Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy are among the most successful tag teams in professional wrestling history.
Both brothers have won multiple tag team championships. But beyond their tag team accomplishments, they also built impressive singles careers, becoming world champions in both WWE and TNA. Together and separately, they’ve competed across every division and always found success.
During their appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show, Matt and Jeff discussed their journey. Helwani pointed out how rare it is for a tag team to have such strong singles careers as both of them did. While most legendary tag teams stick to tag competition, but the Hardy brothers found success on their own as well.
Jeff explained that even during their early days on the independent scene, they worked hard and performed multiple times a night. “Yeah, I don’t know. I think we always kind of wanted to prove that to each other because, like, on the indies, man, we were like we were the go-to main event. You know, I’d work two times every night, you know, as Willow against Serge and then as Jeff Hardy, Wolverine, against whoever. So yeah, like two times every night. But like Willow and Serge, all that chemistry was just was just incredible. Anywhere we went, man, we would just tear it up all the time. And we had such great chemistry. And so, yeah, it was just destined to kind of fall that way.”
Matt Hardy added that their passion for wrestling pushed them to stand out not just as a team, but also as singles competitors. However, he also revealed that former WWE CEO Vince McMahon wanted to split them up early in their careers, as Jeff was Vince’s favorite.
Matt Hardy says Vince McMahon tried to split the Hardys early in their WWE run
“We knew that Vince early on tried to split us up like there were a few different times where the Hard. Like even way before it was time to, I think, because he saw potential in doing things. And, you know, obviously, Vince became a big Jeff guy. He loved Jeff. Jeff has always been more historically popular than I am. But still, I think people forget how popular I am on my own too even doing that, which is pretty cool.”
When asked if they pushed back against Vince McMahon’s early attempts to split them up, Matt Hardy said they didn’t really have much say. “No. I mean, not really. But I mean, there were some times, you know, where there was a scenario where they were trying to do something, and Jeff didn’t feel comfortable and none of us really did and then we just got taken off TV for a few weeks but still did house shows. Because they were trying to push us into a split.
Matt Hardy believed this was WWE’s way of punishing them for not going along with the plan calling it an old-school kind of punishment. When asked whether they preferred being a tag team or singles wrestlers.
Jeff Hardy admitted said he would probably choose tag team wrestling. He explained that while both he and Matt enjoy doing their own thing, tag team matches are easier on their bodies. Matt Hardy added this would continue building their legacy as one of the greatest teams in wrestling history.
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