Matt Hardy on working with AEW, getting onboard with DDPY & creating content for "Being The Elite" (Exclusive)
It has been close to 30 years since Matt Hardy made his professional wrestling debut. A champion in numerous promotions before making his AEW debut in March 2020, it's safe to say that Matt Hardy is not only one of wrestling's longest-tenured performers of today, but also one of its greats of this industry.
Presently known as the "Multifarious" Matt Hardy, viewers of Dynamite never know which Hardy to expect. In turn, his unpredictability in an era where diehard wrestling fans seem to know what's next is especially remarkable.
I had the pleasure of speaking with Matt Hardy via Zoom on July 7, 2020 -- a day before the second night of AEW's Fyter Fest -- about working with AEW, his recent alignment with Diamond Dallas Page's DDPY, why he has always lived in North Carolina, his favorite music to work out to, whether he has plans for a second book, and more.
Audio highlights from our conversation is embedded below, in addition to transcribed highlights; the full chat will also appear on an upcoming episode of the Paltrocast With Darren Paltrowitz podcast.
On life as an All Elite Wrestling talent:
Matt Hardy: I've been thrilled with my experience in AEW. I honestly can't say enough good things about it. I wanted to pick up where we should've left off with "Broken" Matt Hardy and I did a little story segueing into that, which is Free The Delete, which is on my YouTube channel. That talked about how there is a new version of Matt Hardy coming to AEW. Once I started, from the jump, my plan was to do different versions of my personas throughout time, as the "Multifarious" Matt Hardy. Ultimately my goal is to lead that into something new, something to put that together into one entity, and have that be the next persona I really want to get over and run with.
On going between characters easier than a lot of actors are able to:
Matt Hardy: One of the things that was the trickiest to me, now that I started doing the first version again, which is basically Obi-Wan, "the sensei of Mattitude," he always speaks with a certain cadence."'As, a, matter, of, fact, Matt, strongly, dislikes, mustard." I noticed that there were times whenever I was doing that in certain bits, it was like I could feel "Broken" Matt Hardy speak, trying to come through. So that's really one of the things you have to stay focused on. "Unkillable Matt" is just basically me. If I'm doing old-school Matt, it's me as an indie guy trying to use old terms or trying to be a little more old-school in certain ways... Big Money Matt is kind of a wealthy jerk. So that's my different motivations for all my different personas.
On his recurring Being The Elite segments:
Matt Hardy: A lot of it is collaborative. I will be honest, though, whenever we did this deal... "Broken" Matt, Damascus, recognized Nick Jackson's essence of Cucamonga, that was an idea that I utilized in there with those guys... That was kind of a collab. I love working with those guys, especially on those BTE projects. The [Young] Bucks are amazing in-ring, and they definitely work with a modern, new-age psychology. But when it comes to entertainment aspects, those guys are incredibly cohesive and intelligent and really understand how to keep continuity. BTE, as over the top as it is, there's great continuity to the show.
On getting onboard with Diamond Dallas Page's DDPY program:
Matt Hardy: It's great, man. It's really what I needed more than anything else. It's because my body has accumulated so much scar tissue and is just so stiff. I know obviously people can tell throughout the years and I didn't do myself any favors with the first 15 years of my career, doing leg-drops off the top... night after night after night. Just trying to break up that scar tissue, just trying to regain that flexibility and I can feel the changes.
It's been two and a half weeks or so and my wife [Reby Hardy] has been doing it with me and she seems to enjoy it because it's fast-moving. She's from New York, so she doesn't like these slower training programs. She wants to move move move, bing bing bing, New York, man. It's been cool having her do it with me, it has made it more motivational. I can definitely feel my body changing and getting looser. A lot of the motions I do through the DDPY, I can tell I'm more flexible in two and a half weeks, so I'm excited to see how it all ends up.