Matt Hardy Reminisces About His WWE ECW Title Run, Recalls Funny Justin Gabriel Story
Outside of his tag team career, Matt Hardy has held numerous singles titles. From his memorable Cruiserweight Championship run to his feud with MVP for the United States Championship, Matt has quite a collection. His only time as a world champion in WWE came in his time with ECW back in 2008.
Speaking to Sam Roberts at Ringside Collectibles' Ringside Fest, Matt was able to show off his new collectible, which was wearing the ECW Title. Matt talked about his run as the champion of the WWE's version of ECW, while also bringing up how it was different from other titles he held.
"This figure is a very friendly reminder of this title being the toughest that I ever had to travel with," Matt said. "After you've been a wrestler for a while, it is fun to win championships, but when it your responsibility to drag it around everywhere, especially with an insane schedule, oh my god. That (ECW) title would hardly fit in an overhead bag, and you always had to keep it with you. It was so big, like the main plate was like the front of a car. I did have fun being the champion. I feel like because the brand wasn't as highlighted as Raw or SmackDown, I felt my run as ECW Champion was underrated."
Besides trying to win championships, Matt worked on helping other wrestlers. He was a mentor to Justin Gabriel back in the original NXT. While with Gabriel, Matt experienced one of the funniest moments of his career.
"One of the funniest moments people bring up a lot is when I was an NXT mentor to Justin Gabriel. I always do my V1 entrance where I step up on the middle rope. We were overseas on this particular occasion, and he decide to jump on the bottom rope right when my foot was there. It actually sent me ass over tea kettle. I landed on my feet and I just remember thinking, what was that? People cut out the part where I didn't land on my feet, which makes it funnier."
Matt is currently in the middle of another return to the ring after denying retirement rumors.
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Ringside Collectibles with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Source: Ringside Collectibles