Matt Hardy On Making TNA "Great Again", If He Has Heat With Big E, Jealous Fans, Facing EC3 Tonight
As noted, Matt Hardy will defend his TNA World Heavyweight Championship against EC3 on tonight's Lockdown edition of Impact Wrestling. In case you missed it, Wrestling Inc's Sean Ross Sapp recently interviewed Hardy, who discussed tonight's title defense against EC3, who he said was a a "serial a–hole".
"They're all against me, Sean. It's #HardyGate going on," Hardy said. "When I beat EC3 at Bound For Glory, he filed an injunction and almost put TNA out of business. He personally tried to destroy me and Dixie, and Dixie personally asked me to relinquish the title, it was the only way to save Impact Wrestling. Looking back, why? Who cares? It should have brought it home then, and it would be sitting on my wife's piano for months and months. Who cares about Impact Wrestling? They haven't done me any favors. I finally exact revenge on EC3, doing the same things he did to me, and now Dixie and TNA management is villainizing me? I'm not going to file an injunction, I'm a fighting champion. Now they want to put me in a cage with EC3 to keep Tyrus out, and my wife out, and Maxel out. They're worried about Maxel! Rockstar Spud illegally came into the match last week, EC3 does it too."
Hardy noted that he was there to make "TNA great again," and that TNA fans were refusing to accept him because he built himself. He said that fans have always been jealous of him, and responded to a fan who once tweeted that Hardy ate the other two sides of TNA's six-sided ring.
"Oh, that's HILARIOUS. You know who tweeted that? Some big fat lard-ass, who won't put a picture of himself up on Twitter and is sitting behind his keyboard," Hardy exclaimed. "Click click clickity clack, 'Oh here's the great Matt Hardy. I'll make fun of him because I'm insecure about myself. I'll make fun of someone rich and famous and handsome who can take it,' and that happens all the time. These people know how great I am. They post rants, it's cathartic for them."
Hardy also addressed his recent Twitter exchange with Big E, and if there was heat with the WWE tag team champion over the incident.
"I'm not familiar with these young upstarts, and put a name with a character that had strap ons on their head, right? I think at first he was offended, but I was like 'hey, we're just sports entertainers,' and everything was fine. I like those New Day guys. I researched it and they're okay in my book."
You can watch Hardy defend his title against EC3 on Impact Wrestling tonight at 9pm ET on Pop TV. You can read the full interview with Hardy – where he also discussed Austin Aries and AJ Styles in WWE, Daniel Bryan's retirement, his TNA contract status and if he might jump to WWE and more by clicking here. You can also check out some great highlights from the interview in the video above.