Matt Hardy reacts to WWE star possibly headlining WrestleMania 41
Matt Hardy spent a combined 19 years in WWE between 1994 and 2020. In a recent podcast, the legendary wrestler gave his take on CM Punk's booking ahead of WrestleMania 41.
Punk has never headlined WrestleMania despite being one of WWE's top stars during his two spells with the company. This year, The Best In The World was expected to main-event the first night of WrestleMania 40 against Seth Rollins. However, he was forced to miss the show due to injury.
On The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy, Hardy praised WWE's higher-ups for revolving Punk's current storyline around the fact he is yet to main-event WrestleMania:
"He [CM Punk] hit so hard on that about how that's what he wanted to achieve and he wasn't able to, and they never put him on last and he didn't feel like he actually main-evented. So, yeah, that's a huge selling point, and because he has made that argument in the past, I think that translates over to the viewers, and I think that would be a big deal for him and I'm sure he does as well." [19:50 – 20:07]
Punk has not competed at WrestleMania since 2013. On that occasion, he lost to The Undertaker at WrestleMania 29 in a match widely viewed as the best of the night.
Matt Hardy on WWE's long-term storytelling
In July 2022, Triple H replaced his father-in-law Vince McMahon as WWE's creative figurehead. While McMahon often booked short title reigns and altered matches at the last minute, The Game has received praise for telling long-term stories.
Matt Hardy agreed with host Jon Alba that Triple H and WWE's creative team deserve credit for their approach to storytelling:
"You said about how these characters in the new booking era remember stuff that happened a year ago or that happened 18 months ago or whatever it may be, and you talk about how that leads to more interesting things, it also leads to a better overall WWE product. Kudos to WWE for keeping that long continuity and making everything seem consistent." [18:38 – 18:54]
In the same episode, Hardy offered his last-minute prediction ahead of Cody Rhodes vs. Kevin Owens at Saturday Night's Main Event.
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Please credit The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy and give an H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription if you use quotes from this article.