Matt Hardy says WWE wanted him to re-sign primarily as a full-time producer rather than continue as an active wrestler, and his understanding of how Vince McMahon viewed him ultimately convinced him to leave.
Hardy departed WWE when his contract expired in March 2020 before signing with AEW. Speaking on The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy, he discussed how wrestlers can become locked into particular roles once WWE management forms a certain perception of them. “There are times, especially in WWE, where you would get kind of cast into a certain role, and they kind of think that’s just where you stick, and that’s just what you do. You don’t really do anything else.”
Hardy said it was something both he and Christian Cage experienced, particularly because McMahon viewed their respective tag team partners, Jeff Hardy and Adam Copeland, as having greater potential as singles stars. “I think both myself and Christian had that, just because we knew Vince saw the bigger money in both Adam and in Jeff.”
Hardy stressed that this did not mean McMahon disliked him or Christian. “He liked both of us too. I mean, don’t get me wrong, and he still took great care of us. But at the end of the day, when we worked for Vince, and he saw something a certain way, I knew that was going to happen.”
That experience influenced Hardy when WWE attempted to negotiate a new contract with him in early 2020. “Much like at the very end before I left WWE at my contract, they were trying to get me to re-sign. But Vince was really trying to get me just to be a full-time producer or coach or agent.”
Hardy wasn’t ready to transition into a permanent backstage position. “And I said, dude, I want to wrestle while I can. If I can still wrestle, that’s what I would like to do.”
Although Hardy believed WWE might have initially given him another significant storyline, he suspected it would only be temporary. “I could just see how he saw me in that role, and I knew if I re-signed there, I might, for a couple months, do this cool angle with me and Windham as the Fiend and Jeff as Willow.”
Ultimately, Hardy believed McMahon would eventually move him back into the backstage position he had already envisioned for him. “But then he is going to put me back into that role because that is how he sees me, and that is what he wants.”
Hardy summed up why he did not believe there was much chance of changing McMahon’s mind. “And Vince always got what he wants.”
Hardy allowed his WWE contract to expire and joined AEW in March 2020, making his pay-per-view debut for the promotion at Double or Nothing later that year.
He now works with TNA both as an on-screen performer and behind the scenes, effectively taking on some of the responsibilities WWE had envisioned for him while still remaining active as a wrestler. McMahon departed WWE in January 2024.
