Exclusive interview with The Hardys

Ladies and gentlemen. Welcome. To another Wednesday episode of the No Contest Wrestling Podcast. I am. The heel that you love to hate, oh, Shea Jackson Jr., aka.

Pettiguerrero. Hey, yo, it's me. It's me. It's the TOO, the J-I-G-G2G. TJ Jefferson.

What's up, man? TJ, I'm hyped. Yo, TJ, I'm pumped. I'm hyped with you, baby. I'm about to lose it.

D-Lo, get the bleep ready because today we got the month of f ⁇ ing. Hardy boys. Yeah, man. The Hardys will be joining the no contest wrestling podcast, man. And My goodness.

Multiple time world tag team champions, you know, single titles. You know, TNA, EGF, Grand Slam champion, world champion, WWE champion. They've literally done it all. They've. Laid it on the line.

They've sacrificed their mind, body, and soul for our enjoyment, man.

So, this is going to be a treat to get to speak to one of the greatest tag teams of all time, undeniably. They might not be your number one, but if they're not in your tip, your top ten, I don't think your list is valid. Yeah, it doesn't matter, bro. It's it's one of these days you guys were like When you set off to make a show and you want it to do well, and you're thinking about all the dream interviews you can do, and if it. I know this had to be on one of yours.

Oh, for sure.

Well, it definitely always was. And then when we got to go backstage one of the TNA shows that we got invited to, shout out to Tommy Dreamer. You know, we got to chop it up with Matt and Jeff a little bit in the back, you know, just hanging out over a two, three hour period that we were there, man. And it was like, at that point, I was like, we're getting this interview with Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy at some point. And just based upon just the chat we had with them, the talks, the stories we shared in that small amount of time, I was like, oh, we're getting this interview and it's going to be dope.

And here we are today, man. Yeah, it's a beautiful day so that we got that coming up for you guys. But first. Congratulations, they are in order. Absolutely, because we got a former guest of the No Contest Wrestling Podcast, our boy Drew McIntyre.

Yes. You're no WWE undisputed champion, Drew McIntyre. I know a lot of you might be upset. I'm sure there were some kids where that was a moment where wrestling broke their heart. But we here at the No Contest Wrestling Podcast, we like our friends.

And Drew McIntyre is definitely a friend of the show. And he's got some hardware. I made sure that I hit him immediately on a Twitter DM and I told him, as we called him on this show when we introduced him, the underappreciated Drew McIntyre, right? Champion. Great, you know, and I text him as well.

And, you know, hey, look, we're Cody Rhodes fans without question. Cody, come on, don't ever give that, don't ever get that twisted, but it was cool. You know, three stages of hell. We saw he and Cody go at it. And at the very end, in the steel cage match, Drew took the first fall.

Cody took the second fall. We kind of understood that's probably what was going to happen. Third fall in the steel cage. All of a sudden, a masked man wearing a shisty comes up to the ring as Drew is trying to exit the cage and he pulls it off. And who is it?

Other than the werewolf. I mean, Jacob Fatu. He comes in, catches Rex, starts bodying Drew, and then. If I'm Cody Rhodes, I might just let that happen. Yeah, you know what I mean?

Like, you don't be worried about me. That's between y'all. Let me just climb this. My name's Paul, and that's between y'all. Yeah.

And you're beating down Drew, and yet, Cody, I guess he wants to do like the mayor and do the right thing. He wants to do the right thing. You know what I mean? And, doctor, always remember to do the right thing. Yeah.

But in this case, the right thing was the wrong thing. Because not only did you not stop Jacob from putting the bang thing down on Drew, but now Jacob turned his attention to you, start smashing you up. And the next thing you know, Drew slides out the cage, lands on the ground, and. The next thing you know, he's the new champion of the world, man. And that shoulder a little light now, Cody.

That shoulder a little light now. But I loved it. I loved it because it reminded me of when I was a kid and how I felt like I had to watch every Raw. I had to watch every SmackDown. You never knew.

Because you never knew. You never knew. Crowd was ass. You did mention that. I'm not going to let y'all slide.

Crowd was ass. But man, it felt that we expect a little bit more out of that. Out of the Euro crowd? Yeah, we just yelled at the United States crowd the episode before.

So, you know, I expected more. There were a lot of moments during Mello being out there or Trick being out there. I was like, dang, are we asleep? Like, you know, what's going on? But also, Julia, Julia, you guys got to get man.

But I'm telling you, just let Julia go off on a money in the bank or elimination chamber, and that'll switch everything around because those PLEs have really turned into what can. Kind of put shine on people. Because I don't think Kofi Mania happens without that elimination chamber. Definitely not. He went crazy.

And you kind of need that. Yeah, also with her, she. It doesn't You just let her be, let her do her, give her a match every week, let her show up and show out. People are going to see that she's one of the greatest wrestlers on and she's swaggy as all hell. Yeah.

So, you know, I like when she does her interviews and like the last word that she says goes up. I like that.

So, yeah, shout out to Julia doing her thing and to Drew and, you know, Trick Willie standing toe to toe with Randall K. Orton. That was pretty dope. And then he had a great match with Phoenix. Like, right, you know, and he got the dub.

He got the dub, which was undefeated. It was undefeated. Nothing ever in question. That's all I see. Our boy Trick Willie was going to get down like that.

But yeah, man, there's some exciting times ahead. You know, SmackDown looks like they got Jordan Grace and Trick. While it looks like with Javon being signed to Raw, I assume no. I assumed that Oba was going to SmackDown. Right.

That's what I did. You told me. Yeah, there's a lot of word that he's going to be on Team Raw.

So Texarandos must have been like, nah, baby, we want Oba. Yeah, so I mean, there still could be a fight because while we're hearing rumblings of him going to Raw, every time they show a video package, it's in blue. Yeah, like, so we're still waiting to see, waiting for confirmation.

Now, while you guys are hearing this on Wednesday, I'm not going to lie to you. I'm going to be behind the curtain. It's Monday, so that's why we won't be speaking on what's happening on Raw. And, you know, we're still. Waiting, anticipating, and can't wait to see what they do with that.

But we wanted to make sure that we spent some time. to congratulate our guy and your Yeah. Undisputed champion Drew McIntyre. Boy, is he going to talk mess or what? Oh, man.

Yeah. Can't wait, man. Can't wait, man. The Drew McIntyre era is here, and this is going to, the storylines now are going crazy. I'm seeing all types.

People think this guy's going to win by this date, and this guy's going to come. The Triple Chiefs coming back. Look, man, I think that's what you want in wrestling, right? We don't know what's going to happen. I don't like the dirt sheets trying to tell me what's going to happen.

I just want to let it play out, but make sure it's good. Like the good Lord intended. That's what I'm saying. You know, and once, and Jacob Fatu, what does this mean for Jacob Fartu? I mean, Triple H hands out more black hoodies and masks than the Wu-Tang Clinton.

Oh, all right.

So you got to bring the ruckus. We got to see. Jacob Fartu is back. I'm hearing rumblings. Oh, you're hearing a rumbling.

That Penta might be healthy too. It's time. I'm hearing it. Oh, yeah. Like, this is that stacked roster.

Yeah, man. The stacked roster. Once the new year hits, you know, we're looking at Rumble. We're looking at Mania season coming. We're looking at, you know, Elimination Chamber.

It's an exciting time right now. Right. Exciting time.

Now, speaking of, you know, it being a new year and you got to have big moments. I think it's about time for I mean, our biggest interview of the year so far.

Well, yeah, it's our first one of the year. I mean, but even if it was the 15th of the year, it still would probably be the biggest interview. It's huge, man. The Hardys are in the building. I think it's about time we get to it.

Yeah, let's get to it. All right, TJ, bro. Our next guest. You know how much we love these legendary guests that we get to bring in. If we gave X-Pac.

The, you know, if he was the king of getting kids detention and suspended from school. Yeah. These next two guys got to be the kings of getting yelled at by your parents. Oh, yeah. Breaking furniture.

Bones. I mean, don't pick your little brother up like that. Like, you know, all those conversations. Don't jump off of that. Yeah, don't jump off of that.

Yeah, the captains of don't jump off of that. They've had over 20 titles across many promotions. Right now, they're rocking out in TNA, which will premiere on AMC on the 15th.

So we had to bring in Team Extreme, ladies and gentlemen, the Hardy Boys. Welcome to the No Contest Podcast. Yes, sir. Hardies, man. Very good to finally be on here.

You know what I mean? We're tight. We're tag team. We're tight. We're loved.

We're loved. Your brother? Yeah. What's up, man? We're good, guys.

No, man, it's a super exciting week. This Thursday, we are live on AMC. TNA, they're back in the game, man. They're back on the game. And it's really exciting for us because we both invested so much in TNA.

And we worked so hard, and we saw the actual growth over the last year, year and a half. And it's been amazing. And we take a lot of pride in TNA. And we both plan on leading TNA into the future and making 2026 the biggest year for TNA ever. And I was in TNA so many moons ago when TNA went to spike, which was a big deal back in the day.

So to be here in 2026 and, So close today being on AMC is so powerful and it's going to be so great. And I just feel like I'm exactly where we're supposed to be. It's amazing.

Now, you guys have gone from... Being doorman at King of the Ring. To one of the greatest tag teams of all time. What is. Number one, what is that feeling to?

I know everywhere you go, you gotta be getting flowers from everybody involved. And, you know, kind of take us through the beginning of when did you get bit by that wrestling bug? For me, and I think this was kind of for both of us too, but around the moment it happened, WrestleMania 4. when there was a uh a world title tournament that was going down yep We were really compelled by the Hulk Hogan-Andre the Giant match, where there were two referees we saw on Saturday Night's Main event. We're like, man, I want to check out this pay-per-view.

And we had a friend that lived about a mile away, and they had one of those big, Big ass satellites back in the day, right? And they were able to get it and they were going to get that WrestleMania. And we ended up going to their house and we both kind of made bets on who was going to win. And I picked Macho Man, Randy Savage, he was my guy at the time. I thought he was real cool.

And I love the fact that his finishing maneuver was that elbow drop off the top rope. And from that moment on, man, we were hooked. We looked at pro wrestlers as living, breathing superheroes. And we thought it was the coolest thing ever because it was a combination of everything. There were athletics, there was entertainment, there was drama, there was comedy, a little bit of something for everyone.

And that's what we wanted to do from that point on. And we had no idea how to do it. Uh, we had no connections to pro wrestling, and we were just two kids with a big dream. And stinging the ultimate warrior for me was it, man. I didn't know why they painted their face, but I loved it, and that's what inspired me, you know, to put the face paint on.

And I still get so much joy out of painting up, man, and going out there and performing something you've kind of dreamt up in your imagination and doing it in front of a live audience. And that's what I live for. I love the craft of pro wrestling, still love it.

Now, you guys have taken your fair share of bumps and bruises, but can you guys remember from each of you your welcome to wrestling moment, either a bump that was like, okay, all right, yeah, that one got me, or just like, what was a moment where you knew, like, all right, wow, I really chose this as my new path in life. What was your welcome to wrestling moment? Bro, I don't think I've ever told this. I've told this in a lot of locker rooms. I don't think I've ever told it on a podcast.

Oh, we love that. Yeah, we love that.

So, this is cool. First time a great time to tell. You know what story I'm going to tell? The one with the motorcycle riders. No, no, not that one.

The one, Jeff. Oh, Jeff can tell that later, which is great.

So We had been, we had started wrestling like in 92, right? And there was a guy that came around and said, Hey, I got this new ring. He said, It's a real ring, and there's a trampoline in the middle, and you can wrestle on fairs. And I'll give you a little bit of money. He said, You guys want to know it?

I hear you wrestle in your backyard on a trampoline. And a real super southern dude, and we're like, Yeah, dude, of course.

So we did fair circuits, and then we met a guy who was actually in the professional wrestling business. He said, Hey, I'll take you to a guy named Gary Sebot, who is the Italian stallion. Probably heard of him. You know, he was a. Uh, very much a traveling guy.

Him and George South ran a promotion out of Charlotte, they did jobs for WCW, WWE, WBF. The time. And he said, like, come to my show and I'll put you in the ring with a guy, a veteran. And if you're good enough, I'll take you to WWE. I was like, this is an opportunity to go to WWE.

Of course, I'll go.

So this was in 1993. And we were self-trained. We really didn't know the terminology early in 1993. And I went with my buddy. We drove out to outside of Charlotte, North Carolina.

And I got in the ring and he said, Hey, this is Maverick. He's really good. He knows everything. And it was kind of like his enforcer. I think he was like the JBL at the time, the Bradshaw, the locker room guy who would, like, if someone was messing up, he would put him in the police.

So I was like, okay, sounds great. And I was like, you want to talk about a few things before you go there? He said, nah, kid, just listen to me. I'll call it in the ring.

So and I was like, whoa, I don't, you know, I don't, this is all new to me, man, you know, like. Sure, I'll listen to you. We get in the ring, we lock up right from the jump. Just think, we just got in the ring, we've locked up. He kind of rolls around a little bit, and then we get back out in the middle of the ring.

And he says. He says, grab a headlock. And I can't even do it the opposite way now, you know? Like the left is the size you work on. And I did it with the right.

I did it with the right. I just split it and did it with the right. And I was sitting there and I grabbed him. I was like, all right, I did that really good. I was listening to them, and underneath.

Underneath the headlock, he said, What are you, a mark? And he picked me up and gave me a back suplex on my head. And it's funny, like. I was 17, 18, so I was invincible. And I like popped right up and I was like selling into a corner.

And he looked at me like, How the hell is this guy getting up already back on his feet? And he came in there and started beating me up. And he said, You got a move you want to hit? I said, Yeah, stay here. And then I went up and missed the springboard moonsault.

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. For the finish, I missed a 450 splash. And I remember coming to the back. And Stagger said, You're a tough kid. He said, You're definitely a tough kid.

He said, You're a great athlete. He said, But you need. He said, Give me $3,000. I'll teach you how to work and the psychology and the terminology and what to do. He said, You just, you're two grand.

I don't know if I can take you to WWE right now. And then about six or eight weeks later, he called me back and then he wanted some people to come for a tryout.

So my brother went. And a guy named Jason Arn, who was later Joy Abbs, and a guy named Marty Garner, and all four of us started going to WWE doing jobs with Stallion. That's how we got our foot in the door. Joey Abbs from the Main Street posse, Joey Abbs? Yeah.

Okay. No, yes, he was he was one of our boys, he was he was my buddy, and he wrestled with us in Omega. He was Venom, and we had a you know, we had so many people from that small group of Omega that I ended up promoting here in the Carolinas and this area that actually ended up getting contracts and making it in many big-time promotions. Let's talk about that, Omega, since that is the beginning. How did you guys get to Omega?

Now, you're watching WrestleMania 4, you're seeing the tournament. I remember I saw that on closed-circuit television, yeah, before pay-per-view. And, guys, just a random thing. I thought going in that tournament, I was convinced that Bam Bam Bigelow for the first like week that they announced, Bam Bam Bigelow is winning the WWF title. There was no doubt in my mind.

And then, about week two or three, heading in, I was like, nah, it's gonna be Macho Man, just randomly. But, like, so after the WrestleMania 4, you guys fell in love. What are the next steps in the process? You know, you guys famously talk about the old man, your dad. Was it like we got to get him to buy us a trampoline?

Did you already have one? Like, how'd it go? We did. It took us a year from when we asked for the trampoline. It took a year to get it to the next Christmas.

So it took a little while. But go ahead, Jeff. Yeah, I guess when we were, we were like a circus, a legit circus sideshow with that trampoline wrestling ring. It was, it was nuts. This shows that we did at different fairs.

We did went around, we went around and did county fairs in North Carolina. What age are you guys at this point again? I think I was like 13, maybe. Yeah, I think when we first started, well, no, you, because you were 16, you would have probably been 14. 15 at the latest, because when you went to WWE in 94, you were 16.

So he was either 14, maybe 15, which would have put me at 17. Yeah, but anyway, Stallion, and that's pretty much where we go from that. They got us in the door. Yeah, I mean, just with Stallion, we went to WWE and then His very first match, I was live against Nikolai Volkov on a live roll, and I was terrified. And he said, Don't worry about what we're going to do out there.

He said, We don't have a lot of time. He said, Just listen to me. I will talk to you. He said, And don't worry. He said, I.

I don't know. Can you curse here? Yeah, you're fine. Yeah, you're going. Yeah, just making sure.

And he just said, he said, don't worry about it. He said, I f up every match. And then Tony Garrea, who was our agent, the producer of the match, he said, I'll tell you right now, kid, it's your first match here. He said, if you up, you'll never come back again. And I'm like, oh my God.

So they just told me up every match. And don't worry about it. And then they told me I'll never come back. But Jeff went out earlier against Scott Hall. And Jeff's 16 years old.

And Scott Hall was wrestling another guy that at the last moment bailed on the match because he said he couldn't take his finish because he had a neck problem. I'm like, why are you wrestling here if you have a neck problem? And they popped Jeff in there and Jeff had the match. And Scott Hall was a little aggressive, a little rough with him. And I'll let Jeff tell you about that.

Yeah, but then the next night I wrestled 123 kid and like he was more my size and I still didn't know what I was doing. You can go back and watch that match now. And I've got him in like a rear chin lock or something. I'm like, Patting my, it looks so ridiculous.

So I had no idea what I was doing, but that kind of refilled my soul a little bit. But yeah, Razor was just. To real, he was real rough with me, and that ring was so hard back in the day. But the story I was going to tell about before Matt told the What Are You a Mark story was it was at that Harley convention. Yeah, yeah, was that had we already like almost signed the deal, like a developmental deal, or were we being yes, we had we had signed a developmental deal, and it was a, it was a Harley Davidson convention, there were a ton of bikers there.

There were probably five, six thousand people. And the guys we were wrestling were bikers, but they were bad guys. And we were the good guys. We were the hardies that were tights at that point. And I was going to do this dive like over the top rope to him, just the front flip dive.

And it was two big guys that were going to catch me. But when I did the dive, I just hit was hard like clay. It was just dirt. And I hit nothing but the ground. They moved out of the way.

And the one guy, Jeff said, I'm not sure if I want to do this dive. He said, We just saw him with WB and I can't really take a chance on getting hurt. He said, Oh, brother, don't worry. Look at us. We're both 360.

We can catch you. We can catch you. And he jumps out and they part like the Red C. You know what I mean? And then Jeff splats.

I get, I was so like hot. I got up and kicked the hell out of him directly in the ribs, like as hard as I could, and got back in the ring. And then he was ready to shoot on me and he was ready to fight. And he was going, He said, You want to go? You want to go?

And I kept going, Are you professional? Are you professional? You're supposed to catch me. And so we're as soon as he was coming at me to like start throwing fists. I tagged Matt.

It actually fought him for a little bit of shit. It was crazy. Dude, it was crazy. It was one of our last any matches before.

Well, we still got to do something first when we're underneath developmental WWE. But the thing was, I've never seen Jeff get hot. I've seen, like, you know, people. Aggressively and civiliate him, but like he got so mad, he went and kicked this guy. And the guy was like 370, and he like lifted him off the ground.

It was crazy. And that guy came in there trying to fight Jeff, and Jeff is like circling around with him. Are you a professional? Are you a professional? Just goes, He was ready to go, UFC.

We got in there a little bit. I dodged him, and it ends up I popped him with one really good one. And I was holding his hands. Jeff came in and like kicked him in the head and knocked him down. And we just left the ring.

We told the promoter, we said, Dude, we can't do this, man. We got out, man. Yeah, we got out of there, man. That's the only time we've ever been involved in like a real altercation in the ring, which is crazy. That's awesome.

So, Jeff, real quick, do you remember who Keith Davis was? He was the guy that didn't want to wrestle Razor Ramon. I think they called me Keith Davis that night. They did. They didn't even change the format.

That's the guy who said, I can't wrestle you. His match was coming up and it was like three or four matches away. And he said, I can't wrestle. He said, I got a bad neck. I got a bad neck.

And he's like, What the fuck? Why are you here? Right. And they said, Oh, put this guy in. He's like a rubber guy.

He can do anything. Yeah. Yeah. And they didn't change the name. They said, To hell with it.

They said, Just call him Keith Davis. Who cares? But after that match, whenever Scott Hall kicked Jeff real hard, he felt bad for him afterwards. And I remember we came back. Jeff had his hair cut very similar to vanilla ice at that time.

Yeah. And Jeff could dance and move like him and stuff. And we're just getting into our big rap period. Like, dude, your dad, big influence on me. NWA, big influence on me.

You know, man, I love Public Enemy Chuck D, huge fans of all those guys. And it's so crazy because we came to the back and then, like, Scott Hall was talking to him, I'm sorry, blah, blah, blah, but thanks. You know, you did good. You know, we just worked some more. And one, two, three kids.

Yeah. Uh X Park. Kevin Nash and Sean Michaels were there all of the click. And then I remember saying like. Kid looked at him and said, Look, he looks kind of like vanilla eyes, right?

And Kevin Nash said, Bump, bump, bump, bump, bump bump, bump, bump, bump, bump, bump, bump, bump, bump, bump. And from that point on, all the night. Yeah, they, my nickname was ice from then on. He was ice. And the click guys would always say, hey, put Matt and Jeff Hardy.

If you guys get a chance to work an extra guy, ask for Matt or Jeff Hardy because they'll work so hard for you. And they always like politic to get us in spots. And they kept telling people in the office, hey, man, these guys are really good. You should sign them. You should do something with them.

You should sign them. You should do something with them. So, you know, you hear a lot of horror stories about the click, but they were great to us, man. Yeah, that's about to say that, right? Because you do.

You hear, like, oh, well, they use their advantage, you know, to their advantage. But you never really hear stories like that where they were looking out for you guys. They were. Yeah, they were real good to us, man. We got along with a lot of guys great and still do.

You know, on this show, we like to remind people that success. It's rare that you get success in any business format for sure without help, without somebody who either is bringing you up in the right conversations or who gives you that shot, gives you that opportunity. It's a road that you have to make a lot of friends and you have to make a lot of believers on the way to success.

So who are some names? um off you guys' top top of your head that without those names whether it be them having conversations with the right people or just giving you a shot what are some names that you attribute the success of the hardys to The first person that stands out is Chief J. Strongbow. He's the person that was booking us then when we first came up. With Stallion.

And then there was one time Stallions guys, they were all paying Stallion to be trained or like. Come to WWE. And then, once they always used myself, Jeff, and our crew, they said: if you keep bringing the Hardy Boys and their crew, like, We're gonna stop. We're gonna stop paying you. We're gonna stop paying you.

So one time they split and left us, and we drove to the show ourselves in Georgia. And Chief Jay Strongo said, Give me your number. I'll just contact you. I'll contact you and I'll just book you and your guys from now since these guys are screwing you. And on top of that, we would get 150 a night, right?

At this time, we were doing Raw on Monday, wrestling superstars on Tuesday, Wednesday would be wrestling challenge. And we'd make $150 a night.

So, in theory, you go like, oh, three days, $450, pretty good at that time in 1994.

So, we would get in the van. The very first night we got in the van, we drove. There were 14 guys in there being extras for WB Underneath Stallion. And he drove like seven, eight miles away. It was a very wooded area, like in the middle of nowhere.

And he said, All right, guys, if you want to go to the next town, brother, I'm going to need my booking fee right now. That's $100 of that $150. And every single day you would take 100 bucks of the 150, and it is what it is. And, like, it was cool, we're making that money, but we almost didn't care because we were getting the opportunity, and it got our foot in the door at WWB. Yeah, we get 150 apiece, or is that combined?

You will get $150 a piece. All right. Can someone take in that whole yard of your one feet? 66%. Uh, booking fee.

It's funny. The whole character, the whole character of Big Money Matt that I did at AW was based off Stallion.

Okay, because that was a question I had later. We'll get to that later.

Okay, that makes sense. Guys, I'm just taking a wee fee. A we fee 66%. Wow, man, that's you're ready to fight somebody for real after that. And I had this question saved later on, but you guys just brought up one of them.

Jeff, you know, you're. You're well known for jumping off stuff, man. It just is what it is. You are, you know, the wrestling jump man logo is probably Jeff Hardy. And, you know, part of that is that trust of being caught, you know, guys down there that'll catch you.

Can you think of, because you just told us the Harley story, but... Are there any other famous times where you're like I wish you would have caught me a little bit better that you can think of. There's been a few times, but I never complain, but there were a few times that I felt like. The Triple H could have caught me a little better, you know. Maybe.

Uh, one of the times back during those when we were doing the jobs, man, it was uh, was it Furnace and LaFont? Like, what was in it there? Yeah, yeah, Doug Furnace and I tried to springboard, and this was back at WWE, you know, the ropes were legit ropes. He was gonna springboard to the floor on both of those guys. This is when they said, This is when they told us, they said, Hey, we're interested in doing something with you guys.

Jake the Snake, he stooged it off from a production meeting saying that they planned to sign us. And we're like, Oh, come on, man, are you kidding? But he ended up being right. And we had a match, and they gave us like 10 or 12 minutes with Furnace and LaFont for like an extra match, which was kind of meant to be like more of a competitive match. And Jeff had this cool spot.

They were going to sell for us, and it was going to be like a 50-50 match. And Jeff was going to springboard from the apron to the outside of the ring on both of them. And I would do it all the time on the innings, and I would like to get some. You know, height on it, man, but I totally slipped off like crazy and went flat to my back. But it was a terrible botch.

Uh, but yeah, that one was rough, man. You can see, I think I've seen that like time and time again, like in botch reels, naturally, but it was it was nasty, man.

So that was the last time I attempted a springboard moonsault in a WWE ring. Yeah, pretty much, man. Everybody's abyss has always been great, man, catching me. And yeah, I don't have many, many complaints about catchers. Funny little side note to go with that.

Jay Riso, Christian Cage, he was watching that match. He's like, Man, these Hardy Boys are getting too much for WWE. I've been working too hard. Like, they're going to get signed, and I'm not. He said, I'm glad he slipped.

I'm glad he slipped. Oh, my God. He confessed that to us whenever he was doing it out of professional jealousy. We were with them on that. We just finished the dojo.

And getting ready to go to TV for the first time. But we were working some shows, and I wanted to do that same Springboard moonsault to Christian. And he said, No, we don't need to do that, man. This is a show. We're about to debut on TV.

We don't need to do that. You might get hurt. I said, Oh, no, I'm not going to get hurt. But then he said, I know, but I might get hurt. I'm trying to catch you.

I might get hurt. And that's really, that's really what he's concerned about. I might get hurt. So, you know, my first kind of memories of you guys were back in the day when you were quote unquote against the enhancement talent, right? You guys had the checkered pants, if I'm not mistaken, and wore the headbands.

And then, so I, what was that? The plaids.

So I would see you guys in matches, you know, and you were, you know, you were the Hanceman talent. And then it just seemed like over a period of. All of a sudden over a few weeks, now of a sudden you're coming to the ring with Michael Hayes. And you're winning matches. And I'm like.

Yo, what's up with these? What's going on here?

So, can you explain what was that? That turn, like, for you guys to kind of be the guys putting guys over there. Like, now you're getting one of the best tag team workers of all time, and Michael P.S. Hayes, and now. You guys are winning matches.

That's another guy I would have added in there. Like our career, he changed our projectory. Like, we wouldn't be who we are or where we are without Michael Hayes. He had taken interest in us. And Jim Ross, who was doing house shows at that time, was giving back these great reports.

The Hardys would wrestle Tuco. The Hardys would wrestle Edge and Christian. And we had all these great matches on house shows.

Now, like, you know, we really need to do something with these guys. That was the feedback. He was getting the crowd likes them. They're very good as babyfaces. And then they ended up pitching like Michael Hayes had been like trying to get back in to be a manager or like a mentor or whatever.

And they said, Hey, we're going to pair you with Michael Hayes and put you guys together. And we just want to change your looks and totally reinvent you, have you guys do something different, have a new look and kind of restart you. And Michael was great at that. whenever he was there, he said, look, guys, we got to be a team. He said, we got to, we're like the new birds.

He said, we go everywhere together. Remember, he said that at the time, he said, he said, like, he said, we break bread together. He said, if we go to a hotel, he said, we share a room. He said, you guys can end up switching who gets the cot every single night. I get to bed every night.

He said, we're a team, guys. He said, that's the deal. He said, we're going to work together. And he really was. Showed us.

ways of like doing things. Like for instance, he said like When you're a wrestler, he said, if you can do all these great moves and you guys can do everything, he said, that's awesome. But people in the front few rows need to be able to look at you and think like you can whip somebody's ass, that you can kick ass. And like when you're punching somebody, when you're beat, you need to be able to look violently. Like, I get it's a show, but like, I don't want to fight this guy because they might beat my ass.

And that's kind of changed things for us. I remember he would say, After you do that poetry in motion, when it's a real pretty thing, he jumps off your back and there's a beautiful kick into the corner. Have the guy feed at Matt, you take his head off with a clothesline, then mount him and like beat the shit out of him. Stuff like that is what really helped us turn the corner and really, really get the grasp of what pro wrestling is, essentially. And those three or four years of when we were the enhancement guys, like Doc Hendricks, man, we always, I don't know, I'm sure you kind of felt it too, but it was almost like.

we've we knew him in a previous life or something. We have that connection or that energy between us to where we knew we would be close and eventually ended up with him, which was strange. But like when he was Doc Hendricks, we we hit it off with him right away and had that special connection. Got stone. Absolutely.

Now. With all the things that you guys have, this long, lustrious career, and highlight after highlight, just Huge breathtaking moments. I need to know I'm I'm sure You know, as it happens with all of us, we might look at things that we did back in the day and think I'd never do that again. Was there anything in the moment? That you thought like on that night, yeah, I'm never doing that again.

Like, is it? Do you guys have a list of, yeah, I'll never jump off that or I'll never go that high again in the moment? As you know, managing maintenance, repair and operations is never easy. But for the ones who always rise to the challenge, Granger has your back. From professional, great products you can count on to fast, dependable delivery.

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I don't think I have any regrets. I've got to, like, with RVD, I went to a table. Vertically instead of like horizontal, the way you normally go through it. And I went to it just vertically for some reason. I wanted to do it, and RVD moved, and I just.

It was like a 12 or 14-foot ladder, and the table exploded. I hit the ground so hard. That was one for sure. I was like, I'm never doing that again. And the only other one was in.

My second run at TNA, we were at the Dudleys and we had a full metal mayhem match. And I just wanted to go through a table that was upside down.

So there was a regular table set up, but then there was an upside down table on top of that table. And like Bully's head was on, and I went through a table upside down. And the original idea was like do a cannonball through it. And I went through the framing of the table. It was nuts, man.

But that's definitely when I hit the ground. I was like, okay, I've done that and never done that. This upside down table, he was adamant. Like he wanted to get this back. I was like, I don't know, man.

That's probably not going to work out the best. Like, I don't know if I do it, but he was adamant and he made it happen.

So I guess it was a one and done. Thank y'all for letting me get that done.

Now, I never, never want to do that again. Yeah, man, there's plenty of stuff that I look at. Around the house. I'm like, yeah, if I was a kid, I'd jump off that.

Now I'm like. Knees shoot into my chest.

So, you know, and we kind of touched on this earlier about you guys like. Jeff and Matt, what's it like to know that you're probably responsible For a couple dozen at least broken arms and legs of kids who decided, not even in wrestling, just like, yo, I'm gonna jump off of this. We are guilty and guilty as charged for thousands of ass whippings. I mean, we hear this all the time. Doing swantons and leg drops on the couches and broken beds, emulating the hardy boys.

You know, we hear that so, so much. And, you know, I think the whole reason the don't try this thing at home was because people saw our home videos and all these guys, they were sitting on trampoline and they were able to make it. I should do that too. You know, so kind of had to cover their ass a little bit as far as that. It is something that is really amazing.

And we always say, hey, sorry if we got you in trouble in your childhood, but we hope you at least enjoyed your childhood.

Solid challenge. I mean, look, business just picked up because Gothic Baby's in the building. Right. Hey, Gothic Baby. I'm fine.

You bet. All right. Any chance she's thinking about what her? You know, her adult life might Until maybe in the ring, or are you gonna let that happen? One thing that is so funny is that, like, I think her mom.

Thinks it would be a nightmare for her to be a pro wrestler, but now she's like super into wrestling and she's like that-pro wrestler.

So she's like, Kind of people know who I am. I kind of have like a character already. That is true. She could be like the Wednesday Adams. Yeah, exactly.

It is true. Yeah, she is legit. And she's very good. She is so performative, like the way she's expressive. My wife will be shooting videos with us.

She'll go, Okay, all right, Evie, do mad things. She goes. And like, looks through her brow. You know what I mean? She's like on it.

She's on it, man. She's very charismatic, too. have gone the the path of fatherhood, have Has there ev been a lot of sitting down and looking at the old stuff with, uh, with your kids? There's been some. My older kids are starting to get into it a little more.

And I think for them, it was weird.

So we live in the Hardy Compound, which is like a big character, you know, in TNA as it is anyway. You know, we live on 90 plus acres of land. It's family land. You know, we're born and raised here. And Jeff and I, we split off different ends of the property and built our houses and grew up.

And I feel like my kids, for the longest time, they're like, oh, yeah, that's cool. My dad's a wrestler. He's on TV. Oh, yeah. Our uncle, he's a wrestler on TV.

And they get recognized all the time. I think they just thought that was kind of normal. Like everybody's like that. But no, I think they're like, oh, wow, this is kind of cool what they do and whatnot. But we do.

There are times where I look back at that and I said, the one thing about it, if you guys end up being the Hardy Boys Gen 2, I said, at least I am there to like. lead the way and I can tell you what not to do, you know, what you should do. To maximize and optimize everything, don't let 360-pound biker tag teams not catch you off the job. And then tagging the older one. Yeah, always, always take it over.

I mean, King Maxwell has to go out there and start to get busy. Maxwell got to be ready to throw hands. No, you know, he's been in the ring. He may have been, I think, the youngest wrestler I ever saw get a three count, right? If I'm not mistaken, is this something he's still like heavily into?

Because I thought at that point when I saw him, I was like, that kid's going to be world champion in 26 years, without a doubt.

Well, he's right now seven and a half years away.

So he's a 10 and a half. But I'll tell you, man, he is kind of right now, he's kind of like living as a kid. He's kind of in that stage where he's changing a little bit. And he still likes wrestling. He'll still ask questions and stuff.

My middle son, Woofie, he's funny. He said, Daddy said, I don't know if I want to get beat up like you do. You get beat up a lot. Oh my. He said, but let me ask you this, Dad.

He said, Can I like Be a part of wrestling and just like insult people and like talk trash and like make money. And I go, Actually, you can. He said, That's awesome. That's what I want to do. And then my youngest son, Barty.

He is just, he is going to be a monster. He's just going to mow every, he's, because he's always ready to fight his older brothers anyway. And he loves pro wrestling. He is going to be the standout of those three, I think. No question about it.

party the party party is coming wrong that's gotta that's gotta be crazy because like you know the risks as a wrestler you know everything that you went through when like when you get bit by the bug you get bit by the bug right now you guys have been fans um you know We love to get this perspective when people are actual fans of the business, because it's always great to see this side of people who live behind the curtain. But one of our favorite questions here is: Do you remember at a time when you were just a fan? When did wrestling break your heart? An example I use all the time is watching Hulk Hogan run over the rock while he was in an ambulance crushed my entire spirit. I was done for.

Like, it ruined me.

So is there a time that you guys remember watching as fans when wrestling broke your heart? This is the best moment that I can compare that to. Macho Man was my guy, right? And I loved Macho Man. Whenever they had the mega powers together, I thought that was cool.

But when the mega powers broke up, I was like, damn it. Hulk Hogan's going to do what he does to everybody. He's going to go and take their finisher like once or twice, and he's going to kick out and he's going to lose the title. I hate you, Hulk Hogan. I hate you.

And that was, I was emotionally invested with that match. And I knew, man, there's no way at WrestleMania 5, he's going to retain the title. I said he's going to lose it. I know he is. And I really did.

That's probably my moment like that. I was older at this point, maybe even still a teenager, but. When Shawn Michaels, The Heartbreak Kid, lost his smile and left for a while. You know what I mean? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

That was both of us. I was like, oh my God, this is. He might be done. That was actually, that was done so well. Where he did the thing where he was posing and passed out, you know, is way ahead of it, way, way before.

Right. Was that after he had gotten jumped by the Marines? Yeah, I think so. Yeah, yeah. That was after he'd gotten to the fight in the bar or whatever.

Sean Michaels against Sean Michaels, right? But they made it into a really compelling story. That thing with Owen and his reaction and the way he passed out, he was really hurt. That's another great example, too. I felt that also.

Yeah, because you legitimately was like. He kind of stood there and he held his head. He kind of bounced around a little and then boom. And it was like, oh, this got to be real. Right.

You know, because we talk about this a lot. you know, growing up and you're in school and you have your little group. Right, because To me, you become friends with somebody, at least me personally, when someone goes, Hey, I heard you like wrestling. Yeah, and then all of a sudden, the next thing you know, for 20 years, time to argue, your best friends are all because you answered yes to that question.

So, you know, we get to school and it's just like, no, man, I know that other stuff might not be, but that was like, that's real. Like, that part was real. Yeah, exactly. That I mean, that's also one of the great things. Sean was like that, too.

Sean was way ahead of his time, no doubt about it. Even the way he did that, the way he sold, he was very realistic, he was very good at what he did. And Sean, really, in all honesty, he opened up for. A lot of doors for the way wrestling would become, and new smaller guys to get in and be able to be featured as top acts and whatnot.

Now I don't know where you were going to go with it, but I need to know about that the first time they win them belts, man. Yeah. I need to know. From everything that you guys knew that you went through. Or to get to where you were, to finally get to the WWF at the time.

That first time winning the tag team titles. What is going through you guys' head to have climbed all the way to the top promotion, the top of the mountain, and to be holding the two straps? I mean, it was the realization of the dream. You know, our dream when we. First, we went on this journey together, and we're going to be a tag team was to win, you know, the WWF or WCW at the time, World Tag Team Championships, at least once.

And if we won them once, then we could call it a career. We were like, we're successful. We're successful in life. Obviously, we've exceeded that many times over. But, you know, dude, dude, it was crazy that night.

I remember so well. And it was such a big deal for us. It was so cool because Michael Hayes told us about it. A week out. That he had heard we were going to do that, and they didn't tell.

Ron and John, that being Ron Simmons and JBL until the night before, I think. Oh. And I think they were worried that they might, but you know, they were great, man. We worked with them. They put us over and they did that.

We worked with them for a month afterwards, and they beat the shit out of us every single night because we were saying the titles until we lost them. Dude, they're great. And still, Ron is, Ron is one of the funniest human beings you'll ever meet. We see him all the time at Comic-Cons and stuff. And we see JBL pretty often too.

But it was great. The fact that they were willing to put us over and the fact that Vince believed in us enough to do that, it was cool because we were not the best tag team in the world at that time. And the titles really. Put equity in us. It made us as a team and helped develop us into a superstar.

And I think after we had the tag team ladder match with Edge and Christian at No Mercy 99, that's where we went to the next level and people looked at us as stars. And the next time we won the tag team titles against Edge and Christian at Cage at Unforgiven 2000, that's where I feel like we were the best tag team in the world at that time. R you guys are always, you know. paired mentally with when you think about the Hardys, you think about the Dudleys, you think about Edge and Christian. Who are some other of your guys' favorite tag teams to be in the ring with where you guys know like these guys are going to take care of us and we're going to put on a banger?

I think Too Cool is probably the first one that stands. You know, we never had a major program with them, but we worked them so, so much, especially in the beginning. You know, you were talking about when we wore tights, they introduced us. We started in 1998. We had a match against Kanta where we beat them with the event Omega, the leg drop splash, boom, one, two, three, pinfall win.

The next night on TV, we got a no DQ win. Over uh over two cool, then we lost about 10 matches straight, and then we uh we beat another random tag team, and then we lost about five matches straight. Then we beat like LOD 2000, it was animal draws, which was crazy. Um, and and then uh we Owen Hart, Jeff Jarrett, at one point they pitched for us when we were wearing the tights to win the tag titles from them, and uh, they would drop them back or whatever.

So, we could tell at that point, people saw that we had potential and they saw talent in us. We were just waiting for the right break and the right opportunity to break through. And ultimately, that ended up happening with Michael P.S. Hayes when Mitz paired us all together. Yeah, the headbangers were great too.

We traveled with them a lot, worked with them a lot early on, man.

So, yeah, they were great as well to work in those early days. Man, we learned quite a bit from them and spent a lot of time with them, man.

So, it was interesting. We also worked with TNA a lot, which was Test and Albert during that whole period. And it's great, like. Andrew Martin, who was tested, was really, really good. He was so talented, so athletic for a big guy, too.

And we had a lot of great matches with TNA also. You know, you brought up that match with Edge and Christian, No Mercy, 1999. Yep. The next day, I think it was a raw when the four of you stood in the ring together. W was that the time when the crowd gave you guys a standing O?

Yeah. Yeah. Because I remember watching that. 24 hours later. I had never seen that before, right?

Because you guys put on such a banger match, and then you both came out. And you kind of gave each other flowers, the four of you. And I just remember the crowd giving you guys a stand in the room, and the looks on your faces were like you were. amazed. Can we talk about that that next day?

Yeah, no, and I remember I even like I got a little chills when you said that, even thinking about that moment. It was, I know there's one time where they catch my face, and it was pretty unprecedented at that time. You know, that's where. We're just kind of going through that period where the internet's getting strong, and a lot more people are learning about, you know, there's dirt sheets. There's people who report the inside wrestling news, and they're learning all that stuff.

And now, people that are learning about these things have like this newfound respect for pro wrestling. And they showed it. I mean, we were in that tag team ladder match at No Mercy, and we got to that point where. Jeff was in the corner. Christian runs up the ladder and drop kicks him in the corner.

And the crowd does a little standing O, and then the standing O's get longer and longer and higher and higher from that point on through the end of the match. And then it was so cool. We came out, we kind of gave each other flowers, we showed respect for one another, and then we got another standing O, and it really was. Everything changed from that point. No mercy 99.

People ask us, like, what is your favorite match? What was the biggest deal for you? And it's hard not to reflect on that point because that really turned us from WWE wrestlers into WWE superstars. Every night we'd go out, our reaction was totally different. People viewed us as like legitimate stars then.

What about you, Jeff? What are your recollections of that time? Oh, I say that. I say it all the time. I didn't really ever even think about it until the last few years, man.

Like, because we studied that match with Shawn Michaels and Razor Ramon so much, the latter match, and reinvented it so many times on the Indies and added stuff to it. And we did that match so many times and just. To see what it went from from that match to what we did at that No Mercy 1999 is pretty, I mean, amazing. The transformation that took place with what you could do with a ladder and a match. And it was, God, so cool to be a part of that because it was on such a different level.

And that match is the match that made us. who we are, it changed the game for us.

Now 'Kay. TJ, my favorite WrestleMania. Is X7. It doesn't even end the way that I want it to. I was going to get into that, yeah.

There was another time where wrestling broke my heart. And we'll get into the match, but I need to know about a spot. What's it like? Knowing you about to get speared off the roof. Like, what is going through your mind of just like, okay, Edge, I need you to hit this.

I need you to catch me. I need you to do everything correct. What's going through your mind while you're hanging there waiting for that? And even that, more than that, Jeff, like, how does that get brought up? How do you guys decide?

Hey, you know what? Was that a thing where one of you went, you know what would be cool? Right. If I'm not mistaken, I think in the No Mercy Ladder match, you asked about Hanging, didn't you? I think I did.

Yeah, I was curious about that. I think he did. He said, Could I hang up there? And then somebody knocked me off. And they said, Oh, no, no, it wasn't strong enough.

It's not strong enough. It's just strong enough to hold the titles. But they had strengthened over time.

So he had that in his back pocket for the longest time and eventually wanted to do it. I mean, he's a psychopath anyway.

So, of course, he will do it. And I was and early on, too, even that Fear Factor ladder that we used last year at Slammiversary. I've been wanting to do that for the longest time. That was so cool to bring to life thanks to Tommy Dreamer and TNA. But yeah, fear is part of the fun.

I say that all the time in situations like that. But evidently, Rhino. Had something to do with it. I just remember when we were kind of going through ideas and I was hanging on it. And I grabbed the ladder with my legs and I was able to like pick it up and move around.

And it was like I was crawling with these big legs or something. But I guess it must have been Rhino's idea that maybe said, What if Bully pulled it back? Because we needed momentum to get into the spear. And it's creepy too. Like the scariest thing is if I wasn't going to like hit him face on, like it was kind of, I got around just in time.

But it couldn't have gone any better. But yeah, fear is part of the fun. And naturally, it's scary. And the biggest thought is, oh my God, am I going to break my neck doing this? You know, will I will I be okay after?

But yeah, I just, oh man, and now for that to be immortalized in professional wrestling history, it's just such a cool spot for me to be in and to have been a part of. But yeah, I love those things, man, when something that's just so larger than life. And you can make it happen, man. I live for those moments. That spear with him and Edge is one of the most iconic.

WrestleMania clips of all time. I mean, you see it all the time. And I'll never forget, I was selling something. I was about to go through the four tables with Bubba. And I just talked about this a couple of days ago when we were doing media in Dallas.

Like, I remember being so nervous because we were so worried. Like, what if Jeff totally tumbles over and lands on his neck or whatever he's falling from so high? It's outrageously high. I remember like selling, and I was leaning up, and I remember I just had eyes like over my head. I was like, oh, I got to see it.

Please land perfectly. Please land good. He did. He landed absolutely perfectly. He couldn't have done any more perfect.

It was amazing. Yeah. You guys had those iconic, the first one, the tag teams were talking about Hardy Boys, the Dudleys, Edge, and Christian. You guys had the hat trick of TLC matches that really changed everything. You guys changed the game with those.

Just let's talk about. We talked a little bit about 17, but you also had WrestleMania 2000 and SummerSlam 2000 when you guys went at it. Just let us know, like. What kind of respect, I guess, right? Like, how You guys left those matches differently than you walked in.

So, what was it like for the six of you to know that you created something historic? And did you know at the moment that? years from now people would still be talking about these matches. I don't think we had any idea that we were going to be the forefathers of the TLC match, which would become a staple in pro wrestling, you know, forever, even in other companies. They just call it by different names and not TLC, not tables, letters, and chairs.

We just know we were given a huge opportunity at WrestleMania in 2000. at wrestlemania 16 i'll never forget we were going out and they knew we had a bunch of Crazy stuff planned. Michael Hayes was a lot of times he was our producer. He kind of stuck with us as a tag team and our matches and our crew. He was always with us when it came to us and the Dudleys and Edging Christian.

And I'll never forget, we were going out. They said, Look, guys, the show's a little light. We're told this on a WrestleMania major pay-per-view, which you would never hear this in this day and age. They said, Look, take all the time you need. We just want you guys to be safe.

We don't want you to get hurt. Just take all the time you need. Dude, would that happen today? Oh, God. No, no, not at all.

You know, they're like, if you need six, seven extra minutes, don't rush it. Just take all the time you need. And they said, we're okay. And that was a pretty amazing feeling. And that was all of our.

WrestleMania debuts, which is crazy. We had six guys going out on their first WrestleMania on the main card. We'd done. Steph on the pre-show the year before, but we were out on the main card. We were in one of the marquee matches, and we went out there and like you were able to tear the house down.

We were given an amazing opportunity. And I feel like. There was kind of a pressure on us. We want to continue to to keep raising the bar whenever we were doing these. And I felt like we did do that.

I think the secret Now, more than ever, as far as raising the bars, just find ways to do things differently, be more creative. Because, I mean, so much has been done because we're all human beings, all mortals, and you can't actually fall off the roof and hit the ground or whatever. But, you know, you have to just come up with different creative, innovative ways, things people haven't seen that get them like, oh my God, that was so cool. And just get people emotionally invested in whatever you're doing. Yeah, for sure.

I was really blown away. Where was it, SummerSlam we went to? Can we watch the uh TLZ match? Was that SummerSlam or a different paper you? SummerSlam.

SummerSlam. Oh, yeah, yeah. You're talking about this last year. SummerSlam 2025. We showed up with the Dudleys to promote Ballingford Glory at SummerSlam.

But, God, what's his name? The guy that pulled his legs up and avoided the spear. He did a spot. It was Johnny Gorgano or his partner. Champa.

Oh, Chiampa. Tommaso Ciampa. When he pulled his legs up, man, that I, oh my God, that I never expected that. That was such a genius idea that he came up with that, man.

So, yeah, there's all these little things you can find, but yeah, so much has been done. It's really cool to see something like that and just to inspire you.

Okay, there, you just gotta figure things out. But yeah, so much has been done. I remember it did get a little overwhelmed. Oh my God, how are we gonna continue to raise the bar? We've done so many crazy, cool things.

But yeah, when I saw that, I was like, okay, there's something I never saw coming. Even what you know, I want to fast forward real quick with what you said about Slamiversary, Slamiversary 2025, which we had in New York and it was a huge turnout for us. We had the match where it was us versus First class versus the Nimitz, who were the champs at the time they stole the titles from us. And we had the rascals in there. But we had this match, and at the very end, we knew Jev was going to release that.

Ladder that was going to come down, that cable ladder, and we were going to do some cool stuff with it. And eventually, that's how we were going to win the titles. And that's something he's been wanting to do ever since TLC2. I mean, almost 20 years. And then finally, we made that happen.

And we knew that was just so different and so new and so innovative. And the way we did it is like all the ladders were broken in the match. Oh, shit. He grabbed a controller for someone at ringside. And I dropped it down.

It was like the building's ladder, you know, and then he went up and got it. But that's that's kind of what I'm even talking about. I think there's cool ways to be creative and different and think out of the box and just do things that have never been done before, even in big 2026. And that is our goal this year to really create a bunch of magical moments similar to that. And I had another idea which was way better as far as how to get that.

Cable ladder down, which is kind of cool. We didn't use it because it's a nutty, crazy, cool idea to get the cable ladder down. Also, I've got two other, like, I think extremely cool finishers for ladder matches.

So, hopefully, in the future, we'll get to bring those to life as well. All right, that's something to definitely look out for. Jeff Hardy's thinking away is pretty dangerous. Right. TJ, you know what I've never said?

What's that? The fun is in the fear. I've never, no, never. It's never, not, not one time have I ever put fear and fun so close together, like Jeff right there. I mean, that was like a life motto, right?

Or those, you know, the hardy boys don't grow on trees, you know.

So now, in this, and you know, you guys are still doing it. You guys have been, you know, with TNA and you guys had just in AEW, and now even with the TNA and NXT. Partnership have found your ways back into WWE rings, but you've seen a lot of. seen a lot of friends from the past, and you've been around a lot of new talent. Ha has there any been any of the new talent you've gotten to wrestle with that really stands out to the Hardys?

I really like all the dark state. You know, we got to work with those guys. And they're like, you know, they're four studs. You know, they're all half our age. It's so funny.

Whenever we end up having that match at Halloween Habit, where it was broken rules, and we're out there in a ladder match, and it's basically 412, it was fun. It was very enjoyable. I think there's a lot of potential in those guys for sure, especially they're all really. Just starting, you know, they're kind of learning. This is all a new journey to them.

And I do like the way the NXT system is working now with being a developmental system. And you put someone new that doesn't have a lot of wrestling experience on that show and kind of. Teach them on the fly, let them learn on the job. And they also get to learn how to properly do what WWE looks at as WWE-TV, the way they produce things.

So it's been really fun going back and doing that. Man, we loved working with Praxium. Those guys are both so talented, just fast as hell. It's crazy. Like, two of the faster guys we'd ever been in the ring with.

Someone I just want to shout out as a younger talent that we love. That is going to be a major player in pro wrestling for years to come. He can stay healthy, is our boy Leon Slater. Oh, man. We're waiting.

Yeah, call him Leon Slater Hardy, man, but he is great, man. It's so great that he does that 450 Swanton. When Jeff first showed up at Against All Odds, when I wrestled with Moose and he came out at the very end and made the save, Leon was going nuts. He had no idea he was there because obviously that 450 Swanton was inspired by his Swanton. And once I came to TNA, he was like super excited to meet me and hang and talk, whatever.

And then when Jeff was back, it was amazing. I'm so glad we've gotten to team with him and work with him. His future is his future limitless, man. Yeah, it's cool working with Joe Henry, too, just to see what he's done the last few years and how he's used social media brilliantly and musically, all that stuff. He's just got.

What it takes, man, to be huge and to see him at the Royal Rumble. Is that what he showed up in? Yeah, he can show that right now. At the Rumble and Mania. He did Rumble and Mania.

Yes, crazy cool. And now that he's going to be at Genesis as well, I hear.

So he's coming. Yes, he is there Saturday. I still AJ Styles back on Thursday. Plus, there's still some surprises that haven't been announced on Thursday. Yeah.

AJ's going to be there on Thursday at the Impact Debut. Very cool. What I noticed about all those names, TJ, except for Leon, is that they've all been guests on the Noah Commons podcast.

Well, we haven't had Dark State yet. Oh, yeah. We said we had Dark State as well. We got to get there. We got to get there.

You know, I want to talk, like I said, we're going back and forth here, but you mentioned something, Jeff, about how Joe Hendry uses. the internet. Matt, you were in my opinion, the first wrestler who really embraced What the internet could do. You know, after I want to talk about you guys when you initially broke up, but since we're here right now, you know, Matt Hardy Matt Hardy version one, when you would come out and you'd have the Matt Fax with the like the mock-up laptop or the mock-up computer when you were doing your own thing. I want to know about this because I would literally, there were times where I would like write some of these matte facts down and I would post them on Facebook as like they were TJ facts.

Like, you know, TJ loves, TJ hates, here's one: TJ hates onion rings. TJ hates onions, but loves Burger King onion rings. Like, I would do stuff like that.

Sometimes, yeah, like I would get, you know, like TJ can't balance his checkbook. I would, like, just write these things on Facebook. It might have been MySpace even before Facebook. That's how way far back it was. I think it was MySpace, but yeah, all because of the stuff you were doing.

You know, it's so funny how I pushed WB on that in the beginning. I said, like, look, I want to be. I initially I pitched this idea to Creative after we had our tag team ladder match, where I said, Hey, how about if myself, Jeff, Edge, and Christian form a faction? And maybe we can do a battle with DX at the time, which they were running pretty strong. You know, there was Hunter and X-Pac and the New Age Outlaws, right?

And I said, maybe we could do something with them. And, you know, we could have like a pretty cool rivalry. And I said, I think the name of our group with Matt Hardy, Jeff Hardy, Edge, Christian, I think the name of our group could be version one because we are like the version one of what tag team wrestling. Or, what wrestlers are going to look going forward, or what tag teams are going to look like going forward with the version one. And they ended up shooting that down.

I don't think DX wanted to work with us at that time, whatever. They had other things they wanted to do. But I kept that name in my back pocket. And then, whenever we split up, I said, Hey, I'm thinking about, you know, the internet is becoming more and more prevalent. I'm thinking about doing like Matt Hardy version one.

And what if my entrance is like a Windows media player? You know, and we have all this stuff and like you see the computer. And we talked about the whole thing. And actually, WB, they were very. They were open to it and they did it.

And I remember they popped up the thing and they said, Well, if we put a little, like a factoid in here every single week, oh my god, I love that. And I would give them a couple things. All of those map facts until our book came out were written by me. I would like to submit three or four every day, and then Kevin Dunn. To blast from the past, that name would pick a couple and he would put them on the MatFact screen.

And then whenever our book came out, a MatFact popped up and said, Have you read Matt's book? And I was like, You can't do that, Kevin. Like, that's blasphemy. It has to start with Matt or Mattitude. That's the only way every Matt fact starts.

That's blasphemy, man. Don't ever do that again. And then I'll never forget there was a point where some of the people in WB said, I don't know, Matt, you're playing very heavy into the internet. You know, like kind of the social media thing. Like, I don't think this is ever going to affect wrestling or do anything that is going to be positive for wrestling.

You know, I just, I just, I don't think they mix. I just think you're too into it right now.

So I'm telling you, this is going to be a big deal when it's all said and done. And looky, looky, looky, right? You know, in this day and age. There was a point where You know the internet Everything that is pro wrestling is on the internet immediately after it happens on our TV show. You're going to see clips, you're going to see whatever, you're going to see this, even this, you know, like us doing the, you know, the no contest podcast, man.

Dude, everything is on the internet and it keeps moving pro wrestling forward. And it has done more to move it forward. It's done things to move it backwards, too, in some ways. One thing I've always said about social media. The best thing about social media is it gives everyone a voice.

The worst thing about social media, it gives everyone a voice. You know, but it is, it is a very, very powerful tool.

Now, you got, you know, that your you guys have both had. Obviously, your success as a tag team, but you guys have also had singles success as well. But I know what it's like. We see it a little, we saw it a little bit with main event Jey Uso and not being around Jimmy. Is it hard to have that transition of you're always around your brother?

You come up with your brother, your brother's by your side, and then now you're going the singles route where they're hard. Harder days on that singles road than there were uh as a tag team. No, I think we all are very we were always very comfortable, you know, going our singles ways and felt confident in what we could do. I know, especially in TNA back in around 2012 was when I really felt like I kind of became a singles wrestler. I kind of knew what I was doing.

It was when I started painting eyes on my eyelids. I was like, okay, this is what I think. This is what I've been trying to become this whole time. And this is my solo career. That's a good marker, man.

Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, I think we've always been confident in each other, you know, tag or singles. And I definitely think so. Whenever we worked together, you know, building up to WrestleMania 25, whenever I betrayed him and turned on him, we were really excited for that because I think we were both very confident in our singles abilities, you know, like.

I had had a real good run as U.S. champion. I had the angle with MVP. That was Jeff was doing all kinds of amazing things with the Intercontinental title, Umaga. You know, rest in peace, brother.

So many great things we had going on. I was the ECW champion, and we were excited to really shine and do what we're doing. And then, when we heard it was going to lead to a match against one another at WrestleMania 25, that was another big dream of ours, like winning the WWE Tag Team titles for one time at least, and then wrestling each other at WrestleMania. We were huge fans of the Brett and Owen match at WrestleMania 10, and we were very, we felt very grateful we were given the opportunity to do that. Were you guys living out some living room flashbacks?

You know, you set up a match as kids. Was that finally going one-on-one? What is that feeling of all of that culminating? You know, being in the backyard, being on the trampoline? to doing it on the grandest stage of them all.

Matt could probably, man, thinking back to it. The only fight I really remember, he could have probably created this match called Tables, Ladders, and Recliners. The last fight I remember us having, he threw a recliner on me. He had his superhuman strength. He had punched me and knocked me down, but then he threw a recliner on top of me.

I ran out in the woods and was just bawling, my brother tried to kill me. Tables, ladders, and recliners. Tables, ladders, and recliners. And it's a true story. It's crazy.

And I mean, thank God because if he got to, you know, once he grew to that point where you're both on the same playing field. Whipped my ass through a recliner. I did. I slammed. He made me so mad with something he found.

I picked up a recliner and slammed the old. Yeah, man. I still feel bad. I feel bad. No, you guys split up.

You're going your own way. And for as incredibly, insanely popular as the Hardy Boys. were and still are. Jeff, you your popularity just kind of went. I mean, you're a cultural icon.

Like, there are, I've watched videos of people saying, like, who are your three favorite people? And this one dude was like, you were the second person that he named. It was like Obama, Jeff Hardy, and somebody and somebody else, man. It's just like, you, and I'll say this all the time: like, and this is no offense, Matt, you were also there, but there was something that I think is because Jeff was taking more of the death-defying stuff, maybe. No, no doubt.

Like, you know, well, also, I'll say this: whenever you think about what the Hardy Boys represent in theory, like these adrenaline junkies, these daredevils who will do anything, you know, have no fear, you know, the fear is part of the fun, as he says. Jeff, Jeff epitomizes that more than I do. I feel like I'm at my best performative when I'm doing something. That's over the top, you know, maybe even half-assed delusional, like Matt Hardy version one, or broken Matt Hardy. You know what I mean?

I feel like those are my strengths. But Jeff's strengths are incredible. And like just the risk he would do and the moves he would do. And he was always better with that.

So I would be more of the solid meat and potatoes guy in the matches. And I got it. But yeah, man, he is beloved across every single culture. And we both are to a degree, which is super cool. Because we did Kai Synats.

I had no idea how big Kai's stream was. And we had someone ask us about it, said, hey. He really wants you on the stream. You know, uh, in in it was it September? I think it was September in September.

And we're like, okay, well, we're pretty busy, but we'll let you know whatever. And he buzzed back, like, well, we left, hey, do you guys have a time? He says, You really want you on? Like, you're his favorite wrestlers. You were really influential to him when he was growing up.

And we're like, okay, I'll get into it. And he said, yeah, last week we had Kim Kardashian. We had the Jonas brothers. And I was like, whoa, it's like, God, we better get into it. And we finally worked out a date.

And his guy that was a producer said, hey, I asked Kyle, who are your dream guests in September? And he said, huh, let me think about it. Oprah Winfrey. Obama The Hardy Boys, LeBron James, Kevin Hardy. And he said, he sent me that aura.

It's like, we're number three. Yeah. That is, it's, he was great, man. And we had a great time doing it. He was so cool, man.

It was wild, man. And just stuff like that just kind of reminds you: like, man, you've touched so many people. And we feel blessed about that, man. Like, we hear. People from across cultures, man, talk about like, man.

My parents whipped my ass because I did the swanton, or you know, because I did a leg drop or did this, did that, man. It's cool. Looking back in hindsight, it's really cool that we've been able to inspire people. And I think we are a good. We're a good example of if these two kids from The wilderness in Canberra, North Carolina, with no connections can make it and achieve their dream, then you can too.

Yeah. Absolutely.

You know, we talked about it, we had Kalani Jordan on last week, and I brought that up. You know, people like to say, oh, well, if somebody did it, you can do it. And lately, I've taken a little bit of umbrage to that because it's like. That would take away from the fact that, like, you guys are special. Like, just not everyone can become the Hardys, but I think the better message is.

If they did it, then at least if you have a dream, then pursue it. But I think it takes away sometimes when someone goes, oh, well, if you do it, anyone can do it. That door is open. That is not the case. That door is open, but it's going to take a lot of work to get to that door.

It takes a lot of work to get through it.

So, and so, Jeff, when getting back to that split, you being the culture icon, when you finally became the world, I mean, the WWE world heavyweight champion, brother, like. What was that like? Like, what went through your mind? And Zoshay likes to ask: what happened that night when you went to bed and you had that belt? Sitting on, uh, I'm assuming because I would have had it on the pillow next to me.

What was that like when you know you were you, Edge, and Triple H in the triple threat match, and you reached your goal, the ultimate goal? Yeah, yeah, I wasn't snuggled up with it, but it was right beside me, you know, beside me, under the covers, naturally. But yeah, it was just a childhood dream that came true, man. It was very surreal and. But yeah, after all the years of such hard work and just belief and faith in myself was so, such a big part of that, man.

And I still hold, you know, true to that, man. It's just being authentic and being myself. I just got to be me, man. I can't live no other way.

So, yeah, it was just, it was just meant to be. And I always knew that I had what it took to become that. And looking back on it, man, I've had such, even with the ups and downs, I've had such an incredible career, man. And I've burned it down, you know, to have to rebuild a few times. And that hasn't been easy at all.

It's been tough. And I don't have any comebacks. Any more comebacks in me, man.

So, this last time I burned it down, I've rebuilt to be here to not burn it down again, man. I'm so blessed to be on the other side of all my issues with drugs and alcohol.

So, but yeah, being that WWE world champion, man, that was just, it was meant to be. And it's a childhood dream that came true. And, and, um, yeah. Yeah, I finally fulfilled. Hey, I fulfilled what I dreamt up for so long.

And you say things burned down. The fact of the matter is. We never left you, dog. Yeah, no, never. That was one thing that you know, a lot of people that happens, and people kind of forget them and they want to act like you know, you know, we're through with them.

And the thing about Jeff Hardy is we ain't never left, and people would never leave the Hardys, you know, especially because I think the connection you had with people made anything that you two were going through like we were still rocking with you, no matter what. We're always happy to see you guys, and you know, especially. I heard Cody Rhodes say this saying, but the saying is: Hogan must pose.

So even while Matt is getting beat up, we still need to see Jeff on taking his time. It's funny you made that because I think it was one of the first times you came back. I think it might have been AEW. Matt was getting beat up by somebody. And Jeff's music hit.

And before you ran down, you did your dance. And on your wife's Matt, Rebby put that on her TikTok story. And I made a comment and I said. I put like, Jeff, let me hit my pose real quick. I gotta get this off.

I think my comic got like 1400 times by. You know, what's so funny is kind of the chaos of AEW at that time. In that segment, we had talked about how Jeff was going to debut and show up. And I said, like, Jeff's a big star. And we knew we had the Hardy Boys music we had loaded.

And I said, I think he should come out and like hit his, hit hit his juke, do whatever. I said, like, they should start whipping my ass, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. All of a sudden, that music hits. There's going to be a big pop, and then everybody stops kicking my ass. They turn and they look at the ramp.

Jeff comes out and he does the dance for a second. He's like, all right, here we go, and then runs in. And ends up making the save. But what happened is the music hits and they're kicking my ass and they didn't stop. They just got kicking my ass.

But then Jeff comes out and he's like, oh, shit, I guess I don't get the interest. God kicking my ass.

So that's how that happened. I tried to, I just, I am nutty.

So I tried to juke and run at the same time. And not work great at all.

So many people wouldn't have. hopped on that so quickly, but like, you know, in the 2020s, that's going to become a meme instantly, you know, and it is what it is. Absolutely.

Yeah. Now, me and TJ talk about, because we, we, you know, we met you guys backstage at TNA. Yeah. We, yep, I've been to a lot of people. That was a dope.

We were talking about we marked out as soon as you guys went away by the way. I was like, oh my God. But yeah, thanks for looking out for us. I just want to say that you were very cool. Like, I think, Jeff, you were doing your face paint most of the time when we were hanging out with Matt in the beginning of the night.

But man, it was just like we were, we were tripping. Yeah, yeah. And You know, we we say that The most fun that we've had. As wrestling fans, was being backstage at that TNA event. I've been to a lot of WWE events, Tommy Dreamers taking care of us with TNA.

I haven't been to an AEW event yet, but Tony, that doesn't mean anything. I would love to go. You're missing the man. And so, with guys, with you guys, have been, you know. Been to all three.

Is there any major difference between, or is it just mostly the talent and people that you're around? I think right now, you know, W2B, they... do sports entertainment i think aw which i get it they're Trying to create their own niche and have something different. And they're more focused on having five-star matches or bangers. And that's kind of what Tony would prefer to see.

But I still feel like at the end of the day, like the The be-all, end-all in pro wrestling isn't the match. You know, it's more about the stories and the characters and the moments that you create. And I get that. And I feel like matches mean so much more when there's a strong story behind them. And I say this like on my podcast slide on the extreme life of Matt Hardy.

Uh with John Alba. I just go like, dude, there are casual fans, people who like. You know, just kind of get hooked on the characters. You know, those people still exist. I mean, there are people that are on the internet.

They follow everything on social media and they want to know all the behind the scenes, the behind-the-scenes stuff. They want to know the scoops and whatnot. But there are casual fans who just like, oh, I like wrestling. I grew up watching, you know, Hulk Hogan, or I grew up watching Stone Cold, or I grew up watching John Cena, and I'd like to tune in and see a great wrestling match. Maybe what's the story nowadays?

It's kind of like a soap opera in some ways. You know, those people, those people care. And at TNA, I want us going forward to have great matches and have great promos and whatnot, but I also want us to. To welcome everyone into the TNA tent. I want everyone to come into the TNA tent and have something for everyone, you know, those hardcore fans and also those casual fans, because we want to try and bring as many eyeballs to AMC as we possibly can.

And I feel like sometimes if you're If you're not too... I feel like you have to be careful in some ways because you don't want to offend parents and kids because you need kids to come and watch your product. Because if kids want to come to your shows and buy tickets, that means their parents have to come with them.

So that's important.

So sometimes I think you don't become too violent. I think you do cool stuff, you do entertaining stuff, you do different, but I don't think you want to be too violent, too gory, too bloody. I think you do that stuff here and there, and it's okay. But I think at TNA, we are going to work on doing that. We're going to welcome everyone into the TNA tent.

I want to kind of make it like a variety show to some degree, have great wrestling, but great storytelling as well. Maybe have a little bit more of a cinematic effect on some of the vignettes and whatnot to kind of match up and run parallel with AMC since that's our new home and whatnot. But I'm really excited about the future going forward for TNA. Yeah, and I've never paid any attention to like politics or anything like that until I get, and it had a lot to do with just getting sober this final time. Like going back to work at AEW, it was the night I came out with the painted chair that my youngest daughter helped me paint.

And I came out, but I just, I would, that whole day, I was like, oh my God, people are actually, they are fighting for these spots on this show. And they're like, what's going to be better? Who deserves this? Who deserves that? I've never really noticed until I came back to AEW, and I was going, oh my God, there's a lot going on here as far as people fighting for these positions.

And even the times that we were trying to get a match or whatever, it was just like, I've never noticed that until this last time getting sober. But I'm just glad everything worked out the way it did with TNA because, man, back in that 2012 area, I had so many good moments and memories and matches in TNA. And the merchandise they had back in those days were killer, man, for me. Your custom belt that you had. Yeah.

My custom belt, all that cool stuff I did, man. I had like six songs. Six years in a row, I did a new theme song every year, Brown for Glory. And to me, I love stuff like that. Nobody does that, but I was doing that.

And so, definitely, I want to move into that. Hopefully, this year I want to do a killer version of my original theme named Modest in TNA for when I do have singles matches or something. break that out but um but yeah i've never really noticed any of that until this last time but um Definitely, uh, the TNA is the perfect spot for me today here in 2026. And I hate dodging questions as far as that goes, but I was just going to say, kind of the initial question you asked: what's the difference between all the promotions? I would say WWE is WWB, they have a system, it is what it is.

You work hard, you try and climb up the ladder, you try and do better. A lot of stuff is very managed. WWB is very controlled. Uh, AW, uh, they have Tony Conn has a direction, he wants to take the company in, and he's the owner, it's his money. Obviously, he can do that, and it is what it is.

He's looking for a niche audience. But I, the sometimes with AW, I just fear. There's more people if they expanded some things in their product, they could. Put more eyeballs on the product. TNA, I think we're going to try and be like a traditional wrestling company in so many ways with how we do things.

We're going to want kids to come to the show. We're going to want parents. We're going to try and have great matches for the people who love great matches. But also, the great thing about TNA is it's not micromanage. You know, the match that we have with the Dudleys, we couldn't have done that match anywhere else besides TNA and Bound for Glory because we specifically had a vision of what we wanted to do.

We wanted to have like emotional moments. We wanted Jeff and I, we felt great. We were able to do stuff. We were worried about Devon. We wanted him to get through the match.

Good and safe. That was our most important. condition on that night and and we were able to do it and they were able to retire On good terms, and one of the great matches when we won their career rivals.

So that was very important. That could have only happened in TNA because TNA is the only place that could, like, we could have the creative freedom to do that match the way we did the match. And that's one thing that is great. You see, people come from NXT over to TNA and they go, like, oh, well, who do we need to talk to about what we can do here? I said, I don't know, just.

Figure out what you want to do. Go do what you want to do. That's one of the magics here. It's like old school wrestling, like back in the day, where you kind of come up with what you want to do. You decide the story of your match and what's going to happen.

And that creative freedom is something that I love about TNA. It's what led me to being. Able to do broken mint hardy, which totally rejuvenated our careers. You know, it totally made us fresh as the broken hearties. I wanted to try something different and out of the box, and they let me roll with it.

And fortunately, and Thank goodness it worked. I wanted to talk to you about that, man. How did you know we spoke earlier about the big money Matt Hardy gimmick, but then your whole broken character, man, that not only flipped TNA upside down, you had the entire wrestling world. In a chokehold with that gimmick, man. Just how did that start?

Where did that come from? And where did delete come from? Uh, it started. My wife and I, we had started watching True Blood. Like, after I had some time away, and I was with WWE 14 years in the beginning, you know.

And then, once I was doing Ring of Honor, and then I was doing TNA, and I would do some indie shots or signings and whatnot. But I had some time off, we were like watching True Blood, like Benjamin True Blood. And I was going, man, like vampires are really cool, like the way they live for a thousand years. And you know, depending on what the era is, they dress differently or their hair is different, whatever. Just depending on, I said it'd be great to be able to do like some sort of immortal character, like a vampire.

I said, Obviously, none of us are immortal. I said, Well, what if I could be aware of where my soul? Has been in this body, which I would call the essence, as Broken Matt. And then I kind of like, workshopped an idea like that I know everybody. Every single human vessel, every human body that my soul has been in.

And that's how I could claim to be 2,000 years old. And that's where that initially came from. And then I pulled stuff from like True Detective with Matthew McConaughey in his resting coal and stuff from Dexter, and then even some silly cartoons like Salad Fingers, this wild cartoon. I pulled stuff out of all those things. And then I just started kind of like making up as I was going.

And I tried to create this universe, which stayed real, had great continuity where it was all the same. And like, Jeff ended up being all in with the Brother Nero thing. And without him being all in, it wouldn't have worked as good as it did.

So that was great, man. That was the funnest year of my career. Starting Broken Matt Hardy in 2016, all the way to returning to WrestleMania. The stuff we did with the K was great. They were our perfect, you know, the perfect enemy for us to battle against and whatnot.

And it was just an absolute blast. Jeremy Borash, I have to give him a big shout to JB, who works with WWE now. He was such a great mind and all this as well. But it really was. It was so different.

And it was crazy that Broken Matt became such a. a great meme or GIF or GIF or whatever, you know, there was so much of that, and just people were sending it to each other, you know, just on the daily. It was wild, man. The word delete specifically came for. From whenever I was, I didn't get it from anywhere specifically.

A lot of people would say, Hey, did you get it from Death Note, or did you get it from the Cybermen? A couple of places that have used it. We were doing the final deletion, and I was shooting fireworks at Jeff. Through the ring here on our property. And I was like, I want a word to say.

I want to scream something out, but not kill or like die or cease or, you know, some, what is cool? And I was like, maybe I'll say delete because it's kind of like a trendy word in pop culture. Like, you know, people like, you know, that's the shitty tweet, delete or whatever. And I was like, I'll try to delete. And I did it right there.

I was going, delete, delete, delete, delete. And then that became one of the more catchy points of the video. And a lot of people started saying it.

So then I started, I started saying delete. And I said, maybe I'll do a gesture where, you know, like when you're on your phone and you're just sliding something, slide it over to delete it. I said, you know, I'll just do this. Like, I'm sliding it over. Nice.

That's a genius. That's a genius, man. That character was amazing, man. And he had people tuning in to TNA for question. All right, guys.

You know, you guys have given us a lot of time.

So we want to make sure we get our, you know, our last three. There were, you know, some. Heavy questions. Our number one question that we ask on no contest comes first. You guys are in a bar, all right?

Now, we usually do 50 when it's a singles wrestler, so since you guys are a tag team, it has to be 100.

So there's 100 dudes in this bar who don't like the Hardys. All right, they're looking for you guys. They're trying to kick you guys' ass. We need you guys to pick a team of yourselves. and four other tag teams.

To make sure that the Hardys are getting out of this bar and making it to the house. And it could be four tag teams of any era. Yeah, any era. I think the four tag games I would pick. I would say Haku and whatever partner he's with.

That's a Haku question. I'd say Bradshaw, Bradshaw, and Ron Simmons. APA. APA. I would um I would say Brock Glesnar and Kurt Angle, a couple of times they teamed.

Oh, man. Get a couple shooters in there. And then maybe for the final ones, just for intimidation factors at a minimum, the Road Warriors, the LOD. That makes sense. Prime Peak Warriors.

So we got Haku and we'll say the Barbarian. There we go. Yeah. Haku and Barbarian. Haku and Barbarian.

APA, Brock and Angle, and the Road Warriors. How about you, Jeff? How about you, Jeff? I totally feel the same with Road Warriors. Simmons and acolytes, Haku, and would you say barbarian?

Yeah. Yeah. Barbarian for sure. I'm just going to add Michael Hayes and Jimmy Garvin in there, too, just because I would love to see them. I would love to be in a fight with those guys.

We're going to be the same team. They would just walk in and they'd start getting their asses kicked. But then, while they're distracted, all the big guys jump everybody else and Brock and Kerr, yeah, for sure. That street Atlanta GA. I roll with well at one point.

We spoke about pops before we let you guys go, and I I'd like to be mad at myself if I didn't talk to you about WrestleMania 33. There were slight rumblings, there were slight rumors that the Hardys might be coming back. But you guys, man, being the geniuses that you are, you sent everybody off your trail. You went to the airport. You took pictures in the departure section.

Everybody thought, oh, no, they're leaving town because you had a show. I think it was an RAID show, maybe the day before.

So you guys played it perfectly. You made it sure that everyone thought that the Hardys were out of town and they weren't coming. And then, you know, we have a tag team championship match. The belts are, you know, up in the air. New days.

Introducing and they're letting us know there's another team, and you're just assuming, okay, it's going to be the new day. This is dope. And then that music hit. And I still remember to this day the hair on my arms. Shut up.

I'm I I can see where I was sitting in my apartment. My buddy Luke was over, and I was just like, No, instant curse words. That pop was literally, if they were to take the 10 greatest pops in the history of professional wrestling, you guys are in the top 10, and you ain't number 10, and you ain't number nine, or eight, or seven, or six, it's got to be top five. I've seen a little bit of a documentary about what went on, but like, man, what did that feel like? Because I'm that, guys, O'Shea's an actor.

He'll probably have a chance maybe when he wins an award one day to get that feeling. I'll never know this feeling. What is it like as a human being to hear that? What goes through your minds and your bodies as your music hits and the world erupted? It was the best.

I was so nervous. And Michael Hayes just reminded me to breathe. Uh and and it was just so uh perfect and just I still like the expedition of gold, this thing that Matt came up with, as Broken Matt, it still blows my mind that that's pretty much the way it ended to win the most iconic, the most epic world tag team championships on planet Earth. It still blows my mind the way that all ended. But yeah, I was just so glad the.

The lying was over. I was so tired of lying leading up to it. But it was well worth it. And it was done so well. And we got through that match with the Young Bucks the night before.

I think I only took like 24 super kicks and went through three tables. And I was still able to perform the next night. And just to be back in WWE was incredible. The place where it all kind of started for us. And a lot of people don't even realize this, but on Friday night, we made an event at the WrestleCote Super Show against Lucha Bros.

We had a hell of a match against Pence and Phoenix that night.

So we wrestled those guys on Saturday night. We had a 30-minute ladder war with Young Bucks, and then we had the WrestleMania four-way ladder match on that Sunday. One thing that's very funny, once we ended up leaving TNA at this time, there was a point where someone had told me from WWE, Vince said, I've got a question. This was in a meeting with people. He said, I've got a question.

Why is the WWE Universe going, Dilly, Dilly, Dilly, Dilly? What does this mean? What does it mean? And they said, oh, well, boss, that's something the Hardys are doing. He said, they're real hot right now.

He said, they're like white hot over in TNA. They have this little new character, Broken Matt, Brother Nero. He says, damn it, bring them home. Bring them home. You know, Vince wants it.

He'll try to make it happen. Looking too shiny over there. The timing kind of worked out. And we would have probably started there earlier, but they'd let us know, hey, we want to debut you guys at WrestleMania. We have an idea.

And then I had been talking with the young bucks. Still love the Young Bucks. And we had been negotiating doing like a TNA while we were because we were going to resell with TNA initially. And then we're going to do a TNA versus Ring of Honor, like cross-promotional deal where they would come to TNA, we go to Ring ROH, this, that, and the other thing. Because we showed up in Ring of Honor final battle in 2016.

If you remember that, like Broken Matt and Brother Nero popped up, or Broken Matt did, just me, Jeff wasn't there. And I shot the video and told the Bucs we were going to come for them in their tag titles. And then I said, What if I said, I asked the man with three H's, Triple H. I said, I said, what if. We did ring of honor like during this month before we started WrestleMania.

I said, because we talked with him about even winning the titles and whatnot. And we spoke with Ring of Honor and we were able to do it. And we convinced people that we were going to be signing with Ring of Honor because we were the champs. And that's why Jeff was doing interviews. They said, so you're signing with Ring of Honor.

How long are you here for? Jeff said, Matt signed the contract. I don't know. It's a pretty good while, man. You know, I don't know, man.

We're just here for a while. And then he was just like, man, I'm just tired of lying, man. You know, I just wanted it over with. But, dude, it was so magical. And it was one of those things, like you said, there had been some rumblings, but no one really thought we were going to be there.

We did a six-hour autograph signing earlier that day for Evolve, and it was myself, Jeff, my wife. Queen Rebecca, Senior Benjamin, my father-in-law, King Maxwell, and Vanguard one. And we were there, and we signed for six hours. It was non-stop crazy. And then, like, we took those pictures.

Whenever we came into the airport, we took pictures like we were leaving before. And then I posted up those pictures, and then we were like, Just hiding out at the hotel until about our match was 30 minutes up. They put us in a car, drove us over. We got dressed, talked to the guys in the match, the other three tag teams, for like five minutes, and then went straight to the ring, dude. It was like, it was the ultimate adrenaline rush.

When Jeff was talking about that, usually you're in the venue, you're in the building all day long. And like, we hadn't seen the building, we had no idea how it looked, how the setup was. That stage was massive. You almost spoke off the stage. You're up and ramping up the ramp.

Yeah, it's crazy. And then just to come out and see that sea of people, right? TNA was like at the point. The broken universe Heated things up, got people talking about it again. And then we got a new owner, which is Anthem, our current owner now.

And we kind of bridged the gap to get. You know, to move from the Carter family to Anthem, which was pretty amazing. And we're very proud that that happened. But the fact was, people were saying, Yeah, TNA, it's going to die, it's going out of business. We came in there and there were.

40,000 people. 50,000 people going, Dilly, Dilly, Dilly, Dilly, in the crowd, you know what I mean? And just the love and the admiration, man, the reverence when we came out. It's, I get goosebumps even thinking about it because it really was. It is the most amazing time.

The energy and the emotion was palpable that night, man. We keep saying this. It keeps moving up higher and higher. That might end up being the number one moment in our career when it's all said and done at the end of the day, because it was that magical, man. Yeah.

All right, I got this. My last question for you guys. We respect you guys' opinion on the business and everything moving forward. And you are one of the lucky people that. Uh it it's You're going out the way that you want to, and that doesn't happen a lot in wrestling.

It's a beautiful thing to have careers as long as you guys have had.

Now what What is missing from today's wrestling? and what are you glad is gone. My first thought, as far as what's missing, is managers. I think managers were a big part of wrestling back in the day, and I kind of missed that. Did you got anything?

What I'm glad is gone, I was going to say first and foremost, is the culture they used to be in wrestling. I think that has changed for a very positive way because when we first came in, like everybody was hazed, and it was kind of like the old school territory way. They would make you earn the respect, show that you belong there. And we saw, dude, when we were around WWE, especially once we signed in a 97 beginning of 98, we saw some up things, you know what I mean? And it was crazy.

And they kind of put us through it and they made us earn our spot and prove that we belong there.

So I'm glad that has changed. It has kind of mirrored society in a lot of ways, you know, because even you look back like what society was producing, it was kind of the wild, wild west back in the 90s, right? You know, things have changed a lot. And like people are a little more. Thoughtful, I feel like, you know what I mean?

So I'm glad that has changed. The culture has changed for sure in pro wrestling. Stuff that I think is missing is just. It's still in there, some. I just think too.

I think, like, having these larger than life characters, I still think we can. We need a few of those. I think those are important in pro wrestling because pro wrestling at the end of the day is entertainment. Yeah. I think some large-in-law life characters.

Once you come in, if you get something over it to a certain degree, like when I was broken, Matt Hardy, I would never break character. You know what I mean? I kept telling Arn Cassidy, I was so, I loved working with him, and I loved how he had the bit and he never broke character, he stayed in the character, and that is the secret to maintaining that persona if you're going to do it. I still feel like. There's a lot of authenticity, and people want guys and acts that are real too.

I think that is very important. I think it's very important to have that. But I also think at the end of the day, wrestling is a little bit of a variety show. I think we need a few of those larger-than-life characters that feel like old characters that maybe are magical to a degree or maybe are supernatural to a degree, whatever it may be. And I think if you can integrate those into your roster, I think it.

It leads to interesting interesting stories and rivalries with people. Love that. Love that. Yeah. Man, this was amazing.

This was amazing, guys. It's really sick to be able to talk to you guys. I've got four more pages of notes that we're going to have to get to the next time we have the Hardy Boys. I don't even get to ask what's scarier: a leg drop from the top or a twist of faith from the top. Yeah, well, you know.

What's scarier for you, Matt? That my ass still hates me for that left off the top of the cage, no doubt about it. That's kind of like a one and done, man. I give it, give me a table where it can break my fall at least a little bit. It's all skin and fear as part of the fun.

Exactly. Oh, and Jeff, we're gonna have to make a shirt now. Yeah, bro. That would be a shirt. Yeah, yeah.

I got music rehearsal in like 10 minutes.

So that was good timing, man. I really appreciate it, y'all. Appreciate you, Jeff. Appreciate you, Matt. Thank you guys so much and continued success, man.

Yeah, absolutely, man.

So, TLA, January 15th on AMC. Woooooooooo. Point bill. Yeah. Some see the writing on the wall.

There's so much we couldn't get to. Man, like literally, I have, I don't even know where I put my notes. I. Tossed them in the air when the interview was done. But yeah, we could go for two more hours with those cats.

I didn't even get to bring up the Mick Foley. Didn't bring up Mick Foley. I wanted to talk about Bray Wyatt. Yeah, I wanted to talk about, I wanted to talk about big money, Matt Hardy. A lot of people weren't, you know, really watching TNA, missed out on that whole thing.

Glad we got to talk about Broken Matt. Glad we got to talk about the latter incident. Yeah. Um, You know, it was dope, man. Cause, like I said, I've been watching these guys since I guess now that I figured it out.

Jeff was probably 17 years old the first time I saw him in the match in the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. From that moment to come full circle and see Him sitting in front of us right now, man. Oh, man. Yeah, we wrestling, man.

Something takes you places. You got to figure out the next time they're in LA, man, because we got to do our part two in studio, in person, man. Thank you guys so much for that. Remember, TNA on AMC. That's great, man.

Look for them. On the 15th, Thursday, make sure you guys tune in to TNA on AMC on their new home. Always, always treated us well.

So, we will always make sure that we treat anybody from TNA and want to come talk to boys. That will treat you guys well as well. The 15th, Thursday, AMC, TNA. That's cool. I'll be there.

I'm watching it in spirit because I'm gonna be watching it. But, like, you know, you know what I'm saying. I mean, they might ask us to go. I don't know where it's at. Yeah.

I mean, we don't know where we're going to be, but. TJ could tell you where to find us. I tell you where you can find us, like you said, on all of our socials, right?

So peep this. On Instagram, we are at No Contest Wrestling Podcast. On Twitter, where there's no contest on TikTok, No Contest Wrestling Pod. And then, of course, we're on Spotify. You can download, subscribe, listen to us there, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and of course, our home at ESPN on the ESPN app.

Basically, and then, you know, when you want to look at his smiling face, you know, when you want to look at what Jordan's we got on the day or what LeBron's he's wearing, then you go to the Rich Eyes and Show YouTube page, or you just type in No Contest Wrestling. That's right. You can find all of our videos from episode one with CM Punk to now episode 68 with Matt and Jeff, the Hardy Boys, man. Doing it, man. 68 episodes, dog.

Yes. What a time to be alive. Crazy. What a time to be alive. Thank you guys for tuning in once again.

Thank you to the Hardys for giving us the time of day. Yes, sir. Make sure you guys have a good day. Oh, and also shout out to Gothic Baby because we're Wednesday. Right, yeah.

I'm going to stay on Wednesday. I'm going to stay on Gothic Baby's good side so you know, because she's about that life. She'll flip. She's about to flip. Yes.

So make sure you guys have a good day, but not too good. Because who the hell do you think you are? and I hear soon. Miss Parker coming back to TV. Yeah, out time.

But in the meantime, in between time. Bye, Miss Parker. Yeah.