TNA World Tag Team Champion Matt Hardy took to an episode of his “Extreme Life of Matt Hardy” podcast, where he talked about a number of topics including thinking AEW could have done something special with Private Party.
Hardy said, “Everyone knows I’m very, very invested in Private Party. And I think whenever they won the titles, the genuine crowd reaction should have been a strong statement. Like, ‘Hey, there’s a lot of authentic authenticity that shows the love from the crowd for a Private Party, and they were so happy to see them finally overcome the odds and beat the Young Bucks and win the titles.’ So I think you had the opportunity to do something special with them and elevate them. And I would love to see them elevated, just because they’re day one guys. Now I would say the little bit of a complaint that I had with it, it isn’t fixable right now. But like with Private Party, they go out and they have this match. It was a very strong win for the Hurt Syndicate at the end of the day, and that’s okay. But Private Party really has to defeat them strongly for the titles as they defend the titles, if they’re doing that.”
On fans losing faith in Private Party:
“It’s really easy to make people lose faith in them quickly if you don’t instill faith in them. And they’re walking a very fine line with what they’re doing right now. Because these guys, they won and the authenticity of the crowd was tremendous. They were happy to see them overcome the odds and become the AEW Tag Team Champions, something they’ve had a goal to do for five years. But now there’s not a lot of wiggle room, and like not trying to make them look like strong champions, to make them like champions that should be there. I mean, I understand you give them the titles; that does help them. But like, if you want to build them, you can build around them by making them look strong champions. And still, they could go out and they can have a match with the Hurt Syndicate, and they can defend the title successfully. And things could be okay, and they can get back on it. But you can see that the audience is starting to lose faith in them, and I feel like that is one of the issues with AEW.”
On AEW dropping the ball with Wardlow:
“There’s been times where Wardlow could have been a made guy, and it didn’t happen. Ball got dropped. DG [Daniel Garcia], he finally did win a championship and he was doing that, but there’s been several times where it’s like he was on the verge of breaking through and becoming a guy, and it didn’t happen. And Private Party, I feel like they’re teetering right now on being over or being an afterthought. And that is one of the things that is so vital for AEW. You have to make your young talent, especially when you get those opportunities.”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
