Matt Hardy took to an episode of his “Extreme Life of Matt Hardy” podcast, where he talked about a number of topics including dealing with former WWE Chairman Vince McMahon being stubborn.
Hardy said, “He’s a stubborn guy. I mean, I think — you know, that might be something he would be transparent about. I think he is a very stubborn guy. I think he would openly admit he’s a stubborn guy. I wonder if he says that at all in the Netflix documentary. Can anybody let me know if he admitted to being a stubborn guy, because I have heard that from him. ‘Oh, I’m pretty stubborn when it comes to stuff too.’ And you know, so many agents and producers would say that. When he had an idea, ‘Well, he’s really stubborn. This is what he wants to do.’ You know, somebody else — maybe the agent or the producer has a better idea, or maybe the talent has a better idea. ‘I think we can go this way, and we can make it happen and make it good.’ But he said, ‘Well you know Vince. Vince is very stubborn. When he gets stuck on something, that’s what he wants.”
On frustration when dealing with McMahon over creative:
“I mean yeah, there have definitely been times where I feel like people have known from a creative aspect, ‘We should probably go in this direction. It’s kind of a lay-up. It’s what we should do. It makes the audience happy, it gives them a payoff and this payoff has been earned because there’s been plenty of heat throughout.’ But it doesn’t happen, and it changes for whatever reason. A big example is why Vince changed the finish to Summerslam, the first TLC which was in Raleigh. ‘It’s just too obvious, too many people know. Too many people know you are going to win.’ I was like, ‘That’s not a bad thing. We’re going to get a massive reaction because we’re at home, and we have built heat all throughout the summer since Wrestlemania, and we’ve been craving to get those titles.’ And he said, ‘We’ll just do it next show. It’s just too obvious, people will know.’ And that that was frustrating. That was a very very frustrating, frustrating event. But it’s just one of those things, that’s how the company was then, and you just had to roll with the bunches.”
On there being Vince McMahon and Mr. McMahon:
“So I do think it is different. I think that probably factors into the whole Mr. McMahon thing, too. I have seen signs where there have been some humanity in Vince. But I’ve also seen signs where you know, sometimes Vince McMahon and the character, Mr. McMahon, are very hard to separate.”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
