Pro wrestling veteran Matt Hardy took to an episode of his “Extreme Life of Matt Hardy” podcast, where he talked about a number of topics including being released from TNA Wrestling in 2011.
Hardy said, “I mean, that was on me, through and through and through. And it’s one of those things, I’d beat my body up and had been hurt. But I hate it when people make excuses. I’m not a big excuses guy, no. I really like being accountable for, like, if you fuck up. And that’s what happened there, and that was very motivational to me.”
“And it’s so funny because so many people thought I’d never be — you know, I’d never do anything else Again. There was a paragraph that I read you about the whole WrestleCade thing. And a lot of times when people would allow me that motivates me even more to work harder. And I kind of feel like I’m in one of those stages right now in some ways, about how it’s like, ‘prove the doubters wrong again.’ Like you know, suck it up and go harder than ever. Because at the end of the day man, you just gotta, stay in there, you can’t quit, you can’t give up. For example, when I say that ‘never say die’ shit. I mean, that’s like, really — obviously, I’m gonna die. I’m a mortal human being. But like that’s my mentality, and that’s my attitude. Not to stop or not to quit, or not to surrender or not to give up. Find a way to make things work. You know, I always have a positive outlook, and I find a way to make things work. And that’s what I would suggest if you’re one of those people who get the real experience.”
On working with different promoters:
“Sure, I mean, there’s — when you’re talking about promoters, are you talking about promoters on the highest level? [Highest level.] Yeah, once again, I mean — you know, Vince McMahon, for instance. The stuff he’s accused of is like, fucked up stuff, and really bad, really crazy. But it’s one of those things [where] without him ultimately giving myself and my brother an opportunity, I am not here, speaking to you. I don’t have this life that I have. And I’ve been very blessed, and I’m very grateful for the life I’ve been given the opportunity to earn through him. So I will appreciate him for that. And I think that’s a positive of story, which can’t go without being talked about.”
“Tony Khan. You know, recently, he was just in the news. But one thing that I think has been great about him is he has been worried about the people. And I feel like Tony Khan tries his best to look at his wrestling talents as human. Not just wrestling talents, but also human beings. Because there’ll be times where we’re gone for five days to do a Dynamite and a live Rampage, and then a PPV on that Sunday, whatever. And if myself or my brother, we’re not working [it], we’d say, ‘Hey, can we go home and just be with our kids? We’re not hear and you don’t need us.’ ‘Yeah, get out of here.’ And he gets that family time. So that’s one thing I’m grateful to him for. And I do like the schedule there, and I do like if we’re not doing anything. Where back in the day WWE would make you stay just because you are under contract, and you’re supposed to be there regardless of whether you’re doing something or not, [Khan] would cut you loose and let you go home. And that just to me, I think that makes sense. It’s just like a nice, decent thing to do. I mean, everybody. I can == in theory, I could probably go through every promoter and find good qualities about them, because there is something. But there are some promoters who have so much negativity surrounding them, it drowns out everything else. And a lot of times it comes by their own design.”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
