AEW star Matt Hardy discussed a variety of topics on the latest episode of the “Extreme Life of Matt Hardy” podcast.
During the podcast, Hardy discussed Sasha Banks, now known as Mercedes Mone, making her debut for New Japan Pro-Wrestling following the IWGP Women’s Championship match at Wrestle Kingdom 17.
Her appearance set up the IWGP Women’s Title match between herself and KAIRI on February 18th at NJPW Battle in the Valley.
Hardy said, “I mean, good for her. Sasha, Mercedes, she really bet on herself and it’s hard for me not to appreciate that, because I’m one of those guys too, where I feel like, and Vince always knew that too, like, I didn’t have to be in WWE. I’m not afraid to step out of Alexandria, you know, a safe zone. I kind of compare Alexandria from The Walking Dead to WWE. If you stay inside and you have these walls, you’re gonna have a nice life, and it’s safe and it’s easy, and you can make decent money and it’s good, but you can go outside those walls and you can survive on your own, but you have to hustle. You definitely have to hustle. So I have huge respect for anyone who is willing to leave WWE and go out and hustle on their own. I think Mercedes is killing it. She’s doing a great job at keeping herself relevant, keeping herself in the conversations, being a huge talking point in the wrestling business, and showing up at New Japan and doing what she did. It was a big, big deal.”
You can listen to the complete podcast below:
