Matt Hardy wants to see The Hardys put in a position to succeed, no matter where they work.
Hardy spoke with WrestleZone Managing Editor Bill Pritchard ahead of his live podcast recording of The Extreme Life Of Matt Hardy on Friday, April 5 in Philadelphia. Hardy has been in the headlines recently because his AEW contract was set to expire* at the end of March.
On past episodes of his podcast, Matt (and Jeff Hardy, during guest appearances) spoke about the Hardys still having value, and how they could add value to AEW. Despite their respective frustrations with creative direction, Matt said he loves AEW and the company is paramount for the health of the industry. Moving forward, Matt hopes that he and Jeff can be optimized. He also noted how he’d like to be in a position to succeed, just as Sting was during his AEW run.
“I think if you have a tag team of that magnitude that has that much [history and success], it’s very important to keep them in a position where they are relevant and they look strong. They should always look strong. I think Tony Khan did a perfect job with Sting,” Matt Hardy noted. “The way he came in, he was put into situations to succeed over and over and over again. They never minimized Sting in any way. He was always optimized to his ability in any degree.”
Matt said it might be different for a tag team because losing a single feud might not hurt as much. However, having them go winless for almost a year is a mistake, and that’s something Matt said he’ll take a strong stance on.
Optimization
The Hardys are generational performers and fans still hope to see them on TV. Matt says their time in the ring is limited, and he wants to help build the future while staying relevant.
“I want to be optimized wherever I’m at. If I’m with Jeff, I want to be optimized as The Hardys. That is very, very important to me, and that is a fight I’m willing to fight because if nothing else, I’ll just keep my ass at home. I don’t have to go back to working. I’ve worked really hard to put myself in this position,” Hardy explained.
“The other thing is, there are so many AEW fans, and this is diehard fans, that are so overly critical of things when it comes to the product. When they look at some guys like Jericho — Chris still kicks ass as far as in the ring. He works really hard, and sure, is he what he was 25 years ago? Of course not. But he still is extremely good. He has a name, he has value, and there’s a lot of equity in Chris Jericho. Same goes for Matt and Jeff Hardy.
“Some people get upset or hot like, ‘Oh, come on, get them out of here. They’re not who they were.’ We can. We can go out and be a huge benefit to any promotion and I believe that, and that’s another hill I’ll die on. I think there’s a way to use us where we’re in a position of relevancy because we still have to win and we have to be kept at a certain level. But we can definitely help build the future tag teams of tomorrow. That’s what both of us want to do.”
Jeff Hardy update
Jeff Hardy has been sidelined with a broken nose since February. In December, Matt also shared that Jeff was dealing with vision issues from LASIK surgery last March.
Now, Matt says Jeff’s vision has recovered and he’s likely weeks away from getting cleared.
“His vision issues are good. He had to have surgery on his nose. He had some issues with his sinuses, so he had surgery. He’s got three or four more weeks before he’ll be cleared to return.”
Matt was also asked about the potential for he and Jeff to restructure their AEW contracts so the start and end dates lined up. He noted that Jeff has a bit more time on his due to injury time, but said “that’s just a conversation I guess we’ll have at some point.”
Join Matt Hardy and Jon Alba for a live recording of The Extreme Life Of Matt Hardy on April 5. Hardy and Alba will look back on the “TLC Years”, telling untold stories about the iconic matches. The show takes place at the Sheraton Philadelphia Downtown. Tickets are just $25 and available at MattHardyLive.com.
*Matt was still under his existing contract at the time of the interview. Days later, he told his podcast audience that he’s been offered a new AEW contract. It is unclear if Matt has signed the new contract yet.
