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 why AEW PPV events always deliver.
Hardy said, “Yeah, I was gonna say that too. That’s one thing — you can be critical of some of the stuff AEW does. But whenever they do a PPV, it’s almost always guaranteed to be a grand slam. Because I do feel like their PPV cards, they’re hard to predict. It’s match ups that are very compelling, that you want to see. And they usually always deliver. And I didn’t get to see this entire PPV (Dynasty). I watched the main matches that I was kind of — that I knew were going to be as good. Obviously, I was working the night of that PPV. And I did catch up on it, and I really thought it was a very, very strong PPV. So much kudos to AEW and everyone on the show because everybody busted their ass. That’s one thing you can never take away from all the guys that step into an AEW ring, everybody busts their ass every single night they’re out there.”
On why that is always the case:
“I feel like if talent in AEW knows they have a big PPV match coming up or whatever, they’ll really start putting the thought process in early, like a couple of weeks out, a week out, whatever it may be, in advance. Where I feel like some of the other companies I’ve worked for, they really focus in and hone in on the day of, and they really put together something strong. But I feel like there’s a lot of people in AEW, when they know they have this big match coming up? I mean, they’re thinking about it for two weeks out. Not just a couple of days before, they’re thinking about it for two weeks out. So it’s — they’re pretty dedicated to their craft. And they know it’s going to be such a competitive show as far as what the best match is. People want to go out there and they want to stand out as being one of the best matches on the show, no doubt.”
On Swerve Strickland winning the AEW World Heavyweight Title:
“Very happy for him, man. I like him a lot as a performer and as a person. So I was very happy that he was able to get this match and that now it is official, and he is the AEW World Champion. And just proud of the man. And I think it’s also something that is very proud for you know, the culture. You know, him being a Black champion, it’s very inspirational for Black people in wrestling as well. So I think it’s very good on that front.”
“I thought it was solid. I know you are gonna really talk about the match a whole lot, but I thought it was a very solid match. It was great to see, I thought it was a great decision to make Samoa Joe the champ in the meantime. Because you know, we kinda had to — we kind of quickly come to an end as far as MJF’s reign went. And Samoa Joe becoming the champ following MJF; I want to give Samoa Joe flowers because he really was a hell of a champion during the time he was doing it. He was very believable, he was very badass. And I think the fact that we got to this point and we had the build up with him and Swerve, and Swerve knocked off Samoa Joe. Who did seem like, in his own way, as Rock was saying, a final boss in so many ways. Like this really big, bad, Samoan badass. I’m very happy that Swerve got that strong win over him. And once again, I give Swerve and Joe their flowers.”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
