Matt Hardy believes one major chapter of TNA Wrestling history was left out of Dark Side of the Ring’s recent documentary series.
Speaking on The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy, the veteran star said he was surprised the series did not explore the Hardys’ departure from TNA in 2017, especially given how closely it overlapped with Jeff Jarrett’s personal struggles at the time.
According to Hardy, he and his brother Jeff fully intended to remain with TNA and were actively negotiating new contracts.
“That was also where we were negotiating to re-sign with TNA, and we were committed. We were all in,” Hardy said. “And Jeff Jarrett had great ideas for broken universe stuff and different things we were going to do. I remember he had pitched for a big party when I was doing the King of Gold, that was like my first vessel again, something that was 1,800 years old. He said, oh, I have this, and we’ll do the celebration. We’ll bring these guys in, and we’ll make it like this. It would be very dramatic.”
Hardy said the negotiations became increasingly difficult because of Jarrett’s behavior outside normal business hours. “But then there would be times where at two in the morning he would send Jeff and I these really negative vulgar texts, like if you don’t sign right now and take this money, blah blah blah, and I’m going to do this,” Hardy said. “And he would call Jeff often.”
Matt explained that his brother was more deeply affected by the situation due to his longstanding friendship with Jarrett.
“Me, on the other hand, I had a relationship with him, but him and Jeff were very close, because when Jeff first went to TNA, they remained pretty close friends,” Hardy said. “I was just like, Jeff, when he calls you saying that, if he is being vulgar or being rude, you don’t have to deal with that. It is what it is. Just stand your ground, because I kind of did on my end. But Jeff was like, well, he’s kind of going through it, and I get it. I wanted to be better or whatever else.”
Hardy also claimed financial promises made during negotiations were not fulfilled, further damaging the relationship.
“Then there was money that Ed Nordholm had promised us. And then when Jeff came in as talent relations or his right hand man, and he was going to control more and have the same creative, everything else, which I know that’s what he wanted to do. He wanted to get back in the saddle, because TNA is Jeff Jarrett in so many ways,” Hardy said. “Without Jeff Jarrett, it is not in existence.”
Ultimately, the Hardys decided it was time to move on.
“But then we just said like, hey man, we’re not down with this. And we had gotten the broken stuff so over,” Hardy said. “And then as soon as our contract was up, we’d been reached out to by WWE, and they offered us a real good offer to go back, and obviously we returned, and that’s when the magical WrestleMania 33 moment happened.”
Hardy revealed that Anthem leadership made a significant effort to keep the duo, even visiting his home to discuss the company’s future.
“Len Asper from Anthem, he came here to our house to talk to us a couple times, just because his whole thing was get the Hardys, the Hardys. We have to get the Hardys locked down. That’s it, and we’re going to build a show around them, because they’re so hot right now,” Hardy said.
Because of that, Hardy expected their departure to be featured prominently in the documentary.
“One of the reasons I thought they would probably include that is because you had all the components. You had myself in an interview. You had Jeff in an interview. You had Jeff in an interview too,” Hardy said. “You tell that story of the AAA incident, where Jeff was out of control, that ends up sending them to rock bottom. And also part of that in that time was myself and Jeff leaving, because they were going to build the whole company around us. Us leaving was, I felt like, a pretty big blow to TNA at that time. So I felt like that was a good way of telling that story about Jeff reaching rock bottom, with how all that stuff went. But it is what it is. They chose to go the direction they went, and it was what it was.”
Hardy added that both he and Jeff spent time discussing the current state of TNA during their interviews, but none of those comments made the final cut.
“I wish they could have dug into TNA a little more of like what the current thing was, because Jeff and I, we did comment on where TNA is now and how hard we worked to get there and kind of how things happened,” Hardy said.
Despite his disappointment over what was omitted, Hardy praised the documentary’s portrayal of Jarrett’s career and acknowledged his lasting impact on TNA Wrestling.
“I think they did a great job by Jeff, because the story was told real well, from his upbringing into getting into the business, kind of ups and downs, his path, how he got to where he was, walking out on WWE, holding Vince up for money,” Hardy said. “And him being fired once Vince acquired the rights to WCW and bought WCW, and then he’s just like, if I can’t go there, then what am I going to do? Wrestling needs an alternative. And he went out on a limb and started TNA, which is a ballsy move. That’s a huge investment. That’s totally time consuming. That dictates your whole life. TNA would not exist if not for Jeff Jarrett. So that credit will always go to him.”
