Pro wrestling veteran Matt Hardy took to an episode of his “Extreme Life of Matt Hardy” podcast, where he talked about a number of topics including Steve Blackman.
Hardy said, “Steve Blackman was always such an interesting character. I mean, just because he’s like, this legit badass. And he was very strange and very weird, but he would also like, start cracking jokes and, like, sometimes hear stuff, it was funny. It was just very — not what you would expect for him.”
On the situation that led him to being sent to wrestlers’ court:
“It was the day after we won the Tag Team Titles from JBL and Faarooq. We were at home, because we were in Fayetteville, North Carolina. We went back home that night, and then we drove to Raleigh. Everyone was flying out of Raleigh, and we were going to — I want to say, White Plains, New York or Poughkeepsie, New York, somewhere. It was a smaller show because it was on Wednesday. And I remember we got there, and Michael Hayes was waiting on us. He said, ‘Oh, got you guys a surprise today, boys. Got you guys a surprise.’ He says, ‘I done used all my miles, and I put you on the ticket with me. I’m going to put you in first class today!’ And I was like, ‘That’s okay. I know the whole roster is on this flight. We don’t need to be in first class.’ He said, ‘No, no, it’s fine. Everybody’s all set, and it’s all done. You guys can ride in first.’ We’re like, ‘I don’t know, Michael. This is a little early to be riding in first class, trying to show off.’ And he said, ‘No, no, it’s all fine. All the boys respect you anyway.’”
“And I remember we come in there, and we sit down in first. One of us is like in front of Michael, the other one is here. And I want to say beside me was maybe Ron, and besides Jeff was Bob Holly or somebody. And I remember we’re sitting there and they said, ‘Okay, well, we’re going to be closing the door here in just a few minutes. So everyone, buckle your seat belt and get be prepared to go. They say, ‘Oh, wait, wait. We have one last person who’s running on the plane that was running late today, but they have been checked in. And all of a sudden, around the from the cockpit, into the door and down the hall, it’s Kane. And Kane’s sitting there, and he looks over in first class, and there’s no seat for him. And he’s like, ‘Oh, that’s — I’m in the back. I’m in the back.’ And we go, ‘No, no, no.’ And we’re like trying to get up, and they’re going, ‘No no, sit down, sit down.’ And it turns out he checked in later than he was supposed to, but they allowed him to check in. And Michael thought all the first-class seats were all taken that the boys were going to sit in. But Kane did have one, and they said, ‘Oh well, you can’t sit in first class now because the seat is gone, because you didn’t check in at the time.’ And then myself and Jeff, we’re sitting in these two first-class seats. So they go, ‘No, no, no, no, you stay in these seats. Hey, you’re the champs. You’re a big deal. You’re the champions. You should stay there.’”
On being sent to wrestlers’ court over it:
“So obviously, we get sent to the wrestlers’ court. And Bradshaw actually tells me, before we go to this, he said, ‘Look, I know this wasn’t on you. This was on Michael Hayes. He’s going to get the brunt of this. So, just roll with it.’ And I remember we’re sitting there, and he just paces back and forth and says, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, I give you two young men that have been with this company for about a year. Not long at all, about a year. And these two men won the World Tag Team Titles of the WWF. And it went to their heads so damn fast, the next day they’re sitting in first class. And they took a 10-year veteran, Kane, a former world champion’s seat,’ And Kane said, ‘Can I please have my seat?’ ‘No, you can’t have it,’ they said to Kane. They said, ‘No, you can’t it, jobber, get in the back.’”
“He said, ‘The audacity of these two.’ He said, ‘Has success gone to their head or what?’ He said, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, everyone here in the jury. It could have been your seat. It could have been your seat. It could have been your seat Because these Hardy Boys don’t care about anybody!’ And we’re sitting there like, ‘Oh boy.’ And then he says, ‘And let’s talk about Michael Hayes. Michael Hayes is the man who put this whole thing together. He was sitting in first class, and it was his idea,’ he said. ‘And I don’t know,’ he said, ‘are the Hardys just this naive, or truly do they have that big of a head that they had to be in first class now that they’re the WWE Tag Team Champions?’”
On the sentencing:
“And he said, ‘Alright, we’re going to do sentencing.’ And then we come back and he says, ‘Alright, here’s sentencing. We find everyone guilty.’ Yeah, this is the Undertaker now. He says, ‘Alright. Sentencing is done. I have been provided a bottle of Jack Daniels by Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy, so I am going to let them off the hook.’ He said, ‘They’re okay in this court.’ He said, ‘Michael Hayes, you have to buy Kane dinner for the next week, because you stole his damn first-class meal. And you have to carry his bags.’ It was something very, very random like that. And everything ended up being okay, but it was a wild time, and it was funny. The exaggeration that JBL would go into was just so unbelievable.”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
