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TNA Tag Team Champions Matt and Jeff Hardy sat down with PWInsiderElite.com last week to talk TNA No Surrender, TNA on AMC and more. Here is a complete transcript.
Mike Johnson: TNA Thursday Night Impact on AMC has now hit one month on their new home. Next week they’ll be back, and they’re heading to Nashville for No Surrender. And I can’t think of anyone better to talk about the shows that are coming up for TNA on AMC and TNA+ than the reigning TNA World Tag Team Champions, Matt and Jeff Hardy. Very happy to have them back here on the site. Gentlemen, how are each of you doing?
Matt Hardy: Doing great, man. Always, always a pleasure to speak with you, Mike.
Jeff Hardy: Yes, sir. Thank you.
Mike Johnson: I appreciate that. It’s been a month for TNA on AMC. You guys have been a big part of that show thus far. You’re no stranger to big-time pro wrestling television. You’ve worked for every major promotion you can think of in the last 20-something-plus years. Thoughts on the first month of TNA on AMC?
Matt HardU I’m really happy with how the shows have improved over the first four weeks. The very first show, we were thrown right in from the jump. There was a monkey wrench thrown in with the visa issues, and there were a lot of people who couldn’t get to the show, Leon Slater being one of them. We’re very happy to announce he will be at No Surrender on Friday the 13th, February 13th, and at the TV tapings on February 14th, Valentine’s Day.
Jeff, what did you think so far regarding the run of the show, on the AMC Network?
Jeff Hardy: Oh, it’s been great, man. It’s a huge accomplishment for us and TNA all around. We’ve worked so hard to get to this point, man, and I’m super stoked and excited to be a part of the first-ever cinematic match on AMC. I think it could be the best one that’s ever been done.
Matt Hardy: I was laying it out on that. I really am proud of the production side and all of the talent. I really feel like this is a very selfless locker room. Everybody is working for the greater good. Nobody is really going into business for themselves. There’s no one politically motivated just to try and get their stuff in and no one else’s. The first show was met with some polarizing feedback, and it is what it is. I feel like the weeks after that have gotten better, and I’m very happy that the third show we did had the highest viewership we’ve had thus far. I think it’s going to be a building process because AMC, they’re new to sports, they’re new to any sort of live sports-entertainment-type content. It’s a journey, and I think we’re learning together. But I can tell you this—they’re extremely ecstatic with the product it’s drawn and the feedback it’s been getting, especially across social media. So that’s what’s most important at the end of the day. Jeff and I really want to stand at the vanguard of talent and continue pushing things forward, continue to build our audience, and help TNA get back to the level that it can be at.
Mike Johnson: This coming Friday, No Surrender is going to feature a very unique eight-man tag as Order 4 faces each of you and The Righteous, who you’ve had some interesting interactions with over the last couple of months. Let’s talk about this potential storyline alliance with Dutch and Vincent.
Matt: It is very interesting. When they came in, they said, “We don’t want to fight. We want to have an alliance. We want to be together. We want to be friends.” But then they crossed some personal lines. They ended up dragging me off after I got hurt during a cage match, got jumped from behind. They dragged me off to this Hardy shrine. Then the next week, they took our locker room and redecorated it with pictures of our wives and our kids and stuff. That was a little much. We were like, “Hey dudes, if you want to fight for the championships, just say you want to fight for the championships.” You don’t have to speak in riddles. You don’t have to go around talking crazy talk. We’ll do this. And we did. And they said they just wanted to see us at our best, in our truest and purest form, which is doing our thing inside the ring. It was almost like Vincent was ecstatic that he took this one-time bomb at the end, he intentionally wanted it. So it is very interesting and now that we’re teaming with them, I think we’re going to have to have our heads on a swivel, because not only are we worried about Order 4, we’re also very concerned about what The Righteous’ true motives are in making this tag team match happen.
Jeff Hardy: Yeah, I’ve been digging what they’re saying, man. I don’t understand it all, but I kind of like it. I found myself doing this from time to time, so I don’t know really what’s going on, man, but it’s going to be a great eight-man tag in Nashville.
Mike Johnson: Now, Jeff, they’ve got a pretty unique artistic flair, and so do you. What do you think of their bohemian avant-garde way of presenting themselves?
Jeff Hardy: Oh, I love it. The theme music and the video that plays when they come out, I love it so much. And I think we can do some killer stuff moving forward. Whether we become some kind of...what’s that thing called? A faction?
Mike Johnson: A faction.
Jeff Hardy: Or an alliance or whatever down the road, it’s going to be fun to see what happens. Who knows, Mike? We might end up as the new Freaky Team Extreme.
Mike: Yeah, you never know. Stranger things have happened, right? You start out as The Brood, you can end up as Freaky Team Extreme. You mentioned doing the cinematic match on AMC potentially. A lot of those matches have been at the Hardy Compound. It wasn’t all that long ago, Matt, that your wife, Reby, put up a video pointing out some fans were outside the property. One of the things I’ve written about in the last year is my fear that someone in the pro wrestling industry is going to get very hurt from a fan crossing the line, and that it won’t happen at an arena, but somewhere outside where there may not be security readily available. What do you think about fans showing up outside the property and not realizing there’s a line that shouldn’t be crossed?
Matt Hardy: It is really invasive. Both myself and Jeff, after we had children, that’s when we put fences up and gates around our house. When we first got hot in ’99, 2000, we didn’t even realize what it was like to be over. We’d have people almost every week drive down our driveway, knock on the door, saying, “Hey, I want to get a picture and hang out.” And we knew that was invasive. That’s not the time to interact with us. If you want to meet us, we do comic cons, appearances all over the U.S. Come see us when we’re working. We’re happy to chat and give you a great experience. But when we get home, we have to protect our wives and kids. That is definitely crossing the line, and we’re not going to reward that behavior.
Jeff Hardy: Yeah, we grew up tobacco farmers, and those tobacco barns I painted up years ago - I worked my ass off on those. I’m super proud of the artwork. I understand it’s kind of a landmark. As long as they don’t bother us or try to come in the gate, I don’t mind people stopping to take pictures of the barns.
Mike Johnson: Obviously TNA’s got a lot of shows on the road, and one of the things you do are meet-and-greets. Fans can meet you almost every show. Why do you think fans have stuck with you guys for decades?
Matt Hardy: I think we’ve been authentic. We’ve been genuine. We call our most loyal fans Die-Hardies. There are people who’ve supported Matt and Jeff Hardy for decades. We’ve built equity with them because we care. One of the greatest compliments we get is, “Don’t meet your heroes, unless they’re the Hardys.” We try to make it a positive experience. We once did a meet-and-greet from 10:45 PM to 4:16 AM after Bound for Glory. We stayed until the entire line was cleared.
Mike Johnson: Whew. You’ll be in Nashville this Friday and Saturday, then Georgia and New Orleans. What’s it like seeing TNA hit major markets again?
Jeff Hardy: I remember going to the fairgrounds, the six-sided ring, Jeff Jarrett pulling me aside and saying, “What do you think?” It felt like the future. And now it’s even cooler being this active and being part of why TNA is on AMC. I’m excited about these markets: Nashville, Atlanta, New Orleans. They’re great wrestling cities. Fans know the product. They cheer the good guys and boo the bad guys. That’s what matters at this stage of our careers, getting people emotionally invested while still protecting our bodies.
Matt Hardy: That's the most important thing to me, 'cause when we're at the stage in our career, now we are. Trying to forge and create every match so that people are emotionally invested in it. You know what I mean? And on top of conserving our body, we still go and we try and work at the highest level possible. Considering the wear and tear that, 34 years in pro wrestling has been on our bodies. But we still love it. We're like two kids. We're super passionate about it. The fact that TNA is going back into these major markets and the fact that we're in these new cool venues this, venue in Nashville, the Pinnacle people have put it over. So huge. It's been great. NXT was just there recently, so we're super excited about that. And once again, we've been doing doing really good numbers at these live events and we're hoping that trend continues and we just hope our numbers at AMC more people will learn about this show and they end up tuning in and we're gonna try and grow that number.
Mike Johnson: You mentioned Bound for Glory: what were your reactions when The Dudleys handed you their boots?
Jeff Hardy: i didn’t know what to think. After we were back backstage again I looked at Matt and we had their boots and I was like, is this a thing that people do? Matt said it is now. 'cause I'd never seen it before. We had no idea they were gonna do that. But it was I was very honored.
Matt Hardy: We tried to lay out that match so that we could protect D-Von at all costs. Our main goal of that match was to get D-Von through it in one piece. Obviously he had some health issues in the past, but we wanted D-Von to be physically fine at the end of the match. Jeff and I, we’ve been working very regularly. We were cool with carrying the load doing that. The Dudleys haven’t been working as much; Bubba dabbles in it here and there. We are so proud of that match, and we had to actually start and get action going because the crowd was chanting and they were so emotionally invested in the match in the beginning. And we got through it. And I’m so happy that D-Von Dudley got to go out on his last match having this great moment. Close the book on the Hardy–Dudley 26th, 27-year rivalry. And we got to have that match. And that’s like the best note I think, as a pro wrestler, you can go out on your own terms, in a big match that has a big feel to it. Dude, we knew D-Von was finished. We wanted to get him through the match, as I said earlier, and we had no idea Bubba was going to also take off his boots, and we certainly had no idea they were going to give them to us, and I’m getting chills even thinking about that moment, just being present in that moment. It was special and so amazing. And they said, “Do you want to know what we have in mind?” And I said, “No, I’d rather not.” I’d rather have a genuine reaction. And it was so great because there were people all around us in the front few rows that were crying, sobbing, and very emotional. And at the end of the day, man, that is the essence of pro wrestling, man—making those moments that people will remember forever. And the Dudleys taking off their boots in the middle of the ring, handing them over to career rivals The Hardys, it’s a moment that people will carry with ’em forever.
Mike Johnson: When we talk about final chapters, Jeff, have you thought about that at all?
Jeff Hardy: I don’t let it enter my consciousness. One positive from my neck injury is I’ve got a legit submission now, a reverse full nelson over the knee. I’m thinking of calling it Spinal Desination.
Matt Hardy: I think Jeff’s going eight more years as a submission specialist.
Mike Johnson: TNA returns to Nashville this Friday and Saturday. Any final words for the fans?
Matt Hardy: It’s going to be an incredible card. No Surrender will be great top to bottom. If you get the chance to come see TNA, come see Jeff Hardy. You’ll enjoy it.
Jeff Hardy: Yeah, and witness the Spinal Destination!
For more on this weekend's TNA events in Nashville, click here.
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