really stood out about The Attitude Era.”
Matt said Hayes was all in when he found out he was going to be The Hardy Boyz’s manager:
“Kudos to Michael because he trained his a** off at that time because he knew he was going to be our manager, be back on TV, and he wanted to look as good as he possibly could,” Hardy said.
“One thing I do have to say is he was so into it. One of the first things he said when he found out we were going to work together was, ‘This is how it’s going to be. We’re going to approach this thing like myself, Buddy, and Terry did. This is my second run. We’re going to be together. Hopefully it will last for a very long time. This is what we’re going to do. We travel together as a family. We break bread together. We hang together. We stay in the same hotel rooms together. We’ll talk strategy as we go down the road.'”
Matt was asked if Hayes has changed over the years in terms of the way he conducts himself:
“Michael has changed as times have changed. You have to, especially if you’re going to survive in this business,” he said.
“It’s so funny. A lot of things Michael would say, and he says this all the time that he grew up in black neighborhoods, so he actually talks a lot of slang, almost like a black person would. Michael is a good guy. There’s no issues with him when it comes to that, but as far as the way he presents himself, and the things he says and does, he’s definitely changed along with the times as society has.”
Matt was asked how much credit does he give Hayes to legitimizing them as an act:
“Huge. If the company didn’t decide to rebrand us and put us with Michael, we wouldn’t have been in that scenario. So obviously learning from him, me being able to sponge up knowledge from him, tips and psychology, was hugely instrumental in us becoming who we ultimately became.”
Matt on whether there is a parallel between Hayes and The Hardy Boyz to what Matt is now doing for the HOF in AEW:
“That was immediately my mindset when I was talking about doing things with Private Party. They actually grew up fans of The Hardy Boyz. We were their favorite team,” Hardy shared.
“To be able to work with them, once again, almost the same scenario where they did all this cool, acrobatic, athletic stuff, but they needed to work on their fundamentals more and also be more aggressive. They needed people in the first few rows to look at them and go, ‘Hold up, I know those guys are great athletes and they can do a lot of cool flips and a lot of cool moves, but they’re getting tough now. Their throwing hands and throwing kicks.’”
“That’s what I tried to instill in those guys, to make sure they look physical and tighten up their game from a realistic standpoint.”
Matt on the success Hayes had not only on The Hardy Boyz, but Edge and Christian as well:
“Without Michael Hayes, not only are The Hardy Boyz very different, but also Edge and Christian are very different because he worked hand and hand with all of us.”
“I would imagine at some juncture in WWE, we would have been given an opportunity to be pushed and utilized, but if we didn’t have someone with the knowledge and passion of Michael Hayes steering our ship, guiding us, and coaching us during this time, I’m not sure we would have ended up as successful as we ultimately were.”
“I can also say that as well for Edge and Christian because we worked against one another all the time and we were on the road, but Michael was always there coaching all of us. He really was a huge influence on all four of us.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit “The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy” with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
