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 WWE keeping talent in the dark about things like the Draft.
Hardy said, “In the later years, yes. The first time I remember them kind of kayfabing hard was doing the Taboo Tuesdays or Cyber Sundays — I think it was a Taboo Tuesday that we did, or a Cyber Sunday, I don’t remember. But where it was a tag team match, and it was going to be me and whoever else was voted for was going to take on — I feel like it was Edge and Snitsky. And it ended up being me and Ray. But like, we legit didn’t know till 10 minutes before the match.”
On having to adjust if a talent was moved:
“It does [change your schedule], and people would freak out about that. So I remember whenever I got drafted to ECW as the US champion, that was a total surprise to me. I wasn’t aware of that at all. And there was like, probably a legitimate look of shock or whatever, where I didn’t know that was happening. And they — you know, they did a good job at keeping people in the dark about that and trying to get their legitimate reactions. And I think that’s cool, the only thing that is possibly a drawback is that it could change their schedule, especially if someone has a family and kids, just so you can kind of plan. And if people can kind of be smartened up on that and be okay with it, I’m alright with it.”
“But I mean, if you’re like a single dude just doing whatever. And you’re in the mix in your prom, like — I say this all the time. Like, ‘Man, I didn’t watch TV, I didn’t do anything.’ Those years when I worked with WWE from you know ’98 through 2010 like dude, it was just go, go, go. Like you know, I missed so much great TV. And it’s great, I got to go back and watch it later and whatnot. But my life was just wrestling, I was like a single dude just living life, making towns. The only thing that was real was the money and the miles, you know what I mean? That’s like, what my mindset was. And it was just go, go, go. I mean, if you’re one of those guys, then you know, to hell with it. Whatever schedule you’re on, you’re on. You’re gonna be busting your ass and working a lot, it is what it is. But yeah, man, it was. That’s a pretty legitimate thing about that Draft. They’ve always kept it pretty [close to the vest].”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
