Matt Hardy reflects on being ribbed by Owen Hart.
Owen Hart was one of the most popular wrestlers behind the scenes during his time in WWE. Luckily for Matt Hardy, he was able to work with Owen Hart during his days as an enhancement talent but sadly, by the time Matt and Jeff Hardy were major Superstars, Owen Hart had already passed away.
On the most recent episode of The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy podcast, Matt Hardy reflected on his memories of Owen Hart. During one of Matt Hardy’s earliest times working as an enhancement wrestler for WWE, Matt Hardy not only got to wrestle Owen but was on the receiving end of one of his ribs.
“We were very excited to wrestle Owen. Both Jeff and I were,” Hardy said. “We were hoping we would get him because he was always really kind to the extras, being a smaller guy. I felt like he had an advanced knowledge of the business and I felt like he always tried to give them something if he thought they were good, and that's why we were always very excited to hopefully work with Owen, because we're like, ‘Oh, man, he's gonna give us a — we're gonna shine just for a minute or two, for a moment.’”
Matt then recalled rehearsing a spot for one of his first matches with Owen Hart in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and how that led to him being on the receiving end of one of Owen’s infamous ribs, saying that Owen had him practicing a spot on concrete until he put it together and acknowledged that Owen was putting one over on him.
“We go backstage and he has a canvas like a canvas you would cover up stuff with if it's gonna rain. He has this canvas laid out and it's probably 16 by 16. It's a square, right? He said, ‘Let's pretend like this is the ring. I want to practice this idea. Say this is the ring and I grabbed you in a waist lock. Just get down on all fours…’ It's concrete underneath this little canvas. So to get down on all fours. He said, ‘I want you to scramble real hard this way, and then when I stop you turn and go 90 degrees to your left, scramble real hard there, and then when I stop you, scramble hard 90 degrees again.’ I said, ‘Okay, we'll do it.’ That's cool. he wants to go over this and highlight me and give me a good spot.”
It took Matt Hardy five tries before he realized what Owen was doing.
“He says, ‘That was really good. That was really good,’" Hardy said recalling the first time he ran the spot. "He said, ‘Let's try it again.’ I was like, ‘Damn, this is hurting my knees, man.’ He said, ‘Let's try one more time. I think you've almost got it.’ Then, we go again. Boom, boom, boom. It's like, oh, man, I got it. It was hurting my knees and hands, we were on the concrete. Then, he said, ‘Ah, let's just go over a couple more times. I really want to make sure it's good.’ We did it five times! On that fifth time, I said, like, ‘Are you fucking with me?’ He said, ‘Yes, thank you for saying it! Oh my God,’ and then he just died laughing. He just had like this sweetheart, little laugh, like a child. He literally just had me doing that over and over where he was just standing up above me and having me crawl like a maniac on the concrete. Until I acknowledged that he was ribbing me. So that was one of my first very personal interactions with Owen.”
Now, Owen Hart is being honored by AEW with the Owen Hart Foundation tournaments and Jeff Hardy is one of the men that qualified for their tournament.
Owen Hart is also reportedly set to be included in the upcoming AEW: Fight Forever video game. If he is included, it will be the first time that he and Matt Hardy are included in a video game together. Learn more here.
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