With Matt Hardy successfully bringing his Broken persona to WWE, the veteran sat down with his brother Jeff, and Finn Balor on Table for 3. The short clip below provides an introduction to the round-table interview which can be found the WWE Network.
The interview also contains Balor and Jeff Hardy discussing their use of face/body paint in the ring (transcribed by WrestlingInc.):
“It’s very hard to explain, but it’s almost like putting on a mask protects you from people’s judgments and lets you completely flow freely, like, with all your aggression and our animosity against anything. And I think everyone, deep down, has insecurities issues, especially in this business. And I find that maybe getting to hide behind the paint, so to speak, kind of protects you from those insecurities and helps me channel a different side of my personality that isn’t always available to me.”
Finn continued by describing how the mask surprised him in ways that he hadn’t previously thought about.
“I didn’t realize how much the paint was going to affect how I moved and how I walked. And it wasn’t something that consciously happened. It was because the first time I’d done it was a Tokyo Dome show, I want to say in 2013-14, and I walked out there and I was a completely different person. I hadn’t rehearsed anything, planned anything, but I remember walking to the ring almost in a limp and I was like, ‘why the hell am I limping?’ It was almost as though the paint took control and it changes the direction your mind moves in.”
Jeff also provides his own view on his use of body paint, agreeing with Finn about the freedom that it allows.
“Every time I paint my face, I’ve always thought of it as my alien skin, the reptilian inside me that makes me different. When I think of aliens, I think of the skin, like, the abstract piece I do on my face, it doesn’t matter. I’m just in such a free zone. I’m just so at peace with myself when I’m doing it. And then, when I do the deal when I close my eyes, and take a picture, I go, ‘tonight, that is my canvas. My face is my canvas.’ Then, I get that, man. You go out there and you’re just more somehow, like, because you’re not your normal self. And to me, it just feels artistically free to express yourself and don’t have a care in the world about what anybody else is thinking! And so, I would be, on purpose, I would be real messy, a lot of the time, with neon, glow-in-the-dark paint. Even after I’d paint my face, I’d go smear it all over my hands and give people confidence not to care at that point in time and just have faith and confidence in yourself and just roll with it.”
The golden nugget of this interview comes in the form of Finn’s aspirations for the future. Balor explains that he wants to evolve, much in the same way that the Hardys have, with the goal of a new alter ego in the next 5-10 years.
“Obviously, seeing [the Hardys] continue to evolve the last 25 years, that inspires me to keep evolving my character. And I’m quite happy with how I’m doing at the moment, but I’m always trying to push myself to create something new and I think my main goal going forward over the next 5, 10 years would be maybe create another alter ego like you guys have.”
As a bonus to an already eye opening interview, Jeff Hardy hinted at the “inevitable” match-up between The Enigma and The Demon:
“I’ve heard it a lot, man, and people are kind of waiting to see us, like, ‘I can’t wait to see ‘The Enigma’ and ‘The Demon’ in the ring at the same time’ with painted up faces. Hopefully, that’s inevitable, so we’ll see.”
