TNA World Tag Team Champion Jeff Hardy appeared on Insight With Chris Van Vliet, where he talked about a number of topis including how he and his brother, TNA World Tag Team Champion Matt Hardy, nearly had a heel run during their time in AEW.
Jeff Hardy said, “Yeah, yeah, for sure. There’s never been a real heel Hardy run and I was so excited about that in AEW, but I know, I own what I’ve done. It was my fault, I really let Matt down with the whole AEW thing. I think AEW man, before I broke my nose wrestling Sammy Guevara, my thinking was like, ‘Man, we’re not being used. What if I can be a heel on social media and send out some tweets.’ It evidently wasn’t professional, but again, it’s not like I was being serious, I just said something like Collision was designed for Punks. I ended up getting three matches out of that with Swerve Strickland, Jon Moxley, and then Sammy. In all those matches, I had that passion, I could feel it again within myself. Then naturally, injury happens and my nose is broken, that’s gonna take a while to heal. Things just worked out the way they worked out and I am so glad to be back in TNA. Super excited, TNA has been there for me in dark times, man.”
On how he considered staying in AEW when Matt Hardy returned to TNA Wrestling in April of 2024:
“There was even one moment where I found out Matt went back to TNA, I watched the footage, I was like, ‘Oh, maybe I need to stay with AEW and continue to prove myself and have some killer matches with these guys who are on a different level.’ Then I was like, I had such a good run in TNA last time. The merchandise they came out with was so cool, I started doing the eyelid paint and everything was so good the last time in TNA. There was so many innovative bumps I did throughout that run. I said, ‘No, this is exactly the way it’s supposed to be.’ I called Matt and agreed to show up. This time, I’m glad I didn’t try to run and do the juke at the same time. Still to this day, why would I try to juke and run to save my brother my first time in AEW? So bizarre. I’ve even practiced it since to see if it was possible.”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to Fightful for transcribing the above quotes)
