Matt Hardy details Jeff Hardy's fall as part of a planned spot at AEW Double or Nothing.
At AEW Double or Nothing, The Hardys (Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy) teamed up with HOOK to face Ethan Page and The Gunns (Austin and Colten Gunn). The match marked Jeff's first time competing in a standard bout since AEW Double or Nothing 2022, as he missed a number of months following his DUI arrest in June.
Jeff returned to action in the cinematic Firm Deletion match on the May 5 episode of AEW Rampage, but Double or Nothing 2023 marked his first time competing in a typical match. During the contest, Jeff seemingly slipped and fell when he went for the Whisper in the Wind, and some fans thought it was a glaring botch.
Speaking on The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy, the veteran discussed his match at AEW Double or Nothing. When asked about how it felt to team up with Jeff Hardy again, he noted that it was good before he described how the spot where Jeff fell during the Whisper in the Wind was entirely planned.
"Good. Jeff was very nervous. All throughout the day, he said, ‘I just can’t wait. I can’t wait until we get this shit over with.’ He was ready to get through that match. He just wanted to get it done. It’s so funny because Jeff said I know people are going to have low expectations for me, they think I’m not going to be good, they think I’m not going to be crisp. He was in great shape, cardio-wise, everything else, he was in great ring shape as far as that goes. So it was Jeff’s decision, we programmed once specific spot where it looked like he made an error, which he didn’t make an error, and it was specifically just to stop him after he made this big, beautiful comeback. The amount of people that it’s still so easy to get in pro wrestling, it never ceases to amaze me, especially when something is done intentionally. Sometimes there’s things done intentionally for the help of telling a certain story," Hardy said.
Matt continued by describing how the initial thought was for him to beat Ethan Page in the match, but he didn't think he needed to do so, as he pinned Page in the Firm Deletion match.The veteran stated that he and Jeff decided that HOOK should get the rub, so they planned Jeff's fall in the Whisper in the Wind spot in order to set up the finish.
"The original thought [at] the beginning of the night was that I would beat Ethan, and I don’t think I needed to beat Ethan. I did in the Firm Deletion. To me, that was my moment, and doing it in a cinematic match here at the Hardy Compound, that’s as good as it gets, for me getting my comeuppance on Ethan. Then it could have been Jeff or HOOK, and both Jeff and I decided that HOOK should ultimately take the finish. So we were gonna highlight Jeff, let him be a big star, let him go on a kickass comeback, do all his stuff, and to transition to segue to getting HOOK in there for doing the finish, that is why we implemented that Jeff Hardy slips on the Whisper in the Wind spot, to get HOOK get in there and let HOOK ultimately take the finish and get the win and get the rub by winning the match that includes Matt and Jeff Hardy," Matt said.
Co-host Jon Alba noted that Jeff landed hard, and he asked if the latter was okay. Matt stated that Jeff was fine, but he caught his leg on the rope. Though the fall was planned, it didn't happen the way it was initially planned.
“Yeah, he was fine. Full transparency, he wanted to go up and just slip the one leg off, but he got his one leg caught over the top rope a little bit, which is something he didn’t want to do, but the slip is obviously something that had been thought ahead of time. It was okay though. It was hard, and it looked nasty, and everybody thought, ‘Oh my god, that looked so crazy. Was he alright?’ Yeah, he was fine," Hardy said.
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