Matt Hardy took part in Dark Side of the Ring’s three-part series on Jeff Jarrett and TNA. He has passed on the show before, and he says the Plane Ride From Hell episode was an easy no.
Speaking on The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy, Hardy said Jarrett himself is the reason he and Jeff said yes this time.
“Jeff Jarrett is the one who persuaded myself and Jeff to be part of this, because they had asked for us. We are kind of the representatives of TNA right now in 2026, and he had asked for us to be part of this, because our stories have interacted a lot over 30 years,” Hardy said. “And we were happy to do it, and we talked to him at the end, and he was once again very grateful. Thanks for being part of it. Dark Side of the Ring, people love you. They’d love to do more stuff with you.”
The 2021 Plane Ride From Hell episode, which covered a notorious 2002 WWE flight and generated fallout for several of the people who appeared in it, was a different situation.
“They reached out to me about that, the Plane Ride From Hell, and I was like, bro, I said thank you, but no thanks, because I knew nothing good was going to come from that,” Hardy said.
He said the format leaves no good options.
“That was one of those things where you’re put in a position and it’s not going to be good, regardless of what you do,” Hardy said. “Either you have to be very straightforward and just speak in reality, or you have to talk about how terrible people that you have these close relationships are. And it’s a lose lose situation in many, many ways.”
Hardy pointed to what happened to one of the people who did appear.
“Like as you can see, like Tommy Dreamer, he half a*s got canceled whenever he did that thing,” Hardy said. “So you have to be very selective about those things and just learn how to maneuver your career.”
Dreamer was suspended by Impact Wrestling in 2021 over comments he made in that episode.
Hardy said the TNA series was a different experience entirely.
“With all that being said, it was a very fun experience. Those guys were real good to us, and Jeff and I enjoyed being part of the Jeff Jarrett TNA story,” Hardy said.
He said the first two hours in particular held him.
“I thought it was a really good documentary overall. The first two hours, I was extremely compelled,” Hardy said. “They did a great job of making Jeff Jarrett human. They really humanized him, and you felt so much sympathy for him, especially the loss of his dear close friend Owen Hart, and him having to go on right after that, and the trauma that would create. And also the loss of his wife, and he has three young kids, which is just something I couldn’t even imagine going through.”
What surprised him most was the part he knew least about.
“I was really enthralled with his childhood, because I didn’t know all that, the stuff with him and his dad and being around wrestling his entire life. He’s just brought up in the business, in the industry. His grandmother, a huge deal,” Hardy said. “And the fact that there were points and times where he was estranged from both his mother and father was really, really wild, especially when they did the thing at TNA where his dad was kind of like, it’s kind of like me or Vince Russo, and they separate each side. It was like that for years, which was crazy.”
That part stuck with him personally.
“I know, of course I’m older now, but you only have one mom and one dad. You have to spend as much time as you can with them and just get to know them as well as you can, because when they’re gone, they’re gone,” Hardy said.
