Matt Hardy recently appeared as a guest on The Drive with Josh Graham for an in-depth interview covering all things pro wrestling.
During the discussion, the pro wrestling legend spoke about how he and his brother, Jeff Hardy, plan to end their active in-ring wrestling careers as The Hardy Boyz tag-team.
Featured below are some of the highlights from the interview where he touches on this topic and others with his extensive thoughts.
On wanting to be a positive influence for the next generation of wrestlers coming into the business: “I think that was kind of bred in myself and my brother, that humility, the act of being humble, from our mother. We lost her at a very young age. She died of cancer when we were both very young. But we always remained humble, we stayed true to our core values and beliefs I think because of her. And our dad was a great dude. He was an old-school southern man who’d get up at sunrise and work until sundown. He was a provider, he made sure that we had everything that we needed. My brother and I were able to attain contracts and achieve our dream of “being a professional wrestler and turn that into a career. “Now I’ve been doing this, this is 29 years I’ve been doing this as a professional, and I’ve been doing it as a career for 25 years. Just the fact that I was a huge fan who loved this and was passionate about it and wanted to achieve this level of superstardom in pro wrestling, and was able to, I feel like the best thing I can do is keep my feet on the ground, stayed grounded and also help others, much like people helped me on the way up. I would say that was the biggest influence, the guys who did help me, who were willing to help me. Michael P.S. Hayes, even like Stone Cold. He was great with myself and my brother. And there were several other guys who were willing to take time and help us. And I feel like, for me, it’s important to always give that back and help the next generation.”
On being fully on-board with a reunion of The Hardy Boyz in AEW if it becomes a possibility, as well as how Tony Khan has made the company the perfect place for a team like the Hardyz to have one final legitimate run as a duo before calling it a career: “That would be fabulous. I know both of us have stated on quite a few occasions that we both want to end our careers the way we began our careers. And that is as a tag team. That was our dream, as two kids growing up, we wanted to be the tag team champions of the world, at least one time. Obviously we have very fortunately exceeded that many times over. But I think us teaming together and having one last run as a tag team would be amazing. And I couldn’t think of a better place to do it than All Elite Wrestling. “One thing I have to say about Tony Khan, I can’t put him over enough for this, he is so good and so great at treating legends like legends. And he has such a smart utilization of talent. I cannot commend him enough on it. That’s why AEW has been so successful, because Tony Khan has been the guy in the driver’s seat. He has really been putting out a smart product, where he rewards all the wrestling fans in 2021 that are willing to invest a lot of time to watch a product and watch a storyline, watch a rivalry. He always gives them a payoff that’s going to reward them.”
Check out the complete interview at Apple.com. H/T to Wrestling Inc for transcribing the above quotes.
