Jeff Hardy officially joined AEW on March 9, making his debut by saving his brother Matt Hardy.
Jeff was released by WWE on December 9 and his 90-day non-compete clause didn't expire until midnight on March 9. Despite still being under the WWE non-compete, Hardy said on February 24 that he would be joining AEW.
Those comments worried Jeff as he thought his debut would be pushed back because of them.
"I was crazy nervous that whole day. It was so bizarre," Jeff told Jon Alba on The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy when discussing the day of his AEW debut. "The night before, I had no idea what time my flight would be, if I was going. I kept telling myself, 'they're probably going to wait until next week because...' the interview I did at one of my music shows got leaked and I pretty much plainly said, 'I'm going to AEW. I didn't know until this morning.' People went crazy. 'Oh, that's a spoiler,' but it really wasn't. All that was rushing through my mind and I thought, 'Maybe they won't do it tomorrow.'"
Jeff said he learned the plan was still on early morning on March 9.
Matt added, "Tony (Khan) wasn't going to speak to him until his contract was totally done. We were planting the seeds of me turning babyface and being able to re-team with Jeff at some point in the future, there wasn't a set time of when it would happen for sure. That day, he literally didn't have his travel until 6 and 7 that morning. He couldn't get on the same flight as me because they were sold out. Even during that day, they were like, 'Matt, you have this new contract, we can extend yours, you know how your contract is, what if we just offered Jeff that same thing?' I was handling all of these things and passing that information on and expedite this process and do it swiftly."
Matt confirmed he signed a contract extension with AEW on March 10.
Elsehwhere during the interview, Jeff discussed his WWE exit and turning down their Hall of Fame offer. You can find his full comments by clicking here.
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