Matt Hardy talks about the drastic ways in which wrestling has changed since he and Jeff got started in the industry.
Although Matt Hardy can still hang with today's wrestlers in AEW, he and his brother, Jeff Hardy, have seen many changes occur in the world of wrestling.
For example, when they competed against Edge and Christian at WWE no mercy in 1999 oh, there were no other major tag team ladder matches to gather influence from. Years later, there are half-a-dozen tag team ladder matches featuring Matt and Jeff Hardy alone, and an entire generation of wrestlers based their style off of Matt and Jeff Hardy’s influence.
Speaking to Sean Ross Sapp, Matt Hardy admitted that the World of Wrestling has changed quite a lot since the Hardy Boys entered the business and that includes how wrestlers interact with wrestling media.
“In all honesty, too, wrestling has changed drastically. When we started in the 90s, it was the wild, wild west. Literally, you were gonna come in and you were gonna get hazed and they were gonna see if you had the balls to stick around or whatever it might be. It was a different world,” said Matt. “As society has changed, so has pro wrestling, especially here at AEW. It really mirrors society in many ways. You try and be fair across the board. I don’t think we look at fans or even people who are wrestling reporters, we don’t look at them as less than. I feel like everyone is on the same level and equal. People are treated as such. That’s definitely one of the good things that’s come out of the last 20 /25 years of pro wrestling. People, in general, are treated better and more like human beings.”
Expanding on how the relationship between wrestling and wrestling reporters has evolved over the years, Hardy would say it's fine for wrestlers to interact with whomever they want but at the end of the day, kayfabe is as alive or dead as a particular talent chooses to make it.
“I think it’s fine. I’m sure guys like the Young Bucks or even Tony Khan, Kenny Omega, whoever. They can interact with whoever that is. A wrestling journalist that probably is looking for those scoops, doesn’t mean you have to give it to them scoops. You can give them insights into whatever you would like or if they have certain questions about certain things, you can give them certain insights. But once again kayfabe is as real or not real as you personally make it,” Matt said.
Matt Hardy currently works with Emmy award-winning journalist, Jon Alba on his podcast, The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy.
The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy drops every Friday at 6 a.m. eastern time on Spotify and wherever else you find your podcasts. You can also see a video version on YouTube. There is also an ad-free version if you subscribe to AdFreeShows on Patreon.
