Matt Hardy says wrestling used to be hotter in the late 1990s, but the business has more of a global reach now.
In recent weeks, there has been a lot of discourse about the wrestling industry. WWE continues to break records, and it's clear that business is booming. Meanwhile, AEW recently premiered their third television show, AEW Collision, and they will make their United Kingdom debut with AEW All In London at Wembley Stadium in August.
Speaking on The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy, the AEW star weighed in on the discussion. First, he emphasized how wrestling is in a really good place now, but it used to be more engrained in pop culture. However, Hardy also highlighted the way that wrestling has more of a global reach now.
“During the Attitude Era in the late 90s, compared to now, the early 2020s, wrestling is really, really good now, beyond a shadow of a doubt. It’s just, I think it’s very different, the way you judge the parameters of the entire wrestling industry. I think if you look back to the Attitude Era, it was more engrained in pop culture. I think that people in America, you might even say North America, we’re much more aware of pro wrestling, and it was cool, it was trendy. But it was very different. Now, it is so much larger on a larger scale. Sure, we’ve got huge numbers, whether it’s seven million, eight million, nine million, however many people would watch wrestling on any given Monday night back then. But it was very different. There was only 40 television channels then or whatever. It was much, much smaller, as far as the things you could watch and your choices. But if you fast-forward 25 years later, now you have thousands of channels, just on cable. You have all these streaming services, Netflix, Hulu, whatever it may be. There’s so much content out there. Now, wrestling is also taken in and absorbed in such a different way. It’s consumed now in so many different forms. Some people watch it on live TV. A lot of people solely watch it on DVR. A lot of people stream it on whatever their device is. There are many different ways to watch it, and I think right now, compared to then, it isn’t as engrained in pop culture as it was in the late 90s. But it’s also much more well-received and much more known about, and people are aware of pro wrestling currently around the globe because so many people sit here and they look on their devices, and this is where they watch their pro wrestling. They watch WrestleMania here, they watch All Out here. They watch all their events right here on their smart device," Hardy said.
When directly asked whether wrestling is hotter than ever, Hardy noted that he didn't think that was the case. He again stated that wrestling has more of a global impact now, and it has the ability to become hotter than ever. Hardy described how wrestling, like many other forms of entertainment, is more of a niche industry, as there are so many options out there.
"I don’t think wrestling is hotter now than it was in the late 90s, but I do think wrestling has a much more sprawling impact around the globe, and I think it has the chance and ability to become hotter now than it was back then. I think that’s where we’re at right now. I think many more people consume pro wrestling in this day and age, in so many different ways, and you can’t keep those numbers. But back then, it was just a little bit hotter at that time because it was truly a part of pop culture. That is something is really hard to do. Now it’s much more of a niche industry, as most everything is. There’s so many things out there. There’s so much entertainment to choose from. Everything is almost niche and has a very certain audience. That’s why I am a huge advocate of saying, ‘We have to appeal to more casual fans.’ I think casual fans are the way to grow pro wrestling in the big scheme of things. I mean, the people that are wrestling fans, they’re gonna tune in and they’re gonna watch wrestling because they love it. They can complain and they can bitch, they can moan, but they’re gonna tune in and they’re gonna watch it because they love pro wrestling and they have to get their fix. But I think we need to continue to try and build people that are crossover stars that appeal to the casual audience, especially speaking about AEW. WWE, obviously they’re taking some great steps in the way they’re doing the thing with Logan Paul, the way they’re doing stuff with Bad Bunny because that does cross over and they get casual fans to tune in. I think they have a really successful formula going on," Hardy said.
Hardy also highlighted that the economy is different now than it used to be. He shared his belief that it’s important to bring in from outside wrestling bubble to make those parameters grow. The veteran also again brought up the different ways that fans watch wrestling now, whereas the business used to lean more on TV.
Matt Hardy is set to compete on the July 28 episode of AEW Rampage. Check out the card here. Fightful will have coverage of the show as it airs.
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