Matt Hardy Reveals Meaningful Backstage AEW Interaction With Brodie Lee

Matt Hardy was a recent guest on AEW's Unrestricted podcast where he spoke his debut for the company. He discussed how things had to change due to the fact there were no fans in attendance.

"There was a lot of buzz," he said. "I did a little YouTube series called 'Free The Delete' and The 'Bucks actually did a cameo in it and showed up. We built a cute little story. I had an idea about doing a more vicious, more aggressive style of the Broken Matt character and the persona. But it obviously debuted in the pandemic era and that's a character that is very driven by an audience and by fans. It's a very audience interactive character. So, later as time went on we ended up pivoting, but that night was very good and very special."

Matt Hardy also admitted that he leaned into being The Exalted One.

"I tried to actually release stuff via social media that I was going to be the Exalted One," he admitted. "Because I had conversations with The 'Bucks and Tony and I knew Brodie was going to do it. I thought Brodie was going to do amazing at it, which he did. I figured the more I could lean into that I was going to debut as The Exalted One, it would be a bigger reveal for him whenever he eventually debuts. Even if people got mad and someone did want Matt Hardy to show up on that show, they were going to get me later. So it was a win-win either way."

Matt also admitted that Brodie Lee was thankful for what he did for him. The Exalted One took the time to pull him aside and thank him personally.

"It was really cool. One of the things Brodie said after that was, 'thank you for going out of your way to tease that it was going to be you so many times. I feel like that helped me and gave a better reaction because it was less anticipated.' I was always really appreciative of that," Matt admitted. "It was weird because I didn't get to know Brodie at all until AEW. We had worked on different brands in the past whenever I had been around. What an amazing guy. I was so happy for him that night. It was so great that he came to AEW and got the opportunities that he deserved and he kicked ass."

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit AEW Unrestricted with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.