Matt Hardy Talks About ROH Relationship, Shane Helms Working With TNA, OMEGA's Return, More

This past Friday, Matt and Jeff Hardy captured their first Tag Team Titles in 8 years on their way to becoming the second team in history to capture the WWE, WCW and TNA tag titles. Today, we wrap up our interview with Matt Hardy, as he talks about Ring of Honor, OMEGA, and new TNA road agents.

How would you compare your current run in TNA to your last one?

"My current run has been a lot more enjoyable for a couple of reasons. One, I'm in the best place I've ever been personally and professionally. There's a really good balance in my life. In 2010 and 2011, I was so hurt. I was mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually brought out. My passion for wrestling kept driving me to do it, but I needed to just go away for a year and heal up and get better. I jumped straight from WWE into TNA Wrestling, and I didn't need to. There were also people there from a management standpoint who were detrimental in some ways. Now they have an amazing staff in the offices of TNA. Everyone from Dixie to John Gaburick to the writing staff and Dave Lagana and Matt Conway. They're super positive and open to suggestions and open to working in talents. I don't think I have a full time schedule left in my body after 23 years. I have about four days of TV a month. To come there and do those four days I'm refreshed and motivated and ready to bust my ass and work hard. Then I know I have time to heal when I'm done. The entire atmosphere is so good and productive and it's a real team effort, and people don't feel stressed. We have something to prove moving to a smaller network, which has actually been good for us. They build the network around the show. People are motivated to say "hey, look at us" and make a stand about how great Impact Wrestling really is right now. Since June or July, Impact Wrestling has been consistently great."

What are some of the differences you've seen with Impact moving from Spike to Destination America?

"Destination America is truly behind the Impact Wrestling brand. They promote it non-stop throughout the week. They let people know about it, they show replays, they've given us various shows. They truly back Impact Wrestling, they want it to be the backbone of the network. Spike TV on the other hand was a network with a larger range, but treated TNA in some ways like they were embarrassed of them. TNA did a good rating for them, but they never promoted it or made it a staple of their network. I think that would date back to when they had WWF or WWE on their network. They didn't take pride in promoting wrestling. Let's be honest, professional wrestling is the black sheep of entertainment, but we have a niche. It's hard for some people to wrap their head around that. Destination America is behind us, and that's a nice feeling."

Also read: Matt Hardy Talks About TNA Pay Rumors

Are you still on good terms with Ring of Honor?

"Absolutely. I promised myself to do good business no matter where I go. I was working with Ring of Honor on a handshake basis. Worked with TNA and re-teamed with Jeff and it was something fun for me from a sentimental aspect, and it was going to be beneficial financially. I addressed Ring of Honor about it, and they gave me their blessing. TNA was cool with me working ROH and TNA. Todd Sinclair thought maybe that would be confusing to have a character on two different brands. I understand that, and no negative slight to him, but I feel like we could have had something special and built upon it by integrating Jeff and built upon it by having some sort of cross promotion. I was in Ring of Honor as a bad guy as a mainstream guy, and I could have went out there and said that I went back to a place where people respect me for the big star that I am. I think it could have been a cool gig, but it didn't happen. I did make sure I was on good terms. I'm very honest and up front with everyone I'm working with from a business perspective."

You had an OMEGA event in February, how was that?

" It's been a lot of fun, and there's a strong nostalgia in doing these shows. Actually Shane Helms, with my blessing and Jeff's blessing, is booking and running it right now. With Impact Wrestling and several territories, I have television projects, I have a full plate. Shane had asked me a while back after we did a fundraiser to help with Chuck Coates cancer'. It did so well he asked about using OMEGA as a current promotion, and I said yeah. Shane is really the guy who's doing the hard work of doing it and promoting it."

We've heard that Shane Helms is working with TNA, is that true?

"Yeah. Actually back in February I had some conversations with some people in the offices at TNA and they were looking to expand their agents and producers. Some of the guys who are agents were a little overworked because there's not a ton of them. Some of these guys actually have segments on the show and it's a little much for them. We were throwing around names of people we thought would be good, and I thought Shane is perfect for that. He just had ACL surgery in December and he's going to be recuperating until September or October, so he's off the shelf. I absolutely commend him on being such a great wrestling mind. Tommy Dreamer is another one that has a brilliant wrestling mind, and I think these guys have really contributed a lot. I think Shane is going to be around for the foreseeable future and I'm really happy about that. Not just because he's one of my best friends, but because I think he's a very wise booker, promoter.

You can read Matt's thoughts on TNA's tag team division, and several other topics in our first part at this link.