The following are highlights from a new VOC Nation interview with former WWE Superstar Matt Hardy:
On being part of the birth of extreme wrestling: “You can go back to the first TLC ladder match with Edge and Christian or even before that to the original Omega. Myself and my brother were two of the guys who wrote the dictionary definition of extreme wrestling. Once we got to the WWE and we got the chance to have the ladder matches and the cage matches, we took them to a different level. We opened up a lot of doors for a lot of smaller guys to do more athletic, interesting, and entertaining stuff.”
On working for Tommy Dreamer at House of Hardcore: “Tommy Dreamer is a genius promoter. He (does) truly what is best for business. He makes smart business decisions and he gives the fans what they want. House of Hardcore will blow away any of the other promotions on November 9.”
On meeting and working with his wife, Reby Sky: “Reby and I first spoke online after a fan introduced us via Twitter. We’re having a blast together. We’re newly married, we travel together, and we’re big on promoting ourselves and branding ourselves as “SkyHard”. We’re enjoying being our own boss. We’re very public people. We’re both big tweeters, we love social media; we mesh very well. When it comes to oversharing, we’re both on the same page.”
On his future in wrestling: “For so long, I felt like I was in a wrestling bubble. You (always fight) to move up a level, to be on tv, to be a champ, etc. I’ve dropped all that right now, and I truly enjoy what I’m doing right now. I don’t want to be under contract. I don’t deal with politics, I don’t deal with stress, and I’m having fun again. If it leads me back to Ring of Honor, or TNA, or WWE, then so be it; but that’s not my end game.”
On the state of the wrestling business: “Nothing’s extremely red hot or extremely stable right now. WWE is set; it’s not going anywhere – it’s always going to be around. People will always complain, but they have so many corporate sponsors and nothing is going to happen with them. There is a lot of speculation about TNA right now, there are a lot of rumors going around; I don’t know anything personally. In my opinion, the better TNA does, the better it is for business. Wrestling is a little hokey nowadays compared to what it should be, but that’s because TV is so advanced. You can’t insult viewers intelligence; you can go online and find out anything.”
On guys that can carry the torch: “John Cena is the modern day Hulk Hogan in many ways. He takes someone’s finish, he kicks out, and is almost indestructible. It’s always the right guy, in the right place, at the right time. Take Stone Cold Steve Austin: He was an (average guy) in WCW, and he went to the WWE and was the right guy in the right place at the right time to become Stone Cold Steve Austin. Wrestling is still waiting for that next guy to change the direction, to change the business, and make things white hot again.”
On what will make wrestling boom again: “The content needs to be more sophisticated stories that don’t insult the viewers intelligence. The stories need to be more consistent. You can’t insult the fans intelligence. With the power of the Internet, people know everything. If you insult people’s intelligence, they’ll hit the off button on the remote and that will be it.”
Check out the complete interview online at VOCNation.com.
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