AEW wrestler Matt Hardy talked about the plans for The Hardy’s to become part of DX in 1998 during the latest episode of his “Extreme Life of Matt Hardy” podcast. The idea came from Vince Russo. Matt said,
“Something they pitched is they had an idea and it was creative. This came down from Vince Russo who he wanted myself and Jeff to do pledges for DX. We were into that.”
Matt pointed out that if you go back and watch the product, you’ll notice instances where WWE was teasing them joining the group. He said,
“You’ll see moments, if you look back in 1998 when we’re in tight, there’s several times, we probably do it for like four or five weeks straight, when we come to the ring, we go up in the corners, and Jeff and I are doing, we do the DX (hand sign). We we’re going to pledge for DX and then eventually kind of like end up being like their lackeys to a degree and pledge with them and then they were going to kind of see where it went, and then maybe we could legitimately like be a part of the DX when it was all said and done.”
He continued, “That was an idea that Vince Russo had that he wanted to try. Eventually, we did it for like four or five weeks and they said, ‘Okay, enough of that. We’re not going to do this, like, you know, these guys aren’t quite ready, let them do whatever.’ Then it just stopped immediately and was never revisited again.”