AEW's Matt Hardy Calls These WWE Stars The Original Blackpool Combat Club

Back in 2017, WWE held its one and only Great Balls of Fire pay-per-view, with the card featuring Brock Lesnar vs. Samoa Joe, Roman Reigns taking on Braun Strowman, and Matt and Jeff Hardy facing Sheamus and Cesaro of The Bar in a 30-minute tag team Iron Man match. Speaking on his podcast, "The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy," Matt discussed he and his brother's feud against The Bar, and compared the duo to Cesaro's current AEW faction.

"They were the original BCC — the original Blackpool Combat Club — because they'd go in there and beat the s**t out of everybody," Hardy said. "You knew, if you were working with those guys, that you were in for a very physical night. That's the first thing. Guys like that, I love working TV with. Live events? Not as much. I'm more of an entertainer at this stage. I like someone who's big on entertaining the crowd as opposed to having to physically put your body through a ringer."

The Hardy Boyz were involved in a feud with The Bar in the weeks and months following their return to the company at WWE WrestleMania 33. The tag teams competed in four-way matches with other teams, singles matches against members of the opposing team, and a steel cage match at Extreme Rules that saw The Bar win the "WWE Raw" Tag Team Championship.

The feud between the two teams later culminated with the Iron Man match in July 2017. There, Sheamus and Cesaro successfully retained their title, and the feud came to an end other than one last series of live event matches. Looking back, Hardy has complimentary things to say about his two opponents despite their physicality.

"They both have very high work ethics," Hardy stated. "I think they like making their wrestling look as realistic as possible. ... They're both very physical, more than anything else, and I think they found a great bond in that." However, Hardy said that he wasn't surprised Cesaro didn't see sustained top-level success in WWE because of one man — Vince McMahon.

"I don't think I was [surprised], because ... Vince looks for the entertainment aspect more than anything else," Hardy continued. "[Wrestling] is just not his priority. He's more focused on the characters and the journeys these characters are on, more than anything else." Hardy believes that McMahon saw Cesaro as a pure wrestler rather than an entertainer, but Sheamus was able to find success relatively early in his career.

"Sheamus — I remember when he started, he was very green," Hardy shared. "But he was picking up on stuff really fast. He had a great attitude, he had a great mentality. He wanted to learn. ... I think that's why you saw his rise so quickly, as well."