Matt Hardy made his AEW debut during the first edition of Dynamite taped without a live audience. Since that time, Hardy has started performing more under his “Big Money Matt” persona rather than his “Broken” one. He spoke to the Asbury Park Press about how the pandemic forced him to reinvent himself yet again.
“Broken Matt Hardy is a very audience-friendly character,” Hardy said. “It needs a crowd, it needs an audience, and it just was not in the cards to be Broken Matt Hardy … because his debut was in the first-ever empty arena era, pandemic-era show, the first empty arena show that AEW had.”
“Broken Matt Hardy is … very theatrical, and it doesn’t translate as well to the current AEW audience that sits at home and watches (on television) because I’ve realized that this is a much younger audience. It’s a much more sports-centric-type audience.”
Hardy then praised Tony Khan for giving him the creative freedom to switch characters.
“I tip my hat to (AEW president and CEO) Tony Khan. He allowed me to try kind of switching characters and see how people reacted to it,” Hardy continued. “I think if we had been in arenas full of people it would have been different.
“But considering we’re now playing to the television audience, it was better for me to zone in and focus on one thing.”
Hardy would continue to say being a heel is the best option for him currently. He will face Hangman Page at Revolution. A stipulation was added to the bout that the winning wrestler is given the losing wrestler’s pay for the first quarter of 2021.
