During the latest edition of his “The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy” podcast, AEW star Matt Hardy commented on Triple H offering him a role in NXT as “Broken Matt” when he was leaning towards leaving WWE.
At this same time, Vince McMahon had told Hardy that he wanted him to step away from wrestling and become a producer.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On being offered the producer role and deciding to leave: “He appreciated my honesty. There’s nothing that I would say on here or say to anyone else that I wouldn’t say to Vince, that’s how much respect I have for him. I said, ‘I know how you see me. You are ready for me to move on to a producer role and I’m not ready to do that quite yet. I’m ready to still finish up in the ring. I know I have a few more years left and I’m going to go until it’s time for me to step out. That’s what I want to do. That’s my passion, that’s what I love, and it’s where I can make the most money. At the end of the day, pro wrestling is a business and it’s all about where you can make the most money.’ He absolutely respected that. He said, ‘Well, thank you for being honest.’ Because so many people just bullsh*t him all the time. I’m sure, whenever I left, they knew where I was going to end up. It is what it is.”
On Triple H offering him a spot in NXT: “Triple H, he called me afterward. He tried to work out deals with me doing stuff in NXT and it’s so funny, because this shows how much Vince wanted me as a producer. He said, ‘Well, we can pay you X amount of money if you do this NXT thing. But we can like double this almost if you do NXT, and I’ll put you with a group of guys. So you don’t have to do all the work, being an older guy, you’re like the leader of the group, and then you can also still go to TVs, you know, Raw and SmackDown, and then you can still do those and start being a coach because that’s really what Vince wants to see you as, is a producer.’ Someone who helps teach other talents and helps construct matches and whatnot. So Vince really wanted to see me in that when it was all said and done. I have a lot of appreciation, Triple H still tried to do what he could just to keep me in the WWE system.”
On who would have been in the faction: “No, he did say he didn’t say any specific names. He said he had three or four guys they had in mind that you know don’t have a great role. ‘But I think if I could put them with like a ‘Broken’ Matt Hardy, if that’s what you’re wanting to do now, I know you can do that because you own all the copyrights and trademarks of the Broken Universe, we could do that.’ That was obviously very appealing,” Matt continued. “But it was one of those things where my contract already expired at this point when I was speaking with Hunter. So I’d already talked with the Bucks and Tony Khan and the powers that be at AEW. I’d already made a handshake deal to go there. It was a good deal and I thought that was my best route going forward. So you know, I just once again, just respectfully declined and said, ‘Thank you very much. I want you to know, I appreciate you reaching out to me like this, and I’ll never forget it.’ I really do. I always remember when people are good to me. I always hold that dear in my heart and I always remember that I owe them one.”
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(h/t – Fightful)
