Matt Hardy reflects on early attempts, and the lack thereof, at cinematic matches in WWE.
Matt Hardy was able to successfully reinvent himself during The Final Deletion cinematic match with his brother, Jeff Hardy, during their 2016 run in IMPACT Wrestling. However, professional wrestling had been leaning far more in the direction of Hollywood decades before this, and more than a decade before The Final Deletion, Matt Hardy says that Michael Hayes had the idea for The Hardy Boyz to compete in a Funhouse-style cinematic match as a unit.
Speaking on The Extreme Life Of Matt Hardy, Matt Hardy reflected on Michael Hayes having the idea for a cinematic-style match between Edge and Christian and The Hardy Boyz during their early days in WWE. Matt Hardy hypothesize is that in their younger years, neither team would have been good at this because they were more focused on work rate than character work.
"Michael was a very out-of-the-box thinker," said Matt. "He was trying to think of things that would be different and original and unique and he did pitch something that was very similar to that. I wonder how that would have turned out if we'd had done it at that stage in our career. Because we're very different performers. We were definitely thinking more about work rate than the actual work of telling a story and being character performers, so I don't know. It would have been an interesting scenario because Vince, he takes these things so seriously, and that's why I took a different approach to The Final Deletion. I didn't want this thing to be looked at as too serious because at the end of the day, wrestling, it's these people that are amazing athletes, they get in a ring and go have a 15 or 20-minute match, especially with all these unique spots and whatnot. But still, it's entertainment at the end of the day, and we can't lose track of that."
Matt Hardy also says he's surprised that with Vince McMahon's insistence that WWE has always been entertainment first and foremost that there was never more of an attempt at doing cinematic-style matches. Matt Hardy did, however, praise the Hollywood Backlot Brawl between Rowdy Roddy Piper and Goldust at WrestleMania 12 in 1996. Hardy explained that with the right two parties, cinematic matches can always be special.
"I really can't think of a lot of cinematic matches being pitched during my time [in WWE] as an active competitor," said Matt. "I was a big fan of the Roddy Piper/Goldust deal that they had, The Backlot Brawl. I thought that was cool and I think those things are good every once in a while if you don't overdo them, I think they can get watered down very easily. But if you have the right two performers, and you have a unique and right situation, I think they work."
Elsewhere in the podcast, Matt Hardy explained what he did not enjoy about his 2009 rivalry with Jeff Hardy in WWE. Learn more here.
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