AEW star Matt Hardy recently spoke on his podcast, “The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy,” about a variety of professional wrestling topics including the Hardy Family Office getting watered down:
“We actually got pretty hot at that point with the six man tags we were doing as heels with Big Money Matt. I really feel like we had a lot of momentum. We were doing good and we would have continued to elevate as a trios tag until we started adding people. Tony said, ‘We don’t have anyone speaking for Butcher and Blade now. They’re better when they have a mouthpiece. Do you mind if I put them with you? ‘I was like, ‘Sure, I’ll do that.’ But then it became a little excessive. Then they had TH2. It became so watered down. I know in the notes, you kind of describe the HFO as the Island of Misfit Toys. I described it at the time as the Island of Misfit Toys. That’s exactly how I describe the group. It became so many guys that we really didn’t know what to do with and it was kind of directionless. It just kind of ended up being people that would put other people over.”
Matt was asked, “What kind of money are we talking with booking a weekend of Hardy appearances? How beneficial is that for you guys at this stage?”
Matt said, “I mean, You’re looking at every day, 25 to 30 grand.”
Matt was asked, “For both of you, you’re saying.”
Matt said, “Yea. “Even if we hadn’t shown up at AEW, I mean, we were still going to be doing that regardless. We were going to turn me babyface anyway. There’s so many people that don’t understand the value in guys like myself, and Jericho, whoever it may be. Jericho is really a top level guy when it comes to World Champion, legend, icon, whatever.”
“But you know, every time I would come out, even as a heel, once I did entertaining stuff as Big Money Matt, I was always getting cheered, and I still do. Every single week I come out, there’s people in that building that grew up with me, and they cheer me, and they know me. I’ve been on TV almost 25 years straight and a lot of that, major global TV. There’s so many smart fans that are so critical, that are so entitled. Can Matt Hardy move? Can Matt Hardy do all the same things he could 25 years ago? Of course not. I mean, reality. Father Time changes all of us as we get older. But is Matt Hardy still someone who contributes to a wrestling brand and someone who wrestling fans want to pay money to see, or like, share and have an experience with? Of course. So I was going to turn babyface anyway.”
“Then once we did determine Jeff was going to come to AEW and was going to sign the AEW contract which happened after his segment that night, dude, when you get the Hardy Boyz together, it’s, we’re very blessed to have been one of the most influential tag teams in history and there is so much damn equity in Matt and Jeff together. It’s just unreal. There’s so much we can do to give back while still benefiting ourselves on a national level like an AEW or WWE or Impact or ROH, or wherever, anywhere. We’re a big deal and some people don’t understand that, but we are because we’ve been blessed and we’ve been gifted with so many hours of television time and we’re known all over the globe. So we’re really blessed. That’s why the Hardy Boyz are still around, guys. I’m sorry if you hate us and you don’t like seeing us on your TV screen, but that’s why we’re still around.”
“Now that I feel like Jeff is in a good space and feels good about where he’s at in life. If he ends up coming back, I feel like there’s still a lot of positive things we can really, really do to make great contributions to the industry.”
Matt was asked if he believes Jeff Hardy will return:
“My gut thinks he wants to redeem himself. It’s not going to be instantaneous. Once again, we haven’t talked about stuff and he’s taking care of some physical issues that he’s been dealing with right now. So I don’t think we’ve seen Jeff appear on AEW television for the last time. I think we’ll see it again. In what capacity? I’m not sure of that right now. I can’t speak, but I do think he wants to redeem himself. I think that’s very important to him. He’s looking for redemption.”
You can check out the complete podcast below:
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
