Matt Hardy has appeared on national TV for 25 years, and he's not done yet.
A master of reinvention, Matt Hardy went from the Hardy Boyz to Mattitude to "Matt Hardy will not die" to Big Money Matt to Broken. Largely off television after his brother Jeff's injury earlier this year, Matt Hardy started posting social media videos about how nobody understands the difficulties of how tough his life is, by highlighting minor inconveniences that would often be seen as luxuries by others.
— The VESSEL of Matt Hardy (@MATTHARDYBRAND) August 23, 2019
When speaking to Fightful recently, Matt Hardy explored the line of thinking of creating the "You don't understand" character we saw in recent months.
“You don’t understand” is actually, technically the way the line goes if we quote it. But, I was just gonna say, this is something that I have been doing while I’ve been off television. Obviously I’m in a transitional period. My brother, obviously, had knee surgery and he was out and now I’m in a transitional period. I said, I’m gonna go ahead and put some ideas out there. I’m gonna go ahead and kick start what I’d like to do creatively coming back. And that whole concept that was developed, because with social media I have this saying“the best thing about it is it gives everyone a voice. The worst thing about it is it gives everyone a voice.” On social media you can see people will complain about anything even if the scenario isn’t even that bad, you know? So that was kind of my mindset behind doing this, trying to stay the pulse of pop culture and society and what’s going on. And you have this guy Matt Hardy whose been at this 27 years, who has this pretty nice life over all, who lives in this enormous house. But there’s a snag in my day; snag one, snag two, snag three; what if that’s all he complains and bitches about? So that was the whole mindset behind that," Hardy told us.
"Because I was added last moment to this event, to procure this business class seat, I have to drive 3.5 hours to Omaha."
— The VESSEL of Matt Hardy (@MATTHARDYBRAND) August 22, 2019
V1- "MATT FACT - Matt has never been afraid of change."#BROKEN Matt- "This week’s word is METAMORPHOSIS!" pic.twitter.com/UtDAEx1556
The latest in a long line of successful gimmicks, Hardy has branched out from the heartthrob-esque character we saw 20 years ago on WWF TV. In present day WWE, he continues to evolve and doesn't look to stop. We inquired about the possibility of other groundbreaking ideas, gimmicks, or personas in the clip for Hardy to fire off, and he said he has things prepared.
"Yes. I have at least two other good things in mind right now," Hardy confirmed. "And that’s the important thing, especially for me now. Because I’m much more entertainment driven than I am athletically driven. So it’s important for me to have those things. And also, as an artist, that’s very cathartic for me. And I enjoy being able to come up with this cool, creative idea and then apply it to something. And that’s what it takes to survive in this day and age because the people’s attention spans are so short. Characters constantly have to change and evolve, constantly."
The 44-year old Hardy recently celebrated the 25-year anniversary of his first televised match in WWF/E, and still at it. He returned to WWE TV last week.
You can see our full conversation with Matt Hardy above. Subscribe to Fightful Select to get early access to content and interviews, and exclusive podcasts.
