Raj Giri of WrestlingINC.com recently interviewed former WWE and TNA superstar Matt Hardy. In part one of the interview (view here), Hardy discussed his time an an enhancement talent for WWE, his favorite stars growing up, working with the Kliq, tag team wrestling today and much more. here are some highlights of what Hardy said about:
His Favorite Wrestlers Growing Up: “Obviously, ‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage just because he was the first guy I was really drawn to and I think he was one of the top guys in the company at the time and his finishing move was a flying elbow drop off the top rope. For me, I thought it was really cool. A lot of guys did moves that seemed more boring. There was the Hulk Hogan leg drop. ‘Macho Man’ always flew off the top to do his elbow drop and it was very exciting.”
“Obviously, growing up in North Carolina, I was a big Ric Flair fan. I dug him, he was from Charlotte. The Four Horsemen were very cool. I was a big fan of the Freebirds as well. It was very ironic that later on, I’d work with Michael Hayes. When I first started wrestling and Jeff and I were on a trampoline, I actually emulated Michael Hayes and the Freebirds to a degree with the way my character wrestled, dressed and acted and whatnot.”
What It Was Like Being WWE Enhancement Talent: “It was exciting. We actually went the very first time with ‘The Italian Stallion’ Gary Sabaugh and we did shows for him all across North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee. We’d work Thursday, Friday, Saturday and sometimes for free. But, as long as we would work all his shows, he would take us to WWE every few months when he got the opportunity to. So, we were really excited. The first time walking in the dressing room and just seeing the guys you’ve grown up watching on TV. They’re real human beings and they’re interacting. Actually, getting to see that every superstar was actually a human being was a pretty amazing feeling.”
Whether Anybody Gave Him Advice Early In His Career:
Hardy: There wasn’t really anyone that gave us an overload of advice. But the one thing I will say, the first time me and Jeff went up, we both wrestled Scott Hall/Razor Ramon and he was really good to both of us. The first night, he wrestled Jeff and Jeff was only 16. He had to lie about his age and move his birthday back by two years and he kind of banged Jeff’s knee on the pole when he was doing a certain move in the match. He checked on him the next day and the day after that. All the Kliq guys, especially Scott Hall and Kevin Nash were really cool to Jeff and I in the beginning. Jeff has his hair cut like Vanilla Ice, they actually called him Ice. They always knew the Hardy Boyz and the Ice guy. So, they were really cool to us overall. You hear a lot of horror stories about those guys, but Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and X-Pac were all really good to us early on.
Favorite Memories Of His First WWE Run: “Man, it’s really amazing that we were able to come in during that time. Once again, looking back, ‘Stone Cold’ was white hot. The Rock was white hot. DX was a huge deal. For Jeff and I, once we got out on the road full time, we were wrestling Too Cool/Too Much every night as the opening match. For us, we almost became accustomed to it. Every night, we were in a building that was sold out with 20,000 people. That was pretty amazing, pretty special. I think we were almost spoiled a little bit because in 2001-2002 when the business slowed down a little bit and the big, hot Attitude cycle ended and the shows weren’t sold out anymore, we were like, ‘Oh, my God. What is this? We’ve never seen this before. This is new to us.’ So, we were really lucky and really gifted to be there.
I mean, there were so many great memories between the ‘Stone Cold’-McMahon thing. Just for us, obviously, our feud with Edge and Christian and going through with the first ever tag team ladder match and having that and the TLC matches. Winning the tag team titles, which was our only goal that we really set for ourselves when we started in the business. There were so many great, monumental moments that there’s too many of them to list now. But, it was a really special time in the wrestling business.”