Show: The Interactive Interview (courtesy of www.WrestlingEpicenter.com)
Guest: “The Angelic Diablo” Matt Hardy
Date: June 7, 2005
Your Hosts: Erik Clancy, Chuck D, & James Walsh
Recap By: James Walsh
He’s one-half of the highest drawing tag team in WWE history. He’s a former WWE Cruiserweight Champion. He’s the Angelic Diablo… The Sensay of Mattitude! And, he’s the latest guest on The Interactive Interview. He’s Matt Hardy!
What’s the matter? Think you’ve heard all there is to hear from Matt regarding the situation with himself, Lita, and Edge? Well, think again! In this interview, Matt takes us in depth into what went on including a never before discussed aspect as he tells us the real story behind Edge’s slashed tires.
Caught TII Live on Tuesday evening? Good! But, you can listen to the ENTIRE Matt Hardy interview, over 45 minutes, by listening to our archived edition of the show!
To listen to this show in streaming media, visit http://www.wrestlingepicenter.com/shows/MattHardy/hardy.ram
To download this show direct to your desktop, visit http://www.wrestlingepicenter.com/shows/MattHardy/hardy.rm
MATT HARDY
— We start out the way all Matt Hardy interviews should start… With a Matt Fact! Today’s Matt Fact is Matt is a huge fan of Arizona!
— Matt wanted to be a wrestler growing up because he was a fan growing up. He saw wrestlers as larger than life and was drawn to the athletics and drama of the business.
— OMEGA was different because it was a lot of younger wrestlers that thought outside the lines of what wrestling was at the time. He says he remembers working really hard in front of 100 or 150 people doing lots of high spots but never forgetting the logistics and psychology of a match. Matt feels that is what sets OMEGA apart from the other wrestling promotions of the time and, if you think about it, was ahead of its time because many aspects of the business ended up going that way in terms of the high flying.
— Matt feels the WWE locker room didn’t change from the time he was a jobber in the mid 90’s to when he was huge. He feels he was treated very well when in each situation.
— Matt finds it funny that we asked about what he learned from Dory Funk. He says especially at the time he was at the Funkin Dojo and was signed to WWE, a wrestler under a WWE contract should have known everything there is to know. But, he feels Dory taught him a lot about things he hadn’t even thought of. He adds that Dory taught him a lot of little things that ultimately added up to mean a lot.
— TII is big on Adam Windsor. Matt says he’s met Adam many times but has yet to determine a big opinion of him. James says Adam will one day be in the WWE.
— Erik, James, Chuck, and Matt get into a deep chat about the tag team division through the years. Matt says regardless how good a team is, the office has to be behind the tag division in order for them to get over. He mentions that there are teams there now such as La Resistance, Hurricane and Rosie, and so forth but feels you cannot have a successful tag team division if the tag champions are out there every week getting killed.
— Erik asks why he thinks the tag division is not getting much emphasis currently. Matt says, “I don’t know. They go in cycles and they get lazy” obviously referring to the office.
— Matt says for the tag team division to work the company has to do the same thing to the women’s division and the cruiserweight division and really put time and effort into bringing in stars and putting emphasis on it. He feels all the divisions, including and especially the cruiserweight division, can be very profitable but right now the WWE seems only interested in pushing the heavyweight division.
— Matt thinks you have to take the idea of a standard match and put a little spice in it in terms of high spots. He thinks, as James asks about, the problem with some on the Indy circuit is they do a fantastic spot and bounce back up again to do another without making it mean anything.
— Chuck asks about selling. Matt says that is exactly what he means. Matt says a high spot that doesn’t pay off and damage the opponent is like shooting a villain in a movie 5 times and having that villain not act hurt.
— Before Matt does a spot, he always makes sure it is safe and thinks it through. He jokes saying it sometimes doesn’t look very safe and sometimes turned out not to be but he didn’t take many chances unless he knew it would be safe.
— Chuck brings up Matt’s appearance on Fear Factor. Matt talks about the stuff he had to drink, stuff I dare not even type here as it makes me ill, and says it was fun. Matt then jokes saying his dad cooked for he and his brother growing up so drinking it wasn’t that disgusting.
— Matt and Jeff always, even when they first went to the WWF, wanted to be tag team champions. That is what they played as when they were kids. So, winning the tag belts was a fantastic achievement for them.
— Matt mentions that for a while there right after the WWE bought WCW, he and Jeff were in the tag division and from show to show were not aware who the tag champions were it was changing so rapidly.
— Everything related to Mattitude was Matt’s idea. But, he does not own it.
— On his own, Matt loved working with Brock Lesnar especially at the beginning. He feels as time went on, Brock got used to being the center of attention and it blew him up a bit.
— Matt estimates he wrote about 90% of the Hardy Boys book to Jeff’s 10%.
— Chuck mentions that the Hardy Boys were often compared to the Rockers with Matt being Marty Jannetty to play second to Shawn Michaels in Jeff. But, Matt lasted longer than Jeff in the WWE. Matt says he feels that is because at the bottom of it all, he has a better head for wrestling. He feels Jeff has the ability to do more things in terms of athletics but his head and his heart aren’t in it as much as Matt’s are. Matt then says he should still be there right now except for the situation.
— We then enter the discussion about Lita and Edge.
— “It’s nothing that wasn’t expected because it’s what they do. I don’t want to see it so I don’t watch it, It’s very tasteless especially considering everything I did for the company over the years.” says Matt when asked if the angle going on TV now involving Edge and Lita bothers him at all.
— Matt says he can’t say if he’d be able to work with Edge should he return. He gets asked it a lot by fans and just doesn’t know.
— It warms Matt’s heart to hear the “We Want Matt” chants. He says it’s especially touching because he’s been off TV for 6 to 8 months and the fans remember him. But, he also thinks the fans can relate to him because they may know what it feels like to “lose someone you plan to marry” and then lose his job on top of that.
— Matt knew that Edge was getting a big push when this situation hit so he knew it was possible he may get released but he didn’t expect it. “They didn’t exactly condone what they did but the didn’t say “stop this.” So, I knew it didn’t look good from that perspective. It surprised me because I didn’t think they’d stoop to that level and release me considering the circumstances. But, that being said, it’s WWE and things don’t surprise me.”
— Matt then tells the story of the tire slashing incident. As he understands it, after Matt and Lita broke up, Matt started seeing his current girlfriend who, if I heard correctly, is named Lori. Lori has an ex-boyfriend that is a former WWE wrestler as well and he, angry that Matt is now seeing her, either slashed the tires himself or called it in and said Matt was the one who did it. Of course, Matt didn’t do it himself. This is a TII Exclusive! More details on this will be found on a home video release both Matt and Jeff are putting out. You can find all the details on that at www.TheMattHardy.com.
.
— Matt has not talked to Vince but has talked to some WWE officials recently. He won’t confirm or deny that they may want him back.
— Someone said that Triple H made a remark about Hardy never drawing. Hardy says that is an insane statement to make because the Hardy Boys, and he’s seen the figures, are the single highest drawing tag team of all time. He also feels he didn’t do too shabby as the Sensay of Mattitude either.
— To rebuild the cruiserweight division, Matt feels they have to give the workers time on TV and also not put the cruiserweight champion in there with a big guy to get squashed.
— Matt has another project coming out called The Matt Hardy Show at www.TheMattHardyShow.com
. It will be a show that features a new episode/clip each day of the life and times of Matt Hardy. Basically, it’s a reality show on the Internet. Matt says it is the first of its kind. No word if Missy Hyatt has filed legal papers yet. :)
— Matt has plans to work for both Ring of Honor and TNA. At TNA, he expects to do a Hardy Boys reunion but says he wants to stay a singles competitor.
— Matt thinks TNA will survive. He gets several calls every day saying both yes and no to if TNA has a TV deal. He feels the history of TNA says they’ll survive no matter what and says even if he ended up back with the WWE, he wants TNA to succeed because competition makes the world go around.
— We then roll into some word associations with names like Jeff Hardy, Shannon Moore, Sting, Lita, Vince McMahon, Jim Ross, and more. Want to hear ’em? Gotta listen!
— All this and so much more can be heard for free at www.WrestlingEpicenter.com
. Check us out! You’ll be glad that you did!
***** TII Live returns on Tuesday, June 14 at 10 p.m. EST with special guests “Straight Shootin'” Stevie Ray and WWE Diva Ivory! Ivory will also appear on our Internet broadcast this Friday on www.WrestlingEpicenter.com so be sure to check out the site for that and to listen to all of our archived shows and all the other great features on the NEW web site!
