Matt Hardy Says This Match Elevated The Hardy Boyz Into Superstars In WWE

Many wrestlers who’ve been to the top of the mountain or otherwise have enjoyed career longevity on sports entertainment’s biggest stages can point to a single match that took their careers to the next level and Matt Hardy is no different. During the latest edition of his popular podcast, “The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy,” the current AEW star would detail the top matches of his career. Among them, Hardy mentioned the was the ladder match he and his brother had against Edge and Christian at WWE No Mercy on October 17, 1999, which he said turned the brothers from simply wrestlers on the roster to WWE superstars.

“We were cognizant of the fact that we had the ability to create something that was going to truly be magical and that could change the game,” Hardy said. “But none of us knew at that moment that it was going to have the impact that it ended up having. We had no idea it was going to trigger the whole TLC era and just really elevate tables, ladders, and chairs matches into a permanent staple of pro wrestling. We had no idea that this was going to be the beginning of that.”

“After they did the deal where Christian pinned Jeff in the corner with a ladder, and then he ran, jumped off the ladder, and dropkicked Jeff in the corner, and there was a huge applause. And then from that point on, the applause just kept growing, little by little, and it got bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger at every spot we did and everything we pulled off” Hardy continued. “And we could see and feel more importantly than see. We could feel inside, within ourselves, that the crowd knew they were witnessing something special. And not only were they appreciative of it, but they were grateful. And it was almost like we were creating this work of art, and they were acknowledging it every step of the way.”

Young Bucks Vs. The Hardys Set For Double Or Nothing

The Young Bucks issued a challenge to the Hardys on “AEW Rampage” Friday night.

In a backstage segment with the Undisputed Elite, the Young Bucks issued a challenge to the Hardys. Matt and Nick Jackson said that because the Hardys now have a free schedule, they want to hold the dream match at the pay-per-view in Las Vegas on May 29.

The Hardys agreed to the match, and it was later made official for “Double or Nothing”.

Mark Henry Told The Acclaimed They Were Tony Khan’s Second Best Idea

The Acclaimed recently spoke with Rasslin’, where Anthony Bowens spoke about competition.

Bowens believes that it is a good thing because it allows them the chance to prove they’re the best. He also stated that facing The Hardy Boyz would be a dream.

“I think competition is great, and we get to prove ourselves every week against some of the best teams in the world. And keep proving why we are the best team in the world,” The Acclaimed star said. “And plus, we get to have all these matches, for me The Hardy Boyz would be a dream match as a kid. Never would I think when I was 10 years old I would have the chance to beat the crap out of Matt and Jeff Hardy. So, every week is an opportunity to prove why we are the best in the world, and it’s exciting.”

The other half of The Acclaimed, Max Caster also has a team he’d like to face. For him, it is The Young Bucks. He thinks that they have a lot to prove in revisiting that match.

“The Young Bucks, they’re on my list again this year of teams I want to wrestle,” he said. “Because the first time we wrestled them we lost. But we had one of our best matches ever, and we almost won the titles, our tenth match in I think it was. So, there’s a lot that we have to prove that we want to revisit and go back to.”

Max Caster also revealed the best compliment he has received in wrestling. This came from Hall Of Famer, Mark Henry, who thinks highly of the tag team.

“We want the titles. I think we are in line to get those, there’s no team that’s more loved than us, there’s no team that looks better than us, there’s no team that gets a better reaction than us when we step into the arena. I’ll say this, this is my favorite compliment that we ever got. Mark Henry told us that the best decision Tony Khan ever made, besides starting AEW, was putting The Acclaimed together. That is my favorite compliment I ever got,” he said. “It gave me so much confidence when he said that.”

AEW Acquires Rights To Iconic Hardy Boyz WWE Entrance Theme

If you were wondering why Jeff Hardy was able to come out to the classic Hardy Boyz WWE entrance theme on last night’s episode of AEW Dynamite, it’s because Tony Khan’s promotion has secured the rights to the track.

Fightful Select reported prior to Dynamite that AEW was trying to license the song. Titled ‘Loaded’ and produced by Zack Tempest, the track was never owned by WWE, though it stands as one of the most enduring themes of the past few decades. Rather, it is stock music that has been used outwith wrestling before, including on Spike TV.

Later, Fightful confirmed that AEW has, indeed, secured the rights to ‘Loaded’. The promotion also acquired the right to use the entire library the song is part of, which includes Crash and Hardcore Holly’s old WWE theme too.

Jeff reunited with brother Matt on last night’s Dynamite, reforming the Hardy Boyz in a long-expected debut that concluded with an emotional embrace in the middle of the ring. The angle preceding this saw Matt kicked out of the Andrade Hardy Family Office by the group’s remaining members.

Hearing a theme so closely associated with WWE on AEW television was a trip.

Matt Hardy On Jeff Hardy’s AEW Debut: “We Need Each Other More Than People Understand”

Reacting to a photo of Jeff Hardy’s AEW debut on last night’s Dynamite, Matt Hardy has emphasized that the Hardy Boyz “need each other more than people understand.”

Hardy reacted to a photo of the brothers embracing for a hug.

The emotion is real. We need each other more than people understand. #AEWDynamite

Hardy has stated several times recently that The Hardy Boyz plan to have one last run as a tag team.

“Jeff and I both made that deal to each other: we want to end our careers the way we began our careers,” Hardy told Bleacher Report last month. “We’re getting the opportunity to do that now as all of the planets have aligned. I’m really excited for how 2022 is going to turn out for the Hardys. It’s going to be a great, great year and we’re very much excited to be teaming again and having some first-time matches, which is going to be rare.

“We’ve gone long enough without teaming that there’s all these fresh matchups out there and there’s so many great tag teams in the world,” he continued. “The AEW tag team division is jam-packed and overflowing. If we end up doing something at AEW, I think that’d be very cool, too.”

The Hardyz haven’t tagged together since the April 19, 2019 episode of SmackDown, where they would beat The Usos for SmackDown Tag Team Championship. They were forced to vacate the titles after Jeff Hardy suffered a knee injury. As noted earlier, the brothers have been announced for several upcoming indie shows.

The emotion is real. We need each other more than people understand. #AEWDynamite https://t.co/P2Fy6S5iww pic.twitter.com/UWQXCEXtwW

— MATT HARDY (@MATTHARDYBRAND) March 10, 2022

Matt Hardy Wants To See Jeff Hardy In AEW

While they’ve often taken their own individual paths over the years, it always feels like a Hardy Boyz reunion is never too far away. And if Matt Hardy gets his way, his brother Jeff will eventually join the Broken One over in AEW.

Speaking to Signed by Superstars, Matt talked up how he sees himself finishing his career in All Elite Wrestling and that he’d like to have Jeff alongside him in Tony Khan’s promotion.

“With the way things are going right now in AEW, I’d say yeah [I’ll finish my career there]. They’re great, and I’d really like to have a last hoorah with Jeff there, too.”

After the Hardy Boyz made their shock WWE return at WrestleMania 33 back in 2017 – winning the Raw Tag Team Championships in a four-team ladder contest on that night – Matt would stay with the company for three years before letting his WWE contract expire in March 2020.

Following his latest WWE exit, Hardy would make his AEW debut on the 18 March episode of Dynamite, initially aligning himself with the Elite in their rivalry with the Inner Circle.

As for Jeff Hardy, the Charismatic Enigma revealed last September that he had signed a new contract with WWE, although it’s not known exactly how long the former WWE Champion is tied down for with Vince McMahon’s sports entertainment juggernaut.

Xavier Woods Names His Favorite Tag Team Of All Time

In an interview with Chris Van Vliet, Xavier Woods was asked who his favorite tag team of all time was. The eleven time WWE Tag Team Champion revealed he was a big fan of an often forgotten early 2000’s tag team, as well as one of the most famous tag teams ever and a WCW boy band group.

“I’m bad at picking the greatest,” Woods said. “My favorite is Billy and Chuck, mainly because of their matches with the Hardys. It was the first time I noticed that The Hardys are not huge but they could still knock the huge guys down. In my teen head I was like this is how wrestling should be. This is where you put your ego aside and have this good match. I’ve always been a fan of tag team wrestling. But I like groups too. I was into 3 Count in WCW too. I love so many teams for so many reasons.”

Recently Woods was announced as one of the hosts for the revival of G4TV. Woods explained that the gig, as well as his recent foray into learning bass guitar, is all to help transition to the next chapter in life when he’s done with wrestling.

“G4 is the job that I’m going to transition to once I am done being a bump boy!” Woods said. “But also I am learning bass guitar, I have aspirations to be a studio bassist. Hopefully in the next 5 to 7 years. It’s music, so there are components that I already understand with playing trombone. That part is easy, I’ve got the music theory. Translating it to bass has been fun. All of your favorite songs are driven by a bassline. It feels good to play and to spread positive energy.”

Despite his attempts to learn bass, Woods is still best known for playing the trombone. He revealed to Van Vliet he initially wanted to learn the drums, and it was a mistake that led to him playing the trombone in grade school.

“The trombone found me,” Woods said. “I wanted to play drums, but 6th grade me had no idea what the word percussion meant. When they called out percussion and we went into a room, I was like I don’t want to do that. Then they went on to the next instrument. Later I asked when are they doing drums? They told me that they called that 10 minutes ago and that door is closed now.

“So instead it was try to make some noises on these other instruments. Saxophone is sexy, maybe I can get good at that. They gave me a brass mouth piece and asked what I thought I should do with it. I made the sound instantly and then they asked can you do it with this smaller one? I could and then they tried the smallest one, which is the trumpet, which I couldn’t do. Then they said cool you are a trombone player.”

So how did Woods end up playing the trombone in WWE? As he tells it, the New Day was originally pitched to sing on TV, only for Woods to pitch playing the song on trombone instead. The rest is history.

“At that point we were trying to see what they (WWE) would say yes to us doing,” Woods said. “They had an idea after we won the titles in New York and they wanted us to sing a song. They wanted us to sing ‘New York, New York.’ We were in the car and I said do you think they will let us have a trombone, because I could figure it out on that. The guys were like ‘let’s see.’ We texted them back and they told us yeah we can get a trombone.

“We played it during the show and I’m supposed to give it to someone so we can do our match. In my head I’m thinking I’m never going to be in this situation again. I get to take my passion of professional wrestling and my passion of trombone and experience this feeling again. So I’m going to keep the trombone and play it during the match. One of the camera guys is crying as he is trying to record. We go to commercial and the camera guy says ‘you got to keep playing that trombone. Vince is loving this.’ We got to the back and everyone is loving it. Vince told us ‘I never want to see you without a trombone when you go out there.’”

Maria Kanellis Recalls Once Flashing Legendary WWE Tag Team At Autograph Signing

Former WWE star and current Ring of Honor talent Maria Kanellis stopped by the Wrassingh Show this past Sunday to talk wrestling. Maria revealed she had been a fan of wrestling ever since she was a kid, and recounted one story about flashing one of the greatest tag teams in WWE history.

“I was!” Maria answered when asked if she grew up a fan. “I watched it with my brother when we were kids. I broke my brother’s nose while doing wrestling moves on him when we were little little kids and then I got back into it when I was in high school. I went to a show when I was like 19 years old and um there was a big window where the Hardy’s were and they were doing a signing. So my boyfriend at the time, put me up on his shoulders and I flashed the Hardy Boys because I was just so excited to be there!”

Maria’s heyday as a wrestler in WWE took place during her first run from 2005 to 2010, whereas she mostly served as a manager to her husband, Mike Bennett, during her second WWE tenure. When asked who she clicked with best as a wrestler, Maria revealed she worked best with three fellow performers.

“I had a lot of chemistry with Beth’s Phoenix,” Maria said. “I loved tagging with Mickie James. I also had a lot of matches with Michelle McCool, so I had a lot of great chemistry with several of the girls. Everybody was pretty safe. The only time that things weren’t safe was when we were forced to wrestle in our heels or our bikinis or we didn’t have the proper gear. So that was the most dangerous part during that time. It had nothing to do with the girls I was in the ring with, it had everything to do with what WWE management wanted us to wear.”

Later Maria discussed who exactly helped pioneer the Women’s Evolution in WWE, something that is continuing to evolve to this day. According to Maria, there are so many important women in WWE history that you can’t pinpoint any specific ones that led the movement.

“So I don’t think that you can pinpoint it on a few girls,” Maria stated. “I think that you’re gonna have to look way back in time to really start the evolution. Alundra Blayze, who I had a really long conversation with the last time I saw her, was telling me about how she was just trying to get her name put on the card. Her name wasn’t advertised and that was a big win for her, just to get her name advertised. So, when we start talking about the history of women’s wrestling, we need to stop focusing on these most recent facts! We need to look past that and go farther into the past.

Like Molly Holly was a tremendous wrestler, but she gets thrown into like this whole, like ‘we hate the Divas’, and that was when it was all switching into the Attitude Era and then they overlooked the fact of how good she was in the ring. And again, if she was placed into matches that were shorter, it’s not her fault, she was very talented. Unfortunately, the WWE management was not talented enough to understand that women’s wrestling could be viewed as respected and could be viewed as important. So for me, there are too many to name but I would definitely say that there are, from every single era, there are women that have added to this industry and have created opportunities for others.”

Matt Hardy On What AEW Gives Him That WWE Didn’t, WWE Squandering The Hardy Boys

AEW star Matt Hardy says The Hardy Boys were squandered by WWE after their big returns at WrestleMania 33 in 2017.

Wrestling writer and podcast host Jim Valley had tweeted about how he believes WWE does a “poor job of monetizing and celebrating” its history and nostalgia, adding that Matt does a better job of it on his own than WWE does. Another user responded to that tweet and said WWE has produced several books, DVDs and WWE Network specials on The Hardys and TLC.

“DVDs? What year is it? The Hardys got the biggest reaction at WM33 and then went nowhere. There’s a difference between licensing products & proactively selling superstars other than Hogan, Savage, Michaels, Taker, Rock and Austin. There are lots of fans who aren’t being serviced,” Valley responded.

Matt then chimed in and agreed. He said he’s grateful for his WWE return and the time he had there, but it could’ve been much better. Matt added that AEW is giving him what WWE failed to.

“You’re correct, Jim,” Matt wrote. “We were insanely hot coming into WM33, but our usage was squandered. I am grateful for the return & time there, but it could’ve been SO much better. You can keep an act hot & a money maker without it being a forced focal point of the show. AEW grants me this.”

Matt is currently working the main event scene in AEW, teaming with The Elite (The Young Bucks, AEW Tag Team Champions Kenny Omega and Hangman Page) to feud with Chris Jericho and The Inner Circle. Last night’s Dynamite episode on TNT saw Matt and The Bucks defeat Private Party and Joey Janela in six-man action. Last Saturday’s Double Or Nothing pay-per-view saw Matt and The Elite defeat The Inner Circle in the big Stadium Stampede match.

Which WWE Tag-Team Were Told To Be The “Opposite” Of The Hardy Boyz?

Scotty 2 Hotty told Edge and Christian on the pair’s old podcast (‘E&C’s Pod Of Awesomeness‘) that he and former Too Cool partner Grandmaster Sexay were told to be the complete opposite of Matt and Jeff Hardy.

It turns out the lyric, “You look fly today” from Too Cool’s first entrance theme was a misnomer designed to parody how trendy and legitimately cool The Hardy Boyz were. The whole thing was much-maligned creative writer Vince Russo’s idea.

He approached Scott Taylor and Brian Christopher with one goal: Too Cool would be everything The Hardyz weren’t. The team were never supposed to catch fire as a babyface comedy act who wore bucket hats, ski goggles and danced like everyone’s dad after a few pints.

Russo wanted fans to despise the duo for daring to turn up dressed like 80s pop rejects. Unfortunately for him, people eventually loved how over-the-top Too Cool were, especially when they coaxed 400-pound Samoan Rikishi into busting a groove alongside them.

Scotty and Grandmaster’s initial mission statement called for them to analyse The Hardy Boyz, look at their style and then deliberately try to get as far away from that as possible. Vince Russo deserves credit for that; it was genius, and it changed the careers of both guys forever.