It was a different time.
Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy, collectively known as The Hardy Boyz, rose to stardom in WWE during the Attitude Era, a time when the business was full of hazing. Plenty of young wrestlers dealt with hazing, and The Hardyz were no exception.
Speaking on a live edition of The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy on-stage from 90s Wrestling Con, Matt Hardy was asked about the locker room culture in the early days of his WWE career. He recalled how it was the Wild West, as there was a lot of hazing. Hardy then recalled an incident that stemmed from him and Jeff arriving late to a show because their flight was canceled.
“Yeah, especially in those days, it was kind of the Wild West days, and thankfully, for wrestlers that followed us, that has changed some. ‘Well, hell.’ JBL was absolutely the master of hazing, and he would make sure the people belonged there. There was, once we started on the road, it was our second or third loop, maybe. We would do ten days, we would go, they would do a live TV, they would do a taped TV the next day, and then you would work through the whole week. You do ten days on, four days off. It’s our third week on the road, and we’re actually flying from the TV to San Antonio, Texas, where our live event is that evening. One of our flights in the connection had totally been canceled, and it just wasn’t happening. They knew we were going to be at the show late, and the opening match of the show was The Hardyz vs. Too Cool. I think they still Too Much at that time. We had worked with them for a few weeks. We were pretty cool. We knew what we were doing. We had told Jack Lanza, rest in peace. Jack Lanza was a producer of the show, and we’d let him know," Hardy said.
Hardy then noted that they said they would get there as soon as possible and still have their match. He detailed how all the guys knew about it once they got there, and JBL particularly took issue with their lateness.
“We get to the venue that day, and these guys obviously all know about it. I remember we walked in the building, me and Jeff, we’re nervous as you can possibly be. We said, ‘We’re so sorry guys, our flight was canceled, we’re so sorry. We got here as fast as we could.’ I remember JBL said, ‘Well hell, The Hardyz have been on the road for three weeks. Two weeks and a little change, and now they think they’re main-event big-time television stars. They think they’re the champs, that they’re more important than The Undertaker, then the Stone Colds, than all the other top stars here because they just show up whenever the hell they want to.’ We said we let Jack Lanza know, we just got here as fast as we could. We’re gonna try and change real quick because we’ve got to be out there and wrestle in eight minutes," Hardy said.
Hardy went on to recall how JBL told him and Jeff to go into a locker room, and they were surprised to walk in on The Undertaker, who was naked. He noted that JBL and the others stopped them from leaving. Eventually, they had their match, but once they got to the back, their bags were gone.
"[JBL] said, ‘Alright, well, since you’re such a big-timer, I know you don’t want to shake my hand because I’m just a piece of trash, the locker room’s right over there. That’s the locker room you need.’ I was like, ‘Oh, thank you,’ and we scurry, we run over there with our bags. We’re nervous as shit, right. We’re new and just starting and rookies, and the last thing we wanted to do was piss off these guys. We take our bags, and we roll into the room, and whenever the door opens and we take our bags inside, The Undertaker is in the room by himself, back in the corner, naked, wrapping his knees. We go, ‘Oh my god, we’re so sorry.’ JBL said, ‘Oh no, you deserve to be in the dressing room with the main events since you’re a big star, you only stay here at the beginning.’ ‘Taker said, ‘Yeah, go ahead. Have a seat.’ We said, ‘Oh no, we’ll leave.’ ‘No, no, we insist.’ A couple other guys, they made a wall where we couldn’t walk out of this room. We go, ‘Okay.’ Now ‘Taker is just looking at us, naked, just staring us down. We’re changing, getting dressed. ‘Okay, sorry, we’re gonna leave now, we’re going to the ring.’ We go to the ring, we do our match, all good. We come to the back, and we go in that room. ‘Taker’s bag is still there where he dressed. He isn’t there, but our bags, where they were, they weren’t there. They were nowhere to be found," Hardy said.
Hardy then explained that he asked around about the bags, and he continued to get a hard time for being late. Finally, Road Dogg told him where the bags were, but he said he did not want any heat in him. Hardy reflected on the incident and noted that there was a lot of hazing back then.
"I remember we came out, I said, ‘Excuse me guys,’ maybe it was Bob Holly, ‘Did you happen to see anyone leave with our bags? They got our clothes and all out money and everything is in those bags.’ He said, ‘Well, no, I don’t know where your bags are. If you came and you dressed in the wrestling locker room and you got here on time, we would have looked after them. Well, you’re in here like a big star, somebody probably walked in and stole them. Maybe you’ll get here earlier next time.’ Then I said, ‘Excuse me, Mr. Bradshaw, do you happen to know where your bags are?’ I said, ‘Did someone take them? I guess that’s what happens when you dress in your own private locker room because you’re that big of a deal.’ We just start searching throughout the arena. We probably searched for an hour, an hour and fifteen minutes. The shoe is starting to wind down, and Road Dogg grabs me, pulls me aside. He says, ‘Hey, your bags are in the dumpster right outside, but they got zipped up real good. But they got zipped up real good, so your stuff didn’t get messed up. But don’t you tell anyone that I told you because I don’t want none of the heat that you have.’ We did, we finally found our bags, but that was a very commonplace thing back in those days, in the Attitude Era. The hazing was unreal," Hardy said.
The Hardyz went on to become nine-time tag team champions in WWE, among many other accolades.
Fightful previously published a report about JBL and WWE's culture of hazing. More information is available here.
These days, Matt Hardy is part of the TNA roster, and he also recently made his GCW debut. Click here to see what he had to say about his deal with GCW.
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