Matt Hardy Reveals Details Regarding His Current AEW Deal
Matt Hardy jumped ship from WWE to AEW recently after his contract expired. He was, at times, frustrated with what he could and couldn't do under WWE and he talked more about the freedom of his AEW contract when he spoke with Wrestling Inc.'s Justin LaBar on The Wrestling Inc Daily podcast.
"I could do New Japan if it makes sense. In my conversation with Tony, I said if I was gonna do New Japan I'd be interested in maybe doing a small feud that ended at Wrestle Kingdom," said Hardy. "I wouldn't want to go to Japan and work part-time. I don't think my body could handle that with the wear-and-tear and travelling. I'm very happy doing this one day a week at AEW.
"Later once society gets back to normal in the future, I can do outside appearances and signings. There's so much creative freedom and freedom of schedule with AEW."
Hardy is portraying a version of his broken character which appeared in both WWE and Impact Wrestling. He talked about how much fun he's having in AEW's environment.
"I'm very much enjoying what I'm doing. I've had a blast the whole time I've been in AEW. It's a great environment and great atmosphere," Hardy said before discussing joining AEW during a pandemic and no-crowd shows.
"The biggest thing when you're forced to do empty arena shows is there's a realization of how important the audience is. They really are a part of the match in pro wrestling ? the cheers, the boos, the kickouts and the emotion invested in false finishes. Then when they are taking away from it, you really have to be creative. In order to be creative and make for good television, I think it's in everyone's best interest to use all of the tools available and do things that you couldn't do if there was an audience there."
Hardy was then asked if there's anything he's changed when performing in front of no fans as opposed to a packed arena.
"The first thing everyone should do is look directly at the camera. I mean, if there's no fans in the audience then you're not talking to any of them as I'm only talking to the people on the other side of the screen watching," stated Hardy.
"The other thing is being very committed to the role. If you are performing or wrestling you have to be overly committed. But a lot of times the adrenaline rush of the cheers or boos can motivate you to be more into it. But in an empty arena you have to force yourself to get into it to seem like you are really doing what you're doing for the television audience."
Joining AEW exposes Hardy to a whole new crop of wrestlers that he's never before been in the ring with. He discussed the talents on the AEW roster that he's most excited about working with.
"One of the people that pops into my mind and someone who I'm such a big fan of and have seen work in Japan is Kenny Omega," said Hardy. "It's very cool to be able to team with him the last couple of weeks but I think classic Matt Hardy could have a classic wrestling match with him or a classic ladder match somewhere down the road?
"Darby Allin is someone I think is very cool and I have a great appreciation of his creativity of making his own videos, branding himself and creative his own narrative for his character. MJF is someone I think I would enjoy working with? There's a lot of guys I'm really excited to work with in AEW because there's so many new faces.
Matt Hardy can be seen every Wednesday night, 8/7c, as part of AEW Dynamite on TNT. Hardy's full interview with Wrestling Inc aired as part of a recent episode of our podcast, The Wrestling Inc. Daily. Subscribe to get the latest episodes as soon as it's released Monday – Friday afternoon by clicking here.